News Addiction

Has news addiction crept up on you and started to take over your life?

Do you constantly feel an urge to 'just check' the news - on TV, radio and all your favorite internet news sites?

Nobody likes to show up at the pub or the office or even a party looking like they haven't a clue what's going on. Information is currency, and we like to have lots of it. People who haven't got any are like poor relations, deserving of pity. Or contempt. Not only that, but they have nothing to say when everyone else is talking about the latest hot topic.

News addiction isn't all bad

Of course, you don't seriously watch or read the news just in order to hold your end up among your peers. We do need to know something of what's happening in our world, locally and globally, and to understand our own and other societies. It's also interesting to find out what's making the headlines. Reading about dramatic stuff can liven up a dull and ordinary day.

Too much news blunts your judgment...

But the world of 24/7 instant news that we now live in has got some serious downsides too. For example, the constant flow of new snippets of 'raw' information, with no context and little analysis, makes everything that's reported seem terribly urgent and important. When you stop and think about it, you realize that this can't be true. It's just the frenzied headlines that make it seem important. But the feeling is hard to escape.

News overload can make you depressed

That feeling of urgency, whether you like it or not, raises the emotional temperature and puts your brain on 'alert'. Something is going on... maybe something threatening... you might have to do something about it... but what? You don't consciously think about this while you're watching a news bulletin, but you are affected by the tone and style of what you see, sometimes even more than you are affected by the content.

Remember, too, that the media presenting you with all this 'news' actually want you to stay with it, and know just how to package it in a way that hooks you in, and keeps you wanting more. So it's not so surprising that you can get, literally, addicted to news. Too much news can be pretty damaging in its effects. Non-stop disaster, tragedy, violence and scandal can make you depressed and anxious.

But how do you stop consuming it?

Hypnosis can help you stop compulsive news consumption

Overcome news addiction is an audio hypnosis session developed by psychologists that will help you cut through the cords that keep you tied to news bulletins and news sites and free you to do more rewarding things with your time.