Violent news can leave behind anxiety, anger, helplessness and sleeplessness. Read how to protect yourself and your children without tuning out the news.
You open your phone while drinking your morning coffee, and within the first minute a video starts playing automatically: a street fight, an assault, a scream. You close the video, but the image keeps circling in a corner of your mind all day. On the evening news there is another murder of a woman, another case of violence against a child. When you get into bed you are angry, anxious and strangely tired. Violent news can affect us deeply even when we have not witnessed the event directly. In this article we look at how violent news affects our mental health, who is more vulnerable, and how we can protect ourselves without cutting ourselves off from current affairs.
Why Does Violent News Affect Us So Much?
The human brain has evolved to give priority to information about danger. News of an attack, an accident or a murder is processed as a signal that "attention, there is danger here". This is why violent news catches our attention more than other news, is remembered longer and provokes stronger reactions in our bodies.
Today there are several new factors that amplify this effect:
- The rawness of the images: We used to read about an event in the newspaper; now we often watch it in uncensored footage with sound, filmed on a mobile phone. Visual and auditory detail creates an experience that, for the brain, is much closer to witnessing the event.
- Autoplay: In social media feeds, videos start without our choosing them. In this way a person is exposed to heavy content unprepared and unwillingly.
- The constant stream: News no longer comes once a day, but all day long, through notifications and shares. Before the mind can digest one event, it encounters another.
- A sense of closeness: If the person in the news is your age, in your city, a mother like you, or if the event happened on a street you walk down every day, the feeling that "this could have happened to me too" is experienced much more strongly.
How Does Watching Violent News Affect Mental Health?
Anxiety and a state of alertness
Frequent exposure to this kind of content can lead to the world being perceived as more dangerous than it is. Discussed in media research as the "mean world" perception, this effect can cause a person to be constantly on alert in the street, on public transport or in crowds, and to feel distrust towards the people around them.
Anger and helplessness
News of violence against women, children or animals in particular arouses intense anger and a sense of injustice. This anger combines with a wish to do something; but often there seems to be nothing concrete that can be done. The combination of anger and helplessness can, over time, turn into weariness and hopelessness.
Secondary traumatic stress
Being exposed to traumatic events experienced by others, especially in detail and over and over again, can cause reactions in a person as if they had experienced the trauma directly: images that come to mind unbidden, nightmares, being startled and avoidance. You can find more detail about how trauma works in our article what is psychological trauma.
Desensitisation
In some people, the opposite reaction develops: violence that is constantly encountered begins, over time, to feel "normal". The person notices they feel nothing while watching the news and is disturbed by this. This emotional numbness is in fact the mind's way of protecting itself from overload; but in the long run it can lead a person to become distanced from their own feelings and from the pain of others.
Sleep and the body
Violent content watched in the evening can make it harder to fall asleep and lead to nightmares. An image seen at night may even be the mind's first thought on waking in the morning. During the day, tension, headaches, stomach problems and fatigue may appear.
Who Is More Affected?
Violent news can affect anyone; but some people are more vulnerable to this content:
- People who have experienced or witnessed violence in the past: The news can trigger memories of what they themselves went through.
- People prone to anxiety: A mind that already thinks in terms of danger can process this news as proof of its own fears.
- Parents: News involving violence against children in particular arouses intense protective anxiety in parents.
- Women: News about violence against women directly affects many women's everyday sense of safety: when walking alone, getting into a taxi, coming home late.
- People exposed to this content through their work: Journalists, social media moderators, lawyers, health and social care workers.
- Children and adolescents: They do not yet have the experience to put what they see into context.
We could also add people who live alone to this list. For someone who watches the evening news alone and has no one to talk to about what they have seen, the weight of an image can stay in the mind much longer than it would in a setting where it could be shared.
The News Agenda and Screens in Turkey
In Turkey, the intensity and pace of the news agenda can further amplify the effect of violent news content. Crime stories that take up long stretches of the main evening bulletins, domestic incidents discussed in detail on daytime programmes, and videos of road rage or street assaults that spread rapidly on social media have become an ordinary part of daily life.
On top of this, family WhatsApp groups are also a significant source of exposure. A video shared with good intentions as a "be careful" warning reaches every member of the group, often without any warning. An elderly parent may watch the video and worry for days about their grandchild's safety; a teenager may feel uneasy on the way to school after watching it.
Let us say a nurse who is the mother of two scrolls through social media on the bus after her shift and watches three violent videos one after another. When she gets home, she begins to see her children's school bus driver, the building caretaker and the strangers she meets in the park in a different light. That evening she does not let her daughter go to a friend's birthday party, and she herself knows this is not rational. The news is quietly changing the way she sees the world.
Being informed does not mean having to witness every image. You do not need to watch an event in order to know about it.
Our article on news fatigue may also give you some insight into the general weariness created by constantly following the news.
Suggestions for a Healthier Relationship With Violent News
Switch off autoplay
Switch off video autoplay in social media apps and in your browser. This single setting significantly reduces unwanted exposure to heavy content.
Choose text over video
If you want information about an event, read a written news report from a reliable source rather than watching the video. Read the headline and decide, consciously and in that moment, whether to go into the details. Text gives the same information while reducing the traumatic impact created by visual and auditory detail.
Set news times
Check the news once or twice a day, at set times. Try in particular to stay away from news and social media as soon as you wake up in the morning and in the hours before bed at night.
Listen to your body's signals
If, while reading or watching a story, you notice your heart speeding up, your stomach tightening or your breathing becoming shallow, this is a stop sign. Step away from the screen, take a few slow breaths, get up and move around a little.
Turn anger into action
One way to reduce the feeling of helplessness is to turn your anger into a small but concrete action: supporting an organisation that works against violence, taking part in volunteer work, learning how you could help someone around you who is exposed to violence. This does not change the world on its own; but it takes you out of the role of passive spectator.
Think before you share
Before sharing a violent video, ask yourself: What will this share achieve, and for whom? The spread of violent images can deepen the pain of victims and their families and can expose others to traumatic content without their consent. If you want to raise awareness, sharing information and sources of support instead of images is more protective.
Share your feelings
When you notice that a story has shaken you, talk to someone you trust rather than keeping it inside. The aim of this conversation is not to recount the details of the event again, but to share what it stirred up in you: even saying "The news I read today really frightened me" lightens the load. However, discussing the same story for hours at the family table or among friends can pull everyone back into the same images; so try to keep the sharing short and focused on feelings. Setting a shared rule at home can also help, such as not discussing violent incidents in detail at the dinner table or in front of the children.
Find the balance
Consciously make room during the day for content that does your mind good as well: stories of people helping each other, nature, music, conversations with the people you love. This is not escaping reality, but preventing your mind from being painted in a single colour.
When Children Are Exposed to Violent News
Children are often exposed to violent content in ways adults are not aware of: a television left on in the background, a video an older relative watches on their phone, what friends talk about at school. Young children may find it hard to tell whether what they saw happened far away or nearby, and may fear that the same thing will happen to them.
Take care not to leave violent news on in front of your child. If the child has seen or heard something, talk about it in calm, honest language suited to their age; ask what they know and how they feel. The most important message should be: "We are here to protect you, and most people live safely." For detailed information on this, see our article on when a child is affected by the news.
With adolescents, talking works better than banning. Asking what they think about the content they have seen makes room for them to develop a critical perspective and to share their feelings.
When Should You Seek Professional Support?
Being affected by violent news is a natural consequence of being a sensitive person. However, you might consider consulting a professional in the following situations:
- Images you have watched still come to mind unbidden days later and lead to nightmares
- Because of the news, you avoid going out, using public transport or letting your children go places
- You feel constant anger, helplessness or hopelessness
- You want to stop following the news but cannot
- The news has brought back a past experience of violence of your own
If you are currently being exposed to violence, or believe that someone else's life is in danger, call 112 (emergency services) without delay. Support for working with the anxiety and state of alertness created by violent news is available in the area of anxiety and panic, face to face or online.
How Are News-Related Anxiety and Trauma Addressed in Therapy?
The first step in therapy is to understand the person's relationship with the news: which content they are exposed to, how often, in what emotional state, and what they experience after that exposure.
Within cognitive behavioural therapy, thoughts such as "The world is completely unsafe now" or "This will happen to me too" are noticed and evaluated from a realistic perspective. The difference between the actual size of a risk and the perception created by the news is examined together.
Emotion regulation skills teach how to notice, name and cope with intense emotions such as anger, anxiety and helplessness.
For people experiencing secondary traumatic stress, the images that come to mind unbidden and the bodily reactions they trigger are worked with within a safe framework.
For people with a history of violence, the memories triggered by the news and the effect of these memories on present-day life are addressed at the person's own pace and within a safe relationship.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is it insensitive to stop watching violent news?
No. You do not need to watch every image in order to know about an event and care about it. Staying informed while protecting yourself preserves, in the long run, both your mental health and your capacity to support others.
A video I watched won't leave my mind. What should I do?
When the image comes to mind, instead of trying to suppress it, notice it and gently direct your attention to the present moment, for example to the sounds around you or to your breathing. Stay away from similar content for a while. If the image still remains intense weeks later, support from a professional will be helpful.
Doesn't sharing violent videos raise awareness?
Awareness is an important aim; but the spread of images can damage victims' dignity and leave traumatic effects on those who watch. Sharing information about the event, helplines and support organisations instead of images serves the same aim in a more protective way.
I'm afraid to go out because of the news. Is this normal?
Feeling uneasy for a while after intense violent news is an understandable reaction. However, if this fear has started to restrict your daily life and prevent you from going to work, school or social activities, it is necessary to work on the anxiety itself. Reducing news exposure and gradually returning to the places you avoid can be a good start.
Bu yazı genel bilgilendirme amaçlıdır; tanı veya tedavi yerine geçmez. Yaşadığınız güçlükler için bir ruh sağlığı uzmanına başvurmanız önerilir. Acil bir durumda lütfen 112'yi arayın.
Eda Erkan Alapala
Klinik Psikolog. İstanbul Kent Üniversitesi Klinik Psikoloji Tezli Yüksek Lisans mezunu; bilişsel davranışçı terapi, çocuk merkezli oyun terapisi ve çocuk-ergen psikoterapisi alanlarında eğitimlerini tamamlamıştır.
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