Watching the News Can Make You Mentally and Physically Sick

Keeping up with the latest news can be very bad for your health.

Researchers found that Americans who obsessively follow the news are more likely to suffer from both physicaland mental health problems, including anxiety and stress.

Those whoconstantly check the latest headlines end up with “significantly greaterphysical ill-being” than those who tune in less often.

The team addsthat constantly keeping on top of the latest developments can lead to a viciouscycle where people always check for more updates, rather than tuning out aftera quick read. This can start interfering with people’s personal lives, leavingthem feeling powerless and distressed about global events.

16.5% showed signs of “severely problematic” news consumption. That meant they oftenbecame personally invested in news stories that current events dominated theirthoughts, disrupted time with family and friends, made it difficult to focus onschool or work, and contributed to restlessness an inability to sleep.

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