Media Overload and Mental Health: When and What to Read with Dr. Shila Patel
In this clip, Dr. Shila Patel, author of Us Unhinged, shares practical strategies for coping with negative news without becoming overwhelmed or anxious. We discuss why being intentional about what you read—and when you consume news—matters for your nervous system and mental health. This conversation offers simple, actionable ways to stay informed while protecting emotional well-being in today’s nonstop news cycle.
Full Transcript
Limiting What You Consume 0:00
One of the things I always say is you have to limit to what you're listening to. So don't get overwhelmed. Do not ever open your phone or laptop first thing in the morning or last thing at night, because you don't want to start off your day feeling anxious and feeling angry and feeling hopeless. You don't want to end your day where it's going to disturb your sleep. You're going to sit there worrying about all these things. Don't continually listen and doom scroll. You know, basically, what was said, what happened?
You know, what did they say now? What did they do now? Don't, you know, get away from that because all that does is it increases your anxiety. And when your anxiety increases, what are you going to do? You're either going to drink more, you're going to smoke more, you're going to either, you know, withdraw and not talk to people. So what I say is look at just the headlines and then be choosy about what you want to read more about.
Comments