This negativity bias can cause us to read into things and interpret them through a pessimistic lens. Individuals with a history of traumatic stress, for instance, may be overly vigilant about their surroundings – which increases the chance of overestimating the potential threat posed by a person or situation, given how strongly harm is expected. In such circumstances, even neutral stimuli can be interpreted as negative or dangerous, leaving the individual in a place where it takes a lot for something to feel safe, with little room for greyness.
Learning of acts of goodness can help counteract adverse mood effects resulting from negative news exposure. Credit: Getty Images
When emotions drive thinking, it can be easy to get stuck in negative ruminations, especially if we remain engaged with the things feeding our stress. An example of this is doom-scrolling – a persistent consumption of negative news. Continued exposure to such information can fuel anxiety, fear, discouragement, mistrust and the entrenched belief the world is fundamentally damaged or dangerous.
Stress can also dampen our response to pleasurable and rewarding things, making it challenging to find any enjoyment or fulfilment. This feeds into a vicious cycle of pessimism, heightened tension, worry and an inability to reframe distressing thoughts.
However, stress can be mitigated with some steps.
Disrupt the narrative
Stress can make us feel like the only option is to run faster, that there is no other way. Yet, nothing changes, and problems just seem to re-create themselves.
Engaging in lifestyle-oriented activities such as exercising, nurturing healthy relationships, meditating, or even slowing our minds with controlled breathing can break up this constant noise of our stressed minds, allowing some space to consider a different way of being.
Look within
As my patient suggested, we can easily find ourselves trapped in a stressed place from which no escape seems possible. While external pressures can contribute to this, it is often the case that we make choices that keep us stuck. We tend to select environments and interactions that reinforce particular ways of being, conditioning our routines to maintain heightened stress.
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This can be driven by factors stemming from childhood, such as unreasonable expectations we have internalised or being told by significant figures in our lives that the world is a broken place, shaping a pessimistic outlook and an inability to feel settled.
We can ask ourselves, “Does life need to be this way?” If so, “Why?” Many of us view seeking balance as a failure, and easing up as quitting.
Processing these dimensions can deepen our understanding of their origins and help find ways to make more flexible choices.
Find time for the positive
For people who have trouble decreasing media consumption, purposefully creating exposure to positive information can help balance the negative slant we are commonly exposed to.
Learning of acts of goodness, for instance through “kindness-scrolling,” can help counteract adverse mood effects resulting from negative news exposure. There are some online news outlets that selectively report positive, uplifting events.
It is not about overcorrecting in the opposite direction or ignoring what is happening around us, but rather balancing distressing content with equally relevant positivity. Good things do also happen in this world.
Christopher W.T. Miller, MD, is a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst. He is the author of The Object Relations Lens: A Psychodynamic Framework for the Beginning Therapist.
Washington Post
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