Learning how to stay informed without anxiety starts with naming the thing most of us do every day without realizing it: consuming fear disguised as news.
Last week, a dear friend mentioned something happening on the world stage that I was completely ignorant of. She commented on how adept I am at staying uninformed.
Yup.
It’s entirely intentional, and a complete 180 from who I used to be. For most of my adult life “staying informed” felt like my civic duty.
Bad Meat
My first glimmer that “the news” was not a public service came during a dinner-hour teaser. The announcer said, “Is the ground beef in your refrigerator going to poison your family? We’ll tell you about it at 11:00.”
Eleven??? People are eating now!
Something clicked. They are trying to scare us so we’ll come back for relief, disguised as information … after carrying that nagging concern for the next five hours.
Same Coin, Two Sides
You might be someone who says, “Oh, I don’t watch porn” … while saying yes to a steady stream of catastrophic headlines, political outrage, disaster clips, grim speculation, other-blaming, true crime, and every “YOU SHOULD BE VERY AFRAID” video the algorithms can serve up.
Darling, that’s still stimulation, and I’m not alone in calling this fear porn.
Unlike actual porn, people rarely admit, or even realize, they’re consuming it for the emotional hit. Instead, we cloak it in virtue:
“I’m staying informed.”
“People need to know.”
“Of course I care.”
And listen, I’m not advocating ignorance at my quasi-professional level. I absolutely believe in awareness, compassion, and civic engagement.
But there’s a difference between being informed and emotionally marinating in fear all day long. Our nervous systems know the difference, even if our egos don’t.
The Addictive Hit of Outrage
Are we chasing fear porn, or is it chasing us? Likely both.
Here’s what makes it tricky: outrage can feel strangely energizing. Righteousness gives us a temporary hit of adrenaline, importance, even helpfulness.
Meanwhile, social media algorithms are over there gleefully rubbing their digital hands together because outrage performs beautifully online.
The more upset we become, the longer we stay engaged. The longer we stay engaged, the more content gets served to us. And before we know it, we’re deep into a doom-scroll while insisting we’re “just catching up on the news.”
Fear and outrage can masquerade as productivity, and it’s easy to exhaust yourself in the name of caring. While empathy is beautiful, chronic emotional activation serves no one.
Your Nervous System Is Ready To Bolt
The brain and body experience repeated exposure to alarming content as stress exposure. Whether the threat is physically present or glowing from your hand on a six-inch screen, your nervous system responds with cortisol, adrenaline, muscle tension, and heightened vigilance, a pattern doomscrolling research from Harvard Health confirms in detail.
These responses can pile on top of hormonal changes already making many of us more stress-sensitive. Add a constant drip of outrage, fear, and helplessness, and suddenly we’re struggling with poor sleep, brain fog, irritability, anxiety, stubborn weight gain, and the delightful sensation that everyone and everything is working our last good nerve.
No wonder so many women feel depleted. If you’re looking for ways to actively reduce the stress response, that’s a worthwhile next read.
And There’s More …
The Law of Attraction rests on a simple premise: where attention goes, energy flows. Whether you love or loathe the subject is irrelevant. Whatever you’re glorifying or railing against keeps you energetically and emotionally fused to it. Your attention is the pointer, and “more of the same” is the result.
Too woo-woo? Neuroscience confirms that repeated focus strengthens neural pathways. What we rehearse internally becomes easier to access. Optimism or angst. Whatever we repeatedly practice eventually starts to feel normal.
How to Stay Informed Without Anxiety: The Great Balancing Act
So how do we stay aware without generating toxicity? Let’s get practical, and if you want six more concrete tools for navigating a tense news cycle, this piece on surviving the stress this political season is a great companion read.
- Contain it. Choose designated information windows.
- Be discerning. Ask yourself: “Does posting this create clarity, promote upset, or am I just going for the dopamine hit of virtue signaling?”
- Create counterbalance. Train your algorithms toward beauty, creativity, solutions, and the occasional baby goat in pajamas.
- Go outside. Move your body. Drink water. Eat an apple.
- Set boundaries in conversations. You are allowed to say, “I can’t talk about this anymore tonight,” without forfeiting your status as a caring person.
And perhaps most importantly, ask yourself: “Can I do something about this right now?”
If yes, do the thing. If not, continuing to marinate in distress rarely improves the situation.
Be Intentional … For Your Nervous System And The World
Being perpetually upset is not the same thing as being effective. You’re allowed to stay informed without becoming inflamed, and I’d argue it’s a responsibility.
Here’s why: A regulated nervous system makes better decisions. It responds instead of reacting. It communicates more thoughtfully, creates more effectively, loves more generously … and our world could use all these things.
So, back to Shakespeare’s question: “What’s in a name?” Perhaps more than we think. Once we call something by its true name, we can decide if it deserves our attention.
Whether you call it clickbait, information, fear porn, or simply “the news,” stay mindful and in your power as you consume it. Your choice in where and how you focus your attention can keep your central nervous system purring, which creates positive ripples.
And if something is good for your body and for the world, that smells sweet, indeed. If fear has been running the show lately, my piece on how to reclaim confidence and peace after 50 picks up right where this leaves off.
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About the Author:
Diane Amelia Read is an experienced growth partner, health and mindset advisor, stereotype disrupter, and surfer wannabe. She’s a Reiki Master Teacher, podcaster, StreetWise MBA graduate, and samba singer, Law of Attraction mentor, and motivational speaker.
Her mission is to make the world a more loving and interconnected place by helping women love themselves first so they can bring their most joy-filled awesomeness to everyone and everything else without depleting themselves
As a Mind & Body Alchemist For Women Over 50, Diane Amelia’s unique personal transformation toolbox is chock full of options for midlife women ready for sustainable improvement in their health, confidence, mindset, income, community, or all of the above.
