Comment: Being a news junkie can affect your mental health

Sometimes being a news junkie can affect your mental health, writes The Scotsman’s health correspondent Joseph Anderson.

It’s important to find balance with the need to be informed and the consumption of news relating to the worst parts of humanity, writes The Scotsman health correspondent Joseph Anderson

It might seem counterintuitive for someone who makes a living from writing the news to say this, but sometimes being a news junkie can take its toll on your mental health.

Take my line of work, for example. I’m officially The Scotsman’s health correspondent, but sometimes can feel more of a disease correspondent - like the fourth correspondent of the apocalypse.

Every day I wade through important, vital stories about heart problems, brain tumours, dementia, HIV, cancer and stroke. It can give a false impression that these diseases are incredibly common for everyone, rather than specific demographics.

Often these stories, such as brain tumours in young people, are newsworthy precisely because they are rare, but seeing incidences coming across my desk constantly can trigger anxiety.

On more than one occasion, I’ve covered a story about a person my age contracting a rare, serious illness and convinced myself I am suffering from the same. It can take its toll.

Pessimism, too, can negatively affect your mental health. My job, primarily, is to hold the Scottish Government to account on health matters.

That involves a fair amount of cynicism and doubt on my part - playing Devil’s Advocate on behalf of our readers and asking politicians tough questions, even if a scheme or project seems incredibly positive. The stakes are simply too high to not approach a story from every angle.

News reporters are often addicted to social media, too. I have been glued to social media, following the awful attacks on Israel by Hamas. The constant swiping and drip feeding of information can desensitise people to horrific imagery and ruin attention spans.

As a Scotsman reader, you know the value of long reads, fact-checked and sourced from quality. But X (formerly Twitter) in particular is awash with the oversimplification of politics and conflict, as Elon Musk’s army of ‘citizen journalists’ vie for attention with their latest ‘hot takes’.

That’s why, on World Mental Health Day, it’s important to find balance with the need to be informed and the consumption of news relating to the worst parts of humanity. Take some time out of every day to be unplugged from the world. Sometimes ignorance really is bliss.