What is Information Overload?

Information Overload is when we take in too much! TV's, Phones, Laptops, Tablets, Books, Newspapers, Magazines... 

Why is it tough just now?

With war in our continent, changes to Covid laws and procedures, and feelings of anxiety and despair, it can be difficult to spend all our time looking at the news.

What can we do about it? 

To maintain your mental health it’s really important that we take the effort to be aware of what information we are taking on board within a day, especially emotive content.     

The News   

If we are feeling anxious/stressed the content will be an added aspect to make things feel worse. 

If we are feeling particularly anxious try to avoid intense content (action, faced paced content that is filled with sensationalised style reporting) as this hypes up fight/flight response and can leave your heart racing and feel distressed.

Social Media

It's easy to get into the Doom Scroll (mindless scrolling or reading all the comments on social media) if you’re feeling particularly vulnerable. Be mindful of what information or content you're taking in. Do you feel better or worse for looking at these things?

Keep in mind that others NEVER seem stressed or sad – we know that this isn’t the case deep down but if we see a lot of this we can begin to see this as truth.

Reliability/Fact Check – It's important that we are trying to remain fact based – check the reliability of content we are looking at, avoid ‘hear say’ articles – as it can make the situation feel more confusion and we may be misinformed.

Talking to people

It's great to keep in touch with others, either in person, on phone, by text or on social media. If the conversation turns to things that distress you, there is nothing WRONG with waiting until you are in a better place to be there for others. We can take on too much by others stress change daily, you can’t fill from an empty cup. ‘Hey, I’m having a bad day, Is it okay if I call you back tomorrow?'

< Back to all news stories