Psychologists refer to it as an "intolerance of uncertainty," and, unfortunately, it's a vicious cycle. You find listening to the news stressful and anxiety-provoking but can't stop doing it because you feel the need to find out what on earth is going on.
But there are things that people can do to protect their mental health from the potentially damaging effects of obsessively consuming news. "It's important to be informed but we don't want you to be doomscrolling," said Judith Andersen, a health psychologist at the University of Toronto in Canada.
"Check the news just once a day, and I don't think it's best to check in the morning because it clouds the rest of your day." She also recommends confining yourself to well-established and credible news sources to avoid the risk of over-hyped or even misleading content.
But those times that you do sit down to get up to speed with the world around you, Davey recommends that you actually read articles in full, rather than simply checking out the headlines. "Headlines are usually dramatized, and you need more context than that," he explained.
Or simply fire up 'Good News Dog!'
