Emotional Inflammation

The medical community has clearly established that physical inflammation harms our health.

But what about emotional inflammation? Aside from being unpleasant, I believe that repeated and persistent emotional stress likewise harms our health.

One specific example that I find personally stressful is television news.  The criteria for most TV news stories seems to be:

1. Few news reports last more than a minute.
2. There must be something visually arresting to attract and hold the viewers’ attention, such as a swarm of locusts or a crime scene.
3. “How do you feel about losing your . . . ?”  This is a question often asked to the victim of a loss.
4. Creating fear or a sense of danger. Most news stories involve a possible threat to life or well-being, such as the Hillside Strangler or yet another mass shooting.

During the current worldwide COVID-19 pandemic many, if not most, TV news stories have covered the novel coronavirus.  That news is scary, which is both a reason to watch, but also a reason not to.

Until two weeks ago I was glued to TV news every morning, every evening, and occasionally during the day.  I must have spent three or four hours daily in front of a television set, becoming more worried and upset by the minute.

Two weeks ago I quit watching TV news completely, and I’ve only cheated once (for forty minutes).  Many friends and most of my family were ahead of me.  They gave up TV news months or years ago.  In my view, no news anchor has ever improved on Walter Cronkite, or the late night talk show host and comedian Johnny Carson.

While I used to enjoy the excitement of TV news, I more and more objected to the negativity.

I have now cut off TV news as a source of emotional inflammation in my life.  I still read the sports section of the LA Times, as well as specific online articles which interest me.

But TV news?  No more.  I’d rather read a book, write a blog, or enjoy my garden.  I’m much happier.  I may have less information (that I probably didn’t need anyway), but I carry with me far less emotional inflammation.

Alan