Author: thecopingblog

Anyone over 60 will remember the saturation TV coverage of the Kennedy assassination in 1963. For four days, the networks covered nothing else, and there were no commercial breaks. Thirty-eight years later, September 11, 2001, another shocking event produced saturation TV coverage. Most Americans found these events to be quite disturbing and even traumatic.

In a psychological study, analysis of college students’ dreams before and after 9/11 showed that post-9/11 dreams were different than pre-9/11 dreams. After 9/11, dreams contained more threat and danger themes and images, and more negative emotions. More interesting, these qualities increased as the amount of time watching TV coverage increased. Thus, to the extent that dreaming can reflect efforts to process and resolve trauma and conflict, we can conclude that extensive viewing of TV coverage of the 9/11 events served to increase that trauma and conflict. It is also interesting to note that the students who spent more time talking with friends and relatives about the events of 9/11 did not have the threatening themes and negative emotions in their dreams.

Reporting an event is one thing; saturating coverage with repeated replays over an extended period of time is quite another. Furthermore, if that coverage makes talking with friends and relatives less likely, then the negative effects of the saturation coverage are greatly compounded. This makes sense because it is well-known that when faced with stress and challenges, talking it over with a good friend or trusted members of a support group is really helpful.

The next time someone says, “I got so sick and tired of watching the news stories about [whatever], I had to turn it off before I went crazy,” you can explain to them why they were wise to do so. Emotional stability is unlikely to be found by excessive watching of traumatic news on TV.

 

What This Blog is About

Your hosts for this blog are listed under “Hosts” in the menu choices. We invite you to join the blog and participate in our discussions about psychology and stress. If you are interested in pursuing any topic we cover, email us at charlesbrooks@kings.edu. We also encourage you to visit our website (www.subtlesuicide.com) to learn about our published books on subtle suicide, dysfunctional giver/taker relationships, and research on how psychology applies to everyday life.

This blog is about what psychology has to say about facing everyday stress. Anxiety, jealousy, anger, love, depression, grief – like everyone, you experience these emotions and the stress they can produce. You lose loved ones, you get bored with your job, you have kids, you care for elderly parents, the water heater breaks, you suffer a personal attack, a storm damages your house, your neighbor is a pain in the a……well, you get the idea. Stress surrounds you and sometimes you feel helpless to do anything about it.

Faced with life, you really have two choices: You can say the hell with it, decide to live with the stress, withdraw into a protective shell, and avoid trying to do anything about it. From a psychological perspective, this choice will turn you into a stagnant pool; you exist, but not in any productive or satisfying way.

On the other hand, you can decide to attack the stress in your life, to accept challenges and meet them as best you can. You can decide not to be ruled by your emotions, but to use them to your advantage. This choice requires more effort and focus than the first one, but the effort is well worth it in the long run. This choice, and how you can apply psychology to your life and become better at dealing with your everyday stressors, is what we talk about in this blog. Join us!