We’re only a few months into 2026 and already the year feels hard. The US and Israel bombed Iran, Australia’s politicians are arguing over whether or not we’re technically at war, the cost of living crisis is only getting worse, and against this backdrop is the looming threat AI will replace all our jobs.
Social media feeds and front pages seem to perpetually filled with ‘apocalyptic’ footage from war zones and concerns about an impending global ‘catastrophe’. Now well into the new year, we’re all just a scroll or a click away from stories that make us feel as though doomsday is imminent.
Our amygdalas are set alight as soon as we wake up, and we’re just expected to go about our days — commuting to the office, ticking off work tasks and generally doing ‘life’ — as if we hadn’t just read a death toll headline or encountered viral discourse about conscription.
So what exactly happens when we’re bombarded by troubling news stories? Why does it feel particularly potent right now? And how do we cope when the threat of disaster plays on a loop in the back of our heads?
What happens when we’re exposed to distressing news?
As psychotherapist Dr. Jeffrey B. Rubin explains, the effect of distressing news goes beyond whatever content is being depicted
“Constant exposure to alarming news activates the body’s stress response,” Rubin told PEDESTRIAN.TV. “Our nervous systems evolved to react to immediate threats, not to a continuous stream of global crises.
“When we repeatedly consume distressing news, the brain can remain in a state of vigilance, scanning for danger even when we’re physically safe,” he explained.
The result of these heightened emotions can play out in different ways. You might feel irritable, have trouble sleeping or struggle to concentrate, with lingering thoughts about world events distracting from your work, your relationships, or even your routine tasks.
“In everyday life, this can show up as a persistent sense of unease,” Rubin said.
Doomscrolling by design
Even the process of trying to ease your fears, by keeping updated on the news to combat all the unpredictability, is rife with more psychological tripwires.
“Doomscrolling is repeatedly checking the news in the hope that more information will reduce uncertainty. But psychologically, the opposite often happens. The more we expose ourselves to distressing updates, the more anxious and helpless we may feel,” Rubin said.
With so much of this vicious news cycle now disseminated online, doomscrolling is unavoidable. Much of our screentime is eaten up by an algorithm that pushes distressing videos, alarmist comment sections or viral soundbites — which Rubin said is by design.
“Social media platforms are designed to keep us scrolling, and fear, outrage, and shock are among the most effective tools for doing that. Content that provokes a strong reaction spreads faster and gets amplified more widely than calmer, more nuanced coverage,” he explained.
The algorithm causes “emotional whiplash”
What’s particularly stressful about the algorithm is that it often feeds us these stories smack-bang alongside lower-stakes content. Donald Trump lashing out at allies or Iran rejecting a ceasefire is just a scroll away from a trivial celebrity scandal or a meal prep plan from your favourite food blogger.
This, too, has a psychological effect. “That emotional whiplash is psychologically disorienting,” Rubin said.
“One moment you see footage of a conflict zone, and the next you’re watching a humorous video. The brain has very little time to process the emotional weight of the first experience before being pulled into something completely different.”
The result, Rubin explained, is a “strange mix of emotional overload and emotional numbing where people are overwhelmed by distressing information but also oddly detached from it because the context changes so quickly”.
Why does the news feel so all-consuming right now?
The algorithm is also responsible for why this moment in time feels particularly overwhelming. Rubin said global events or moments of geopolitical tension — like 9/11, the COVID pandemic and even the Cold War — have “always generated anxiety”.
But it’s today’s news climate, with its increased speed, volume, and access to information, that makes more recent stories like the Iran war “feel immediate and omnipresent in everyday life”.
“In earlier eras, people might read about geopolitical developments in a morning newspaper or watch an evening broadcast. Now, the updates are continuous — reactions, speculation, analysis, and imagery are delivered in real time,” Rubin said.
“Headlines invoking catastrophic scenarios like ‘apocalyptic’ or ‘World War III’ trigger deep psychological fears about survival and global instability,” he added.
How do we go about our daily lives?
Our access to this content means it is a regular undercurrent in our everyday lives. We go about our routines with distant but tangible mental notes of whatever we’ve just read or watched, to the point where cooking dinner or going to the gym is now coloured with the nagging feeling that something world-ending is afoot.
“That tension is very real. Humans are not psychologically designed to process global threats constantly while simultaneously maintaining everyday routines. People may find themselves doing their daily routines while part of their mind is preoccupied with catastrophic possibilities,” Rubin said.
Over time, that split between catastrophe and mundanity, between meal-prepping and doomsday-prepping, can make everything feel like a fever dream. “That emotional split can produce fatigue and a sense of unreality, as if ordinary life and global crisis are unfolding in parallel and neither feels quite real,” Rubin said.
How should we manage distressing news?
Despite what you’ve read, it’s not all doom and gloom — at least in terms of how to cope with the ceaseless news coverage. Rubin has a few tips to manage a media environment built on provocation, beginning with how we engage with all the noise.
Setting intentional limits on how often you’re exposed to the news is an actionable way to lessen the emotional load. Rubin suggested consuming news at just two designated times throughout your day rather than monitoring it continuously.
“Staying informed matters, but news will still be there,” he assured us. “You don’t need to witness it in real time.”
Another tip is having an understanding of how the news operates. Acknowledging everything Rubin explained above, from the algorithm to how we react to it, helps us realise that our emotional responses are natural, and that although it might feel like “we’re surrounded by crisis”, we’re actually only seeing “a small and heavily filtered slice of a much larger reality”.
While the term “touch grass” feels reductive, Rubin’s third piece of advice is basically just that. “Maintain an active connection with your everyday life: in relationships, work, creativity, or time outdoors,” Rubin advised.
“These experiences help restore emotional balance and remind us that our lives contain more than the crises dominating the headlines. [These tasks] can interrupt the anxiety cycle in ways that more information simply cannot.”
It’s a simple yet useful reminder. Being across the news of the day should not spoil your actual day, and disconnecting from the cycle with stress-reducing activities can be a welcome and grounding reality check. But above all, Rubin offered a sage piece of wisdom that can be carried with us as we ride out this tense time and the equally tense news coverage.
“The goal is not to ignore the world, but to remain informed without losing yourself in the process.”
Dr. Jeffrey B. Rubin is the author of Meditative Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy Case Studies (Routledge, 2026).
The post Your Brain Wasn’t Designed To Cope With This Much News. A Psychologist Tells Us How To Navigate It appeared first on PEDESTRIAN.TV .
