Dealing emotionally with terrible news stories

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smallcat

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I feel like such a soft-hearted rag. I checked the news online yesterday and saw some awful, cold-hearted story of child abduction and murder. I won’t go into the details here, but the things this poor child had to suffer, and at the hands of people he trusted completely… he was like a little lamb being led to his slaughter, and it makes me weep just thinking about it. And I’m having a hard time not thinking about it.

I think part of the reason it hit me so hard is that this little tyke looked so much like my own toddler. I can’t imagine the pain of his mother, who let him out of her sight for a second… please say a prayer for all involved, and let me know how you deal with emotionally heart-wrenching news stories. I’ve considered staying away from the news entirely, but that’s not really feasible.
 
Pray for all children and turn off the news.

The 24X7 million options news in your face all the time world we live in is not healthy for the soul.
 
smallcat - I know it can be hard to see the evils that humans are capable of. Just comfort yourself by knowing that we are working from victory in this battle, the victory of the cross. When you see this evil, look it in the eye and know that God has conquired it already. While I agree that the news is obsessed and saturated with these stories, there is a value in hearing about them so we can confront them within ourselves and understand just how badly us earthings needs God’s graces.
Just picture that child victim resting peacefully in our lady’s arms, he is safe now and to eternity under God’s loving gaze and no wolf will ever be able to lead him off again.
 
Ever since I’ve had kids I get very emotional about news stories like that one. It often brings tears to my eyes. Whenever I hear something like that I say a quick prayer for the child and their family. I also pray for the repentance and conversion of the perpetrator. Then I purposefuly move on and don’t dwell on the subject. Otherwise I think I’d be living in a permanent depression over current events.

On a side note I think I’m finally understanding the Church’s teaching on the death penalty and I often get upset about stories regarding that, too.
 
I always to tell myself that God might give those little ones a special grace during the moments when they are suffering so horribly, that maybe they somehow are not aware of their abuse or they receive an extraordinary form of comfort from the Lord…or that they went straight to Heaven and now enjoy the most unimaginable wonders and complete love from God and that they aren’t hurting anymore.
 
In a sense, visualizing the emotional cost of these terrible news stories has the effect of breaking down our ability to function. We get SWAMPED with terrible news. And very often, we get an incomplete picture; we only get the part designed to inflame our senses.

The news media THRIVE on terrible bad news.

So the go out of their way to emphasize bad news.

[Good news won’t increase circulation or viewership and advertisers pay based on circulation or audience size.]

In fact, at times, you can even tell that the news media are actually creating bad news to create emotional responses.

Trivial example: when it snows, but not a lot, sometimes you can see where the news crew is measuring the depth of the snow where it has been mounded up.

So the best thing is to visualize how your emotions are deliberately being manipulated, that the work of the St. Vincent de Paul Society is never broadcast in the news, that they avoid giving good news unless there is some kind of bad news hook to it.

The best thing: stop watching the news on television. Cut back on the purchase of newspapers.

[Take out a paper subscription to Human Events. That will give you the whole picture without the sensationalism.]
 
smallcat said:
I’ve considered staying away from the news entirely, but that’s not really feasible.
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I don’t know you, and thus don’t if/why you couldn’t stay away from the news. But, if it is at all possible, try to do just that (or cut back its availability). We stopped having TV over a year ago (recently had it just for the Olympics, it’s off again now), and for the past year we have had no news entering this home. I catch the headlines on EWTN radio in the morning, but that’s it. It took us a couple of days to find out about the earthquake in Haiti, but that’s ok. Been praying ever since. Many of our friends (actually most) do not get TV, newspapers etc. either. We have discovered that it brings much more peace into our lives and our home.
 
I think this is a great way to deal with this sort of news:

“Whenever I hear something like that I say a quick prayer for the child and their family. I also pray for the repentance and conversion of the perpetrator. Then I purposefuly move on and don’t dwell on the subject.”

I have a son who is now 11. As he has gotten older and moved through different phases of childhood I encounter (probably subconsciously more than anything due to the relative age of the kid and my son) a horrible story about a child being murdered by someone. It can really wreck my day. I make sure that I do experience a brief period of grief – after all this child is a child of God and adored by Him even if I don’t know them – then I must move on. It’s a blessing to have a sensitivity I’ve told myself over time but it’s not good to continuously dwell on it.

I am praying for you. Praying that you will be drawn closer to the Lord with the knowledge that He is in control of all things. Once this child is in His Hands, nothing can tear him away from them (Read this for comfort: Romans 8:39 🙂 ).
 
smallcat said:
I think part of the reason it hit me so hard is that this little tyke looked so much like my own toddler.
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This same thing happened with my husband and me when that little girl, Caylee Anthony, was all over the news. My husband was like, “She looks SO MUCH like [our daughter].” 😦
smallcat said:
I’ve considered staying away from the news entirely, but that’s not really feasible.
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This is what I do – And my husband just fills me in on anything really important that happens (or if he sees anything I’d be immensely interested in, like a story on birth). Our web browser opens up automatically to a news site, and I just ignore it. The news gets me too depressed.
 
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