Knowledge is power. Unfortunately, gaining knowing about certain things may only make life more difficult. For example, keeping up with the news may erode the emotional resilience needed to deal with personal challenges.
The stream of cable news and cell-phone alerts keeps reminding me of the world’s problems and individuals’ tragedies. Last year, while dealing with my latest health challenge, my habit of staying informed about the world began to burden me by stirring fear, anxiety, anger, and helplessness—emotions I’d been trying to keep in check.
Whenever learning truths that help me get good care, knowledge IS power—even when the truth upsets me when I learn it. That distress always fades because I can know something without thinking about it all the time. Today, I know but don’t think about the risk of my disease becoming resistant to treatment. It’s the same as how, while driving safely, I know but don’t think about the risk of an accident.
As a patient, keeping up with the news kept revving up negative emotions without conferring any benefit. I learned to avoid the news whenever the answer to these questions was “No”:
Do I easily put the story (and emotions) out of my mind?
Can I do something to help the situation in the news?
Do I need to keep learning about this topic to make wise decisions about my life (my health; my work; my family)?
Healthy Survivorship means doing whatever I have to do to get good care and live as fully as possible—including choosing to stop obtaining knowledge that only revs up emotions I’m trying to keep in check. Just because I can watch the news doesn’t mean I should.
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