People with an obsessive urge to constantly check the news are more likely to suffer from stress, anxiety, as well as physical ill health, finds a new study published in the peer-reviewed journal Health Communication. During the last two years we have lived through a series of worrying global events, from the COVID pandemic to Russia invading Ukraine, large-scale protests, mass shootings and devastating wildfires. For many people, reading bad news can make us feel temporarily powerless and distressed. For others, being exposed to a 24-hour news cycle of continually evolving events can have serious impacts on mental and physical wellbeing — as these new findings, out today, show, with those who have a high-levels of news addiction reporting “significantly greater physical ill-being.”

In the survey, people were asked about the extent to which they agreed with statements like “I become so absorbed in the news that I forget the world around me,” “my mind is frequently occupied with thoughts about the news,” “I find it difficult to stop reading or watching the news,” and “I often do not pay attention at school or work because I am reading or watching the news.” The results revealed that 16.5 percent of people surveyed showed signs of ‘severely problematic’ news consumption. Such individuals frequently became so immersed and personally invested in news stories that the stories dominated the individual’s waking thoughts, disrupted time with family and friends, made it difficult to focus on school or work, and contributed to restlessness and an inability to sleep. Perhaps not surprisingly, people with higher levels of problematic news consumption were significantly more likely to experience mental and physical ill-being than those with lower levels, even when controlling for demographics, personality traits, and overall news use.