The Headline Effect: How Sensationalist Media Hijacks Your Nervous System

Have you ever picked up your phone to check the weather… only to find yourself 20 minutes later feeling overwhelmed by war, natural disasters, crime, politics and breaking news from around the world?

If so, you're not alone, and it's not because you're "too sensitive."

In this episode of The Anxiety Compass, Sammy and Nat explore The Headline Effect, how today's 24-hour news cycle, sensationalist headlines and endless 'doomscrolling' can keep your nervous system stuck in a state of chronic hypervigilance.

Our brains evolved to respond to immediate threats in our environment, not to process every tragedy happening across the globe before breakfast. We unpack why negative headlines grab our attention, how fear drives clicks, and why your body can respond to distant events as though they're happening right outside your front door.

We also discuss the surprising impact of bingeing true crime, disaster documentaries and high-intensity TV shows, and why sometimes rewatching a familiar comedy or Disney classic can actually feel more regulating for an anxious brain.

In this episode, we discuss:

•  Why our brains naturally focus on bad news (negativity bias) 
•  How sensationalist headlines trigger our stress response 
•  The science behind 'doomscrolling' and why it's so hard to stop 
•  Why your nervous system can't always distinguish distant danger from immediate threat 
•  The surprising effect of true crime and high-stress documentaries on the brain 
•  Practical ways to stay informed without staying overwhelmed 
•  How to protect your nervous system in a world of constant notifications and breaking news 

Because the Anxiety Compass was never designed to carry the weight of the whole world, it was designed to help you navigate your own.

🎧 If this episode resonated with you, we'd love you to follow, subscribe, and share The Anxiety Compass with someone who could use a reminder that it's possible to stay informed without living in a constant state of alarm. ❤️

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Hey, it's Sammy and Natalie here, and welcome to the Anxiety Compass. Where anxiety isn't the enemy, it's our tour guide. We'll swap stories, share tools, and have a laugh while we find our way back to true north.

SPEAKER_01 0:15

Come along.

SPEAKER_02 0:27

Hey everyone, welcome back to another episode. Nat, how are you? I'm I'm fabulous, Miss Sammy. How are you? I'm fabulous too. I'm uh just uh outside today and I've got my little boy Midas next to me. He's such a little pudding. I love him very much. Umie. He is a cutie. And uh today we're actually going to be talking about uh I'm gonna say headlines hijacking your nervous system. Particularly like, have you ever done this where you've I find everything's on my phone now, it's ridiculous. But have you ever opened your phone to check something quickly and then 20 minutes later you're convinced there's uh a World War III about to start?

SPEAKER_00 1:15

Yep, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 1:18

And I even like I even like when I was on Facebook, uh, I d I put stuff up on social media, but I tend to not scroll too much because I get lost. And I also find even though you're just trying to catch up on what your friends are up to, because I've got a lot of friends that just put everything on social media, I find I'm scrolling and all of a sudden it's sharing me a local news report about some creep on the other side of the world who's done vile things, and I think, holy crap, what is going on in the world? So yeah, today we kind of wanted to talk about um basically how humans have evolved to respond to threats in their immediate environment and uh not to every tragedy happening across the globe 24 hours a day. Uh exactly. We seem to be yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:08

We're we're not we're not and we're you know, the whole thing of you know, we're gonna be talking about this, but we're not saying don't stay informed, but we are asking, you know, in today's media environment, keeping your nervous system stuck in that survival mode. Yeah, yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_02 2:24

So, first of all, I feel like we need to add a little bit of light on this conversation because it feels like sad, stop reading the news. I often say that to people and they go, I try not to read it, but it's like a car accident. You've got to slow down and see what's going on so you're informed. Um, guess what, people? Our brains actually love bad news. Our brains have what's called a negativity bias. Do you agree with me, Nat? Do you run into negative conversations and negative scrolling? It you don't want to even gossip, you know, which is a negative energy. Absolutely. Well, that's why the reality shows are so popular, like the Kardashian.

SPEAKER_00 3:09

Drama or the drama, yeah, yes, exactly. God, but I mean, I mean, it it does have a um you know, a historical reason for all this, you know, that negativity bias, which we've actually talked about in previous podcast episodes, you know, because th thousands of years ago, um, missing that one predator, you know, that that sabre tiger coming for us, or or the you know, dinosaur coming for us to eat us would prove fatal. Yes. Um, so you know, but on the on the other side, you know, missing um something beautiful, like a beautiful sunset or a sunrise, not a big deal. We we we we don't we we don't and we're not risk uh at risk of of dying from that. So our brains are literally wired to notice danger first, it's what's kept us alive for thousands of years.

SPEAKER_02 4:04

It's a protective mechanism, and that's sort of what we talk about a lot in this podcast with anxiety being a way to protect you and control situations. And one of the ways that we do that is by reading all of these breaking news, you'll never believe experts warn. Oh my gosh, I feel like I'm reading out my audiobook again. This is the voices I took on. Um, because fear sells. And I don't know if you've ever done any sales classes, um, being a business owner, but when I like years ago, when I first started learning how to sell my business, they were always saying to focus on the negative, focus on people's problems because on that pain point. Yeah, because the pain point is what sells. You don't go, oh, I'm gonna make you feel amazing. You go, get rid of blah, blah, blah. Stop feeling blah, blah, blah. You've got to focus on what the negative is. So no one's gonna click on like a headline, man, waters garden, and everything turns out okay. Like there are, I know a lady, a friend, a lady friend of mine, she shares um, it's called the good news. It's an actual, yeah. And I just find it so fascinating the stories that are going on in the world, and we don't see any of it. 99.9% are negative. Like you think about it, it's just ridiculous. Oh god. So the science, your brain can't tell where the danger is. So you're setting your when you're reading these headlines, it doesn't know that something's happening on the other side of the world where a shooting has happened, or perhaps some creeps doing something creepy, because there's always a creep, right? Yeah, it's focusing, it doesn't know where that's happening, it doesn't know it's it's not happening in your neighborhood, and all of a sudden your whole nervous system's going into flight or fight because of something you've read, and you have a bit of a panic or anxiety builds up. If you're reading that in the morning when you get up every day, what is that doing to our body, Nat?

SPEAKER_00 6:10

Exactly. It's yeah, we're getting that cortisol hit first thing in the morning.

unknown 6:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:16

Hypervigilance sets in. Um, yeah, not a great way to start the date.

SPEAKER_02 6:20

And I mean, the stories that I'm reading at the moment uh actually, I find like years ago when you used to see the news, they wouldn't put disgusting things on around six o'clock because they knew kids were up. You wouldn't hear stuff like that until like after nine o'clock. And they never went into the details of the stories, like then they interview the neighbors and get gruesome details. They even put pictures and videos up of these things, nothing senses, graphic stuff, and especially with social media. Like, I don't know if you saw this, and I'm giving a bit of a warning to people, but when that um Charlie Kirk died, his actual death was on social media.

SPEAKER_00 7:05

I saw it and it was analyzing, you know, they slowed down the video and played.

SPEAKER_02 7:10

Oh my god. I got goosebumps just thinking about that. And I still, it's like my body still goes into this flight or fight when I think about that. Like it's like it's like embedded into my brain.

SPEAKER_00 7:23

Absolutely. But even looking at like talking about shootings, you know, like when JFK was shot, you know, back then it it wasn't analyzed video, you know, because there is video evidence of it happening. There's so many documentaries and things out there now revisiting that and slowing down the the moment of of the shooting and zooming in on it and analyzing it. And they're selling the stories, they want more clicks, more clicks. And do you find it? It just means more money because it's more, you know, um advertisements for them. So, you know, there's they're selling a business.

SPEAKER_02 8:02

I find as well, like I'm a member of Source Bottle where um a lot of the media reach out for people to do interviews, and I noticed like recently they're asking for a lot of people who are in charge of childcare safety. You see where I'm going with that story. Um, but I find it's like they want to create it into like a documentary. Everything's turning into a documentary where they have to go even further. And even like when you see accidents in theme parks, all of a sudden you're hearing about theme park fails all over the world. Because you've got to remember there's so many things happening in the world, billions of people in the world. And if you're reading a story about one particular person who did something, like that's a 0.0000% that it's ever going to be something that you would see or experience in your life. But your body's like, no, that creep lives down the road.

SPEAKER_00 8:53

I'm hoping now. Yeah, yeah. The poor poor brain now, poor nervousism doesn't know the difference.

SPEAKER_02 9:01

Now, I'm I'm awful because I've had people say, I don't read the news at all, I stay away from it. I like to be informed, don't get me wrong, but I I I you know I want to know if there's a bushfire happening down the road or there's a murderer or a cyclone. Yeah, or maybe there's a missing children, child in your area, like the local news. You you kind of want to know about that. Or if there's, yeah, as you're saying, natural disasters. My cruise got cancelled. If I'd turned off the news, I would have rocked up at the cruise terminal and there would have been a cyclone coming. Um, yeah, but they're important, but consuming hours of it every single day isn't going to help your body. So, and I find like, do you doom scroll? Do you find I hate that word? It's interesting the words that are created now, hey. Doom scroll. Doom scroll. It's got the word doom in it, doesn't it? Yeah. Why do we keep scrolling? Like I find sometimes I know I shouldn't, I'm using the word shouldn't, I know my body doesn't like it, but I do it every now and then.

SPEAKER_00 10:00

Yeah, it's yeah, it's and I find it's when I'm tired or feeling a bit low, and I'll just lie down. And it's almost like energetically, because I I've got a lot of positive um accounts that I follow and things, you know, things to uplift me, but it's almost like you know, the the gods that be in social media know that I'm I'm you know feeling a bit low that day because all of a sudden that's feet, it's all the deep. Yeah, let's just dive into that, shall we? And make you feel even worse. And it is because you're getting that that little bit of a dopamine hit, it's it's compulsive. You will just keep scrolling and so even knowing you might be getting really upset, yeah, you know, or feeling you know, your breathing starts becoming shallow and you know Yeah, my curiosity gets the better of me.

SPEAKER_02 10:47

Sometimes I see things. Have you ever done this, or is it just me? Where something's happened and you're like, oh, I need to know more about that guy. Like if you've watched like a I don't know, some sort of a doco, and so you start Googling that guy, and you're like, oh, he's not in jail anymore. Wonder what he's doing. Oh, he's here, and then all of a sudden you've been sitting there for 20 minutes, like looking into something that's happening on the other side of the world, because uncertainty drives curiosity, right? And every time you refresh your news page or your feed, there might be another update to the story. You need to know what's happening. Has Trump blown up the world yet? I need to know what's going on, and you're getting a little hit of dopamine every time you do that, Matt. A little tiny hit of dopamine to confirm that okay, there's no nothing new. There's nothing new. Sometimes I like to check the news just in case someone famous has died. Isn't that ridiculous? I was sad when I heard about it.

SPEAKER_00 11:43

It's like you're you're doing the equivalent of you know, pe people who are older and the team was reading the obituaries everyone. I'm looking for celebrities.

SPEAKER_02 11:56

And you know, I really love Sam Neil, and also sad, but at the same time, I was like, oh, another celebrity died. Like no for meaning hit from that. That sounds a bit morbid, really. Um but I actually found out that sides note, Sam Neil, he was actually born Nigel and he didn't like his name because he got bullied, so he changed it to Sam. I told Nigel, my husband, that he changed his name to my name. Um, yeah, that's that's a mean thing to say about my husband. So um, yeah, so we were talking about Doom Scrolling. There's also, I find like even if you don't want to watch the news, if you're sitting down to watch a bit of Netflix, like there's so much true crime and even podcasts, the amount of crime podcasts and documentaries that are out. It's like the new thing, it's like everyone's jumping on it, and their real life stories are trying to find the sickest, most grotesque people in the world that they can do a story on. Yeah, um, literally, there are yeah, documentaries about that.

SPEAKER_00 13:01

The worst murderers in the world sort of thing.

SPEAKER_02 13:05

I watched um um, because I enjoy watching them, don't get me wrong. But at the same time, I'm like, what is it doing to my nervous system? I was um watching Maternal Instinct. Good lord, don't watch that one. That one that one was a bit gross. Um see, curiosity got all of you listening. You're all gonna go and watch maternal instinct now. See what I've done there? It's the curiosity that drags us there. Curiosity killed the cat, right? You don't want to look at it, these disaster documentaries or even medical emergencies. The body's just wanted to say that with a heart rate, stress. Yeah, vivid dreams, and you start to um is it hypervigilance where you're constantly on alert, wondering and waiting, and you start to go think the worst case scenario of everything going on because it's happening on your TV, right? Yeah, which means your brain thinks it's happening in your life right now. Every every noise in the house becomes suspicion. I've locked my front door because we're getting a lot of crime in the area, and I'm reading so much on the local community pages that I don't really need to know the details of, but at the same time, I'm like aware that my nervous system's in flight and fight as well at the same time.

SPEAKER_01 14:18

Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 14:18

What do we do, Nat? What are some things we can do to stop this crazy craziness of the world of too much news headlines and trying to sell us into these traps, traps turn off everything?

SPEAKER_00 14:34

No, but as we said, it's good to be sit out the back with blindfold on, sit it, sit out in the sun under a tree. Um yeah, okay, bye everyone. Uh no, there is a couple of things you can do because I obviously, as we said, um, it is good to stay informed. We we need to know what is going on in our local community and also what's going on in the world. We just don't need to see ad nauseum. So find one trusted source. So don't have be bombarded by every single news channel out there coming.com.au. Yeah, exactly. So so choose whatever resonates with you. Um and only check it in with it maybe once a day or twice a day. Morning, not first thing in the morning. Avoid it first thing in the morning. Yeah, avoid social media, avoid anything electronic first thing in the morning.

SPEAKER_02 15:29

So no TVs, no like even if you're avoiding the news headlines, even just going on social media, they're there. That's why avoid it. Yeah, because you know what? It'll still be there at 10 a.m. Yeah. I mean, you might be the last person to find out that Sam Neil died, but it's okay, guys.

SPEAKER_00 15:46

It's okay. It's not really going to um affect your your your life, your prime personal life. And of course, at the same time, avoid it before going to bed. So don't lie in bed or sit sit there having your last cup of tea, sitting there watching the news, you know, that 10 pm news if you're watching traditional TV. I think there's still, I don't even own a TV, but I'm assuming that you've still got your 10 pm news. Don't watch it. It's just a rehash of what's already gone on in the day. And then also ask, if you do see a news um segment, especially if it's quite um distressing, just ask, can I actually do something about this? Is it something that I personally can do something about? If there is like taking action in your community or, you know, like just say there is a natural disaster, you know, coming towards you. So whether it's floods or a bushfire, cyclone, we live in a, you know, we live in Queensland. We don't get a lot of cyclones down here, but you know, then you can do something about it. Protect your home, make sure your loved ones are okay. But if there's nothing you can do about it, let's not worry. But worry, you can worry. What's it gonna do for you? And then, of course, as I was saying before, because I have so much positive um things coming through my feed, balance that negative news with positive stories. And that's actually something that I do. If I see something really distressing or um anxiety-provoking, whether it's on the news or through my feed or something, I will deliberately go and seek out something happy and inane. Or if I can't find anything, I'll go and just sit outside with without anything and just soak up some sun for a few minutes, just to balance it out.

SPEAKER_02 17:31

You gotta feed the algorithms. For some reason, my I don't know why, but my algorithms keep sending me stuff about weddings. I don't, I mean, I don't know what's I mean, I'm married nearly 20 years, but for some reason I'm getting wedding stuff, which is fine. Is that is there anyone that in your world that is getting mails? My mum did say a while ago. She said near my phone, it's listening to me now and talking about wedding.

SPEAKER_00 17:57

That's what I mean. Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 17:58

That's one thing I'm saying. You're gonna get wedding discussions. Yeah, um, it she was saying you should renew your vows. And I'm like, I don't want to do that. Like that's it. And then uh that's why, yeah. This and then I'm getting married again.

SPEAKER_00 18:10

Yeah, yes, it's like here you go. Here's your options for renewing your vows.

SPEAKER_02 18:15

But the algorithms definitely, I don't know, even if like everything's listening to you now. So just walk around singing musicals, talking about Disney, or maybe not Disney, Disney can get a bit dark. We've been watching Toy Story again. My boys don't remember it because we used to watch them when they were little, and Toy Story 5 is out, and Liam, my youngest, was like, can we do a Toy Story marathon? I'm like, Oh, something light, fun, and refreshing in the house would be great. So chuck on the Disney channel, watch some classics, you know, change, change the energy in the house, switch off the documentary about some serial killer for a little while. I started watching um this was years ago when it came out. I was watching the Jeffree Dharma one. I don't know if you've heard of that one, and I couldn't, they read they obviously had the doco out, but they redid the series, the monster series, and I was watching it because curiosity got the better of me. I had to turn it off. I wasn't sleeping at night. Like it, and it wasn't because I was scared, it was because my nervous system was in such a state of disarray from watching it that I didn't I didn't put two and two together because I was watching it during the day while I was doing stuff, and all of a sudden I was like, this is messing me up so bad, even though I know it's not like my reality, my body doesn't know that, and so I was actually struggling to sleep. I had to turn it off. My sister said exactly the same thing. She said it was too much for our brain and our body to comprehend that the human psyche was capable of doing that kind of stuff. Ugh, it's I just I just turned it from Disney to serial killers, but that's just like that.

SPEAKER_00 19:57

That's a good point that you have because obviously, we know we talk about anxiety and all the symptoms that go with anxiety on this podcast. So if you were noticing that, because you may not even be aware because you just do it all the time. Yeah. So just you know, we always come back to mindfulness, being more aware of what we're doing, what we're eating, what we're experiencing in our lives. So if you are noticing that your sleep is getting worse, or your appetite you're turning to more comfort foods because your nervous system is dysregulated, just have a little look through what it is that you are consuming through um through media and just make sure that that isn't a a part of what's going on for you.

SPEAKER_02 20:37

You are what you absorb, and that includes the media as well. Uh but I think this is a great little uh episode. Do you want to? I mean, serial killers in Disney, we're going from one extreme to the next. Um, do you want to do a reflective question or would you like me to throw one out there?

SPEAKER_00 20:54

Okay, we'll I'll do it. Um so everybody, how much of what you're worrying about today is actually within your control? Just ask yourself that. Just and just to do a little reflection on in your own life. Yeah. It's a lot of things.

SPEAKER_02 21:11

A lot of things.

SPEAKER_00 21:12

And if it's not, let it go.

SPEAKER_02 21:15

It's and you know, I just reflected on that question. I remember when I was down the coast for a big workshop and there was a flood happening, and someone said to me, Don't you feel guilty because you're not doing anything about it? And it's like, there's nothing I can do, I'm away. I'm not gonna feel guilty that I can't offer my services for something that's going on really bad in the world at the moment in our area, because I'm focusing on creating something that's going to help people. Like, you can't you can't w hold that guilt as well. If you can do something, but you can't. Does that make sense?

SPEAKER_01 21:49

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:50

Like you can't help everyone. Um, amazing. Well, this week, before you click on another headline, ask yourself a simple question: is this helping me find my true north or is it pulling my compass off course? Because this is what the podcast is about, right? Um, the compass was never designed to carry the weight of the world, the whole world. We're carrying the weight of the whole world. It's it's heavy, Nan. It's heavy. It's designed to help you navigate your own world, like here, right here, down the street, not all the way over in another world. Yeah. No, half a world away.

SPEAKER_00 22:24

Yeah. Don't think about that.

SPEAKER_01 22:26

All right, all right. Do you have anything else to add? No, I think that's that's a lovely place to end this episode. I love it. We'll see you in the next one. Bye. Thanks for joining us on the Anxiety Compass. If you love this episode, share it with a friend who needs a little laugh and a low calm. We'll see you in the next one. Keep following your true norm.

SPEAKER_02 22:56

Disclaimer time. Sammy and Natalie may be clinical nutritionists, but we're not your personal doctors. What you hear is for learning and laughing, not diagnosing or prescribing. If things feel bigger than you, call your doctor or local support line. Or reach out to a qualified health professional and you're back to