Beware doom and gloom

The unrest in the Middle East. The war in Ukraine. The election. Bill Speer Let's be honest, we live in a troubled world right now. If you are a "doom and gloom" type of person, then this column is for you. I've got both good news and bad news for you this morning. Let's start with the good news, and that is there are a lot of others just like you walking the streets out there. Not only do your feelings matter, they also are shared by thousands of others just like you according to clinical studies. The bad news is this next week or so could stretch your emotional capacity to the max. Not only will there be a bombardment of election news coverage assaulting our senses from this point forward for a while, but we also have the end of Daylight Savings Time this weekend with which to contend. Let's start with the time change, which twice a year wrecks our internal clocks and disrupts our sleep patterns. While come Monday, daylight will arrive earlier in the morning, conversely it will get darker at night much earlier as well.With shorter exposure to sunlight each day from now until spring, many people struggle with a depression known as seasonal affective disorder. Our brains set an internal clock so to speak in our bodies that revolves around exposure to sunlight. So when changes occur to the amount of sunlight available each day, our body has to adjust as well. For some that adjustment is natural and easy, while for others it causes loss of sleep, depression and/or physical ailments such as hypertension. Okay, that is a lot to deal with. But there's more. A study that just was released earlier this year says too much concentration on the bad news of 24-hour news cycles can lead to negative changes in the brain. Known as "doomscrolling," these changes to the brain can lead to prolonged anxiety in our everyday lives according to Dr. Aditi Nerurkar, a lecturer at the Harvard Medical School in a recently published news release."Our brains and bodies are expertly designed to handle short bursts of stress," she said in the report. "But over the past several years, the stress just doesn't seem to end. Doomscrolling is our response to that." If the first thing you reach for in the morning as you wake up is your phone, there is a good chance you suffer in some degree to "doomscrolling." Nerukar said too much time on an electronic device overstimulates the brain. "While keeping abreast of current events is essential, doomscrolling provides no extra benefits. We need to stay informed, but not at the expense of our mental health,&quot; she said. To combat the overstimulation, Nerukar recommends a number of things, including keeping your phone away from your bed, not bringing your phone to meals and concentrating on local community news, which tends to be less depressing and more optimistic in content. If you know someone who suffers from depression or who seems "out-of-sorts" in the days ahead couple of weeks show them grace, love and tolerance. It could be a rough time for many of us in the days ahead. Understanding the triggers that impact these folks hopefully will allow us to be more compassionate. And Lord knows we all need a little more compassion in the world around us. Bill Speer is retired publisher of The Alpena (Michigan) News.