Aspies and Reactions To Politics/World News

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Personally, I try to avoid political and world news since they really tend to either stress me out or make me depressed for a certain amount of time. I can't even try to do something or read something different to take my mind off it because it feels like it latches onto my mind and won't let go. Of course, sooner or later, such news is going to find me even if I'm not looking at anything related to it. A friend of mine might post an article on Facebook or if I'm on a video game news site, an article about the latest censoring attempt will appear. No matter how those news items or political issues find me, the result is still the same: me metaphorically crawling into a fetal position and feeling depressed about everything.

Is it normal for aspies to feel this way about something like this, news or otherwise? If so, I'm open to almost any advice on how to deal with it. The one thing I won't do is get involved in the political process myself. I made a pledge in college after my teacher flunked me for political reasons to never get involved in politics, and I have no intention of changing that. Any other suggestions though, I'm willing to listen.

I try to keep up on current events, though I prefer long-form journalism over daily news. Yes, the news can be a downer, but being oblivious to it doesn't make it any less real. I just don't find ignorance to be all that blissful.

The thing to understand is that journalism, for the most part, doesn't exist to bum people out. Imagine if everyone kept in the dark about current events, there would be no controversy and nobody to take a stand (or just throw a fit) for or against anything. People would be clueless until their daily lives were suddenly negatively affected by changes they could have made an effort to stop. You know, an informed citizenry and all that.

I can't stand global/political news! However it seems like for different reasons, I can't involve myself in things I don't relate to for starters so most of it seems meaningless. And sometimes things make me see the naivety of others and really depresses me, making me spend lots of time on it... (IE when I learnt obama won the election I felt sad for humanity as I felt he only won because he was going to be 'the first black president'(Only my opinion))
I don't spend allot of time after watching actually thinking about that news, I usually go into depressing thoughts about humanity.

Then their is general news that really makes me sad... The last time that I really drew into myself was after all the times watching the news about some celebrity do something meaningless for a long time, then dedicating seconds-minutes on people who have died! I now can't watch any news channel that does any kind of celebrity gossip as it always makes me hateful.

And every time I watch some bit of news on accident I usually end up receding from the world too... Even just a minute or two of something happening on the news can make me hole up in my room by myself for a long time...


Unfortunately I can't offer any advice, considering I still need it!

I listen to news on the radio. Because 99 percent of news tends to be depressing, and I know that negative visual images can sometimes make me angry, I don't watch news on TV much. A lot of news stories seem to be about political correctness and someone getting offended by what someone else said. Howver, it can be hillarious when people on TV get so angry they start swearing, because they'e on strike (the longshoreman who told reporters his name was F**k You F*****g C**ksucker comes to mind).