I am officially putting myself on a “news diet” for my own mental health.

I have a self-diagnosed addiction to news (both trivial and serious). I’ve known it for years, going back to when I looked forward to reading the daily newspaper, interspersed with “junk magazines” that told me more than I wanted to know about who was who and who was doing what in the world of celebrities. The latter only serves to make me feel inferior (or old and out of it).

I first was reading news to try to inform myself about politics and the world.

This last few years though, as we all know, we have different biases for what defines “news.” We can switch between CNN and FOX and other news sites and get entirely different ideas of what constitutes news. It’s as if we are being bullied as a nation (and torn apart) by the very outlets that at one time served to inform, and only inform.

I know what my beliefs are by now, and so don’t need to watch any “talking head” shows that only serve to make me anxious or worried about our future. I know how I’m going to vote, so when the time comes I’ll educate myself on candidates and issues.

I also don’t need to read comments that only serve to bully others or bully readers of comments.

So, I’m limiting news to once a day (hopefully some kind of nightly news that isn’t biases one way or the other.

I don’t think I know it all, but I plan on knowing less unless I “need to know.”