Do you keep up with current events?

I still don't know what Brexit and the European Union are.

This makes me feel embarrassed.

But my brain fog tells me that it's okay to not know everything.

Still - have you ever been evaluated by some psychologist in the past who asked current-event questions, only to find out that you couldn't answer them?

When keeping up with current events creates trigger after trigger, is it really that important that I actually know this stuff? Also, when listening to year-in, year-out news about the ever evolving pandemic and all the pathogens it entails, I wonder if I'm to keep up with that? We now use a different method other than R0 because vaccines are now a covariate in that statistics. -Do I really need to know this, or how the Type I or Type II errors can easily skew Covid-19 results - I don't know the answer to this, but it baffles me to ask this inside my head. Should I know certain current events over others?

The current events are driving me insane though. I think mental health professionals even say to avoid the news if you have certain disorders, such as PTSD. Or perhaps they only mean that for certain people who are anxiety- or depression-prone. But when is it necessary or important to keep up with current events, so as to be deemed mentally healthier or even mentally fit?

The psychologists almost always screen for that, but I wonder if they still do during this pandemic.

I live in the U.S., but it would seem that international relations is somewhat important for our mental health if psychological screening questions include current-event-based questions concerning other countries' issues, such as Brexit or otherwise. I don't even know if that's still an issue, and I still don't know what that means. Should I, given that I reside in the U.S.?

But I do care if this virus spreads across the globe. That's strange. Without even trying, I am glue to pandemic-related current events. It's not healthy. I'm trying to stop. But I am also on high alert.

I wonder what kind of mental health would require knowledge in current events part of mental fitness?

I think they ask people who is the PM and if they know the date and stuff to test for dementia...a person may still think they are in a by-gone era if they have dementia.


Once my nan shouted at my auntie telling her to get back to school but my auntie was grown up by then with her own kids and had just called in to see if she needed anything! Then she started talking about strange men coming into her house with fish and chips!


She was diagnosed with dementia and ended up having to go into a care home.

I don't expect they'd expect a regular 'joe public' to know as much as the scientists..they would probably expect that you knew that there was a pandemic and that you had to wear a mask when going out to be safe

I'm worried about my 70-year-old half-sis having dementia. My other half-sis, 56, is also worried. The 56-year-old sister told me last night that our 70-year-old sis "stalked" our brother (also 56, who is the twin to the 56-year-old half-sis of mine). Because my 70-year-old sis cannot handle rejection, even though she makes poor choices and allows unvaccinated people around her and her home for Thanksgiving, including her unvaccinated daughter, she's had Covid-19 twice and exposed a taxi driver when her car broke down during her positive test. She survived, but not before she spread this in California. This was earlier in the 2021 year though, but she still allowed her unvaccinated daughter and other people to visit for Thanksgiving. Then she asked our brother if she could visit them and their family. They said no. When her unvaccinated daughter took off after eating a Thanksgiving meal, our 70-year-old sister felt lonely and very rejected from the "no" our brother said. So, she stalked them in front of their house. She sat in her car. I think she called them and said something. Then the brother told his twin sister, and his twin sister told me, their half-sister.

I've been super shocked with all this. Meanwhile, I pay attention to the current events so that I can see what the case counts are in a particular area. But I don't think others are paying attention that much, or they choose to ignore those things.

My 70-year-old sister seems really out of character lately. She's a dental assistant, but their entire dental office earlier this year had to close because of a Covid-19 outbreak. They all wear masks, but only the surgical kind (not the N95's or higher that they should be wearing). I wonder if she should still be working, given her recent changes in behavior. Stalking is out of character for her, which makes us all wonder if she's going through the early onset stages of dementia. We hope not, since dementia does NOT run in our family. But perhaps because we all have different mothers, it may run in her mother's side of the family. We don't know much about that though.

Sadly, it could also be a side-effect of Covid-19. She's had Covid-19 twice - she was unvaccinated both times. She is now vaccinated and boosted, I think, but it's unclear yet about the booster status. Because she's vaccinated, she thinks she can continue to be open to unvaccinated people, including her daughter/our niece, who remains a conspiracy theorist. There's no boundary setting from our 70-year-old sis, but everyone else is boundary setting with them.

As a compromise, the half-brother suggested that maybe they could hang outdoors at a restaurant. Not a good idea if the 70-year-old is taking risks already and could be asymptomatically spreading it to others, but it's better than just saying no and leaving it at that. Angry, the 70-year-old declined the offer and instead wanted to continue stalking the brother.

This is strange behavior.

We're scared.

And I'm not sure how this is part of current events, but maybe someone should ask our sis about current events to see if maybe she does have dementia, LOL, but seriously.

I had no idea the current events were for dementia screening. Obviously, I don't have dementia, but I used to not read the newspaper at all. It's only this pandemic that got me interested in the news on a daily basis.

My husband is a lawyer and has worked on cases where a family member is trying the court to give them guardianship of someone with dementia. The judges do ask questions like who is the president or what you can buy with a 1,000 peso bill to the person that has dementia.

To answer the initial question, I follow current events quite closely. I have an MA in International Relations, so I have always been interested in what is going on in the world.

@rechu - Yay - someone with an International Relations degree, and a Master's at that! I never took any of the courses required for International Relations. I have taken stats courses and was interested in a doctoral program that offers research on communities, including both domestic and international communities. I think there are different laws and requirements for international studies, however. I don't know. I've never taken those courses as an undergrad because I couldn't afford them. I wonder if the undergrad courses are required for a field like that.

What exactly does international relations entail? Does it include politics, international law, research, etc.? What's the goal of international relations? Do people wind up working for places like the WHO or other world organizations?

That sounds like a fascinating field! I had no idea that current events would be necessary for that field until now, but it makes sense now.

I'm too disabled for that field, but I admire people in that field. That's cool!

Do you currently do work in international relations or something adjacent to that?

I try too.

I am sick of being labeled as " thick", so try and at least know a bit about the world we live in and what's going on

I strictly limit my news intake. It's only National Public Radio and only when I'm in the car. That meant I didn't get much news when I was working from home for a year, but I don't think that's a bad thing.

The news can contribute to depression and anxiety and a feeling of helplessness. Also, before CNN, people were content to watch only 1 hour of news a day. They didn't need to have it on constantly.

@SprinkL3 - My program was multidisciplinary, incorporating different social sciences. I had to take some core classes like international political analysis, theory of international relations and a few others. For the rest of my classwork, I was able to choose areas of interest from courses in political science, geography, economics, regional studies, etc. It was a lot of research, writing and giving presentations.


My goal was initially to work in the non-profit sector, but I only either interned or volunteered for a few organizations. I was living in an expensive city in the US at the time and I had student loans, so I needed to earn more than a nonprofit salary.

After graduating, I ended up working as an international trade analyst working for a company that provided information about customs tariffs, trade agreements, import documentation, etc. I worked with Latin America mainly because I speak Spanish and then my employer sent me to Portuguese classes to handle Brazil, so I also dealt with the Portuguese speaking African nations.

Since then I have done a wide range of jobs that required research, writing and foreign language skills. Currently, I am doing freelance business writing, but I did get an inquiry the other day from someone that wants me to advise about some free trade agreements. Prior to this job I was an infrastructure projects analyst for Latin America.

Wow - you have an awesome job and academic background!

I, too, wanted to study both multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary research. I was going to purchase those expensive textbooks and learn about those things on my own.

What I wanted to do with international relations, psychology, and victimology was to look at immigration populations and their traumas, including unsubstantiated victimization traumas. In addition to a global phenomenon concerning unsubstantiated child maltreatment traumas (comprising physical abuse, physical neglect, emotional abuse, emotional neglect, sexual abuse, medical neglect, educational neglect, witnessing domestic violence, witnessing intimate partner violence, experiencing bullying at school, experiencing sexual abuse outside of the family unit or home of origin, experiencing clergy/spiritual/ritual abuse, etc.), other common forms of unsubstantiated victimizations occur among immigrants - those who are coerced into sex (criminal sexual assault victimization), those who are victims of coyotes, those who are exploited for their labor, those who are easily trafficked, those who are victims of police brutality (including victims of ICE, local law enforcement), those who are victims of hate crimes, and those who experience discrimination (unlawful acts, not necessarily criminal). They rarely get fair representation as victims, victims rights compensation and benefits, equal opportunity for employment, equal opportunity for housing, etc. Of course, I'm talking about those who are asylum seekers and refugees, but also those who might legally obtain DACA status and otherwise. But even for those who lack legal papers, they may still experience unsubstantiated victimization that comprise unlawful and illegal (criminal) victimizations from authorities and otherwise. They are the most vulnerable, just like children, the elderly, those with disabilities, and minorities as a whole, so they naturally have a greater degree of trauma, including unsubstantiated victimizations.

Where the interdisciplinary framework would have come in would be to apply theories to support the intersectionality between various international relations policies and practices, immigration types and experiences overall, and resulting traumas (including unsubstantiated victimization). Like betrayal trauma, unsubstantiated trauma carries more weight, meaning that the traumatic sequelae would be greater if the trauma was considered unsubstantiated (including, in a broad sense, unfounded) or a betrayal or both.

Victimology is a form of criminal justice research, which borrows from psychology. But immigration-based traumas are very different from the traumas that U.S. citizens typically encounter in their lifetimes.

Also, victims of underage human trafficking as well as victims of being recruited as a child soldier are forms of child maltreatment that are often not seen among U.S. citizens, but may be prevalent among non-U.S. migrants. Sadly, they often don't have adequate mental health treatment to help these youth recover from their unique traumas (including unsubstantiated victimizations). They are often not afforded victims rights benefits, nor are they afforded other protections.

The Skeezyks avoids any-&-all exposure to current events as much as possible. I'm old. There's nothing I can do about any of it. And me knowing about it won't change anything. All hearing or reading about it does is just add to my already high levels of anxiety.

My T just said that to us about how the news can increase our anxiety.

Maybe I just need to read the CDC directly and not read the news anymore.

The thing is, I like the games on the NYT's app. I do their Sudoku and crossword and word game puzzles every morning - for their free version. But then again, I have to scroll past all the headlines to get to their free games section.

I suppose if I took more of my T's advice to cut down on the news, I wouldn't be as scared either.

Thank you for reminding me of that Skeezyks!

I am a news-a-holic. I am also a speed reader. My mom signed me up in third grade and its been a lifesaver. I have 30 news apps and manage to read through all of them and theirs sections nearly everyday. I am not affected negatively (as in I dont carry it with me ) by news. And I love all the random stories. If there was a game show with useless current events I would be a champ.

You might be able to win the NYT's quizzes. They ask about current events in their quizzes. I think it's on their app.

You might also be a great contestant for one of those game shows, since they tend to ask about current and past events.

I am not obsessed with the news plus I don’t have the time. But I do follow what’s going on, within reason. I listen to BBC world or NPR when commuting to and from work (very long commute), the rest of the time I usually see what’s going on on the Internet, don’t typically watch news on tv. I can’t be completely clueless about what’s going in the world but I don’t have the time or interest to be an expert on it. I think it depends on your level of interest in various things and how it effects you knowing or not knowing things

I just received an emergency alert on my cell phone about a "snow squall." I've never experienced a snow squall in my life! I don't think I would want to either.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SprinkL3 I just received an emergency alert on my cell phone about a "snow squall." I've never experienced a snow squall in my life! I don't think I would want to either.

Have you turned on your exposure alerts for Covid on your iPhone?.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Had no idea they had exposure alerts. I remember we did get an alert around Thanksgiving 2020 to stay home because Covid rates were bad in my county. But nothing was enforced by law, so no one listened. I mainly get Amber alerts about missing children and the occasional weather alert.

I think exposure alerts might work if people don’t go anywhere and only occasionally venture somewhere and might come across covid positive people. Those who work in person, especially with vulnerable population and come in contact with large number of people, are exposed to covid at all times. We do track exposure at work. But we don't quarantine vaccinated people even though we are frequently exposed. And my husband is exposed at work daily.

What are we going to do with additional alerts? We will still have to get up and go to work. Sure could go and do a test but I already know I am always exposed so it will make no difference. I’d have to test for covid daily!

Vaccinate, wear a mask, keep a distance (when can), sanitize, follow guidelines in your area etc

Idaho has banned/blocked that feature from working on my iPhone. I tried, but the iPhone stated that it's not available in my area.

Some red states will ban that feature from working on your cell phones. Also, many people would not report, sadly. They don't have any qualms about spreading, since their belief systems are that it's someone's will or Social Darwinism rules or they simply don't care. They might also state freedom to spread, freedom to go maskless, freedom to go vaccineless, and their rights to medical privacy or something. At any rate, some states have banned that feature from being allowed on your phone - so much for freedom!