One Week Sober
One week ago I quit news cold turkey.
For more than two years my life revolved around news; any type, shape, size, or political matter. News was in my veins, it helped me sleep at night and also kept me up until all hours of the morning.
I was addicted to the rush, the high and the crash. I would get settled into my desk and wait for the first needle of news to hit my veins and get me high.
I would power through news stories like I was addicted to the bad news that made up most stories.
Oh, there is a shooting...wait it is fatal? Instant high.
Oh, a police report is out showing that there was a criminal history on a man who took his wife hostage and killed her and himself... Instant rush.
I often found myself breaking down when I was alone, all the sadness that I covered would get me high and would make me forget that what I was covering was truly heart wrenching and saddening, until the buzz of the scanners stopped and the phones stopped ringing and the magnitude of what I covered daily hit me.
Since Friday November 15th, I haven't watched a single news broadcast. It wasn't until I walked outside of my apartment yesterday afternoon and saw snow on the ground that I realized, I don't even know what the weather is going to be like for the next few weeks.
I didn't go through withdrawals, I didn't crash, I didn't burn, I quit the addiction of breaking news cold turkey.
Something I always told people was that I was addicted to breaking news, truth be told, I was. I was addicted to the rush of being "in the know".
The other day, for the first time in a week I checked my former employers website, only to be met with news I didn't want to know...the Sandy Hook official report will be released Monday afternoon.
Not many people know, but I had a goal to be out of local news before the one year anniversary of Sandy Hook. I didn't care if that meant flipping burgers, working in retail or being unemployed. I could not imagine covering the year anniversary of a tragedy that I have yet to understand or cope with.
Tomorrow, Monday November 25th, I will be just another consumer of news, with the option to change the channel. The official police report will be released and I will not be in a newsroom taking it all in for a high just to be followed by withdrawals that will leave me sleepless and feeling helpless.
One week sober from the addiction of breaking news... and I am looking forward to many more weeks ahead.
For more than two years my life revolved around news; any type, shape, size, or political matter. News was in my veins, it helped me sleep at night and also kept me up until all hours of the morning.
I was addicted to the rush, the high and the crash. I would get settled into my desk and wait for the first needle of news to hit my veins and get me high.
I would power through news stories like I was addicted to the bad news that made up most stories.
Oh, there is a shooting...wait it is fatal? Instant high.
Oh, a police report is out showing that there was a criminal history on a man who took his wife hostage and killed her and himself... Instant rush.
I often found myself breaking down when I was alone, all the sadness that I covered would get me high and would make me forget that what I was covering was truly heart wrenching and saddening, until the buzz of the scanners stopped and the phones stopped ringing and the magnitude of what I covered daily hit me.
Since Friday November 15th, I haven't watched a single news broadcast. It wasn't until I walked outside of my apartment yesterday afternoon and saw snow on the ground that I realized, I don't even know what the weather is going to be like for the next few weeks.
I didn't go through withdrawals, I didn't crash, I didn't burn, I quit the addiction of breaking news cold turkey.
Something I always told people was that I was addicted to breaking news, truth be told, I was. I was addicted to the rush of being "in the know".
The other day, for the first time in a week I checked my former employers website, only to be met with news I didn't want to know...the Sandy Hook official report will be released Monday afternoon.
Not many people know, but I had a goal to be out of local news before the one year anniversary of Sandy Hook. I didn't care if that meant flipping burgers, working in retail or being unemployed. I could not imagine covering the year anniversary of a tragedy that I have yet to understand or cope with.
Tomorrow, Monday November 25th, I will be just another consumer of news, with the option to change the channel. The official police report will be released and I will not be in a newsroom taking it all in for a high just to be followed by withdrawals that will leave me sleepless and feeling helpless.
One week sober from the addiction of breaking news... and I am looking forward to many more weeks ahead.
The constant cycle of news can break you down. It never ends! Aren't you moving to ESPN, though? I would think that it might be as intense, if not more so, over there, especially in the push to give (perhaps) undue weight to sports stories in an effort to fill up 24 hours worth of programming.
ReplyDeleteI am now at ESPN but the content is so different. I mean the breaking news we had last night was a Patriots come from behind victory...in our local news was covering the search for a driver involved in a fatal hit and run. The breaking news aspect is still going to be high but the content that I will manage is going to make handling it a lot easier.
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