SOLUTION TO STRESS:
A REMOTE POSSIBILITY
Journal of Healing – April 2, 2003
By Mary Koch
On the one hand are people complaining about the incessant, redundant war coverage on
television. On the other hand is a report that viewership of CNN and Fox News increased
more than 400 percent after the war began.
I mean, no one is MAKING us watch this stuff. We're the ones with our fingers on the
remote. I've long believed that Americans either haven't figured out how to use – or
don't want to use – one of the most powerful healing tools in their homes: the
television on-off button.
"People are horrified" by the war scenes, a Florida psychologist told the
Scripps Howard News Service, "but it's almost like you can't stop watching."
The Vietnam war was labeled the first "living room war." That was disturbing
enough as we watched video-taped battles while eating our dinner off TV tables. But this!
Thanks to instant satellite communications, now we can watch and hear bombs as they fall.
Both the immediacy and pervasiveness of TV coverage are taking their toll, say mental
health experts. The Scripps Howard story quoted the director of a mental health service in
New York: "All the reports from the different battlefields and locations, all the
comment and speculation, is disorganizing to many people. It's anxiety stimulating."
* * *
EVEN WITHOUT war coverage to fan the fire, many health care advocates argue that
television is harmful to our psyche and overall health. TV-Turnoff Network, a national
nonprofit organization, encourages reduced television watching and sponsors an annual
TV-Turnoff Week (this year April 21-27). Co-sponsors include the American Medical
Association.
TV-Turnoff has issued a number of reports blaming Americans' couch-potato,
channel-surfing life style for some of our most serious health concerns: obesity, diabetes
and violence. The average household has the TV on for seven hours and 40 minutes a day.
TV-Turnoff wants the Federal Communications Commission to require broadcasters to run
periodic messages warning against consequences of excessive television time.
I suspect that would have about as much effect as the warning labels on cigarette
packs. Of course excessive television is unhealthy. But the right kind of television at
the right time can be therapeutic.
After my husband's stroke, the television stayed off. John was troubled by double
vision – a common post-stroke ailment – which made television viewing
frustrating. Besides, I thought he needed a quiet, calm environment.
* * *
A FEW YEARS after the stroke, John slipped into severe clinical depression and
psychosis. A psychiatrist visited our home, looked around and suggested a TV in John's
bedroom "for stimulation."
I was offended. John's room is alive with beautiful paintings, family photos, a good
stereo system for music and a picture postcard view of the Okanogan River, teeming with
wildlife. Wasn't that stimulation enough?
In a word, no. Years ago Norman Cousins wrote about healing his cancer through
laughter. He watched hours and hours of Marx brothers films.
Television alone did not lift John from depression. But anti-depressant and
anti-anxiety medications were eventually replaced by the Three Stooges, who have since
been replaced by a daily dose of "M*A*S*H" reruns. Every afternoon John settles
in for two hours of laugh therapy dispensed by Dr. "Hawkeye." Ironic that the
very medium causing so much anxiety for so many actually decreases John's anxiety.
Black and white TV is gone, and just as absent are black-and-white guidelines for
television viewing. This is one tool – potentially healing, potentially harmful
– for which we each have to be responsible for writing our own prescription.
(Mary Koch writes about health care issues and her experiences as a
family caregiver. Her husband, retired newspaper publisher John E. Andrist, was severely
disabled by a stroke in 1993. They welcome your letters at P.O. Box 3346, Omak WA 98841 or
visit them on the Internet at www.marykoch.com)
RETURN TO HOME PAGE |