First Lady posts advice on media consumption within mental health campaign
She reported this on Telegram, as seen by Ukrinform.
"Taking shelter during the air raid alert. Taking care of your sleep, rest, and food every day. Add to these basic needs one more useful habit: monitoring what you consume in media. After all, in wartime, lives depend on the reliability of information," said the First Lady.
According to Zelenska, the answers to questions about how to filter the news and prevent them from multiplying stress are contained in simple tips on healthy media consumption, created within the framework of the All-Ukrainian mental health program “How are you?".
Firstly, Zelenska noted, it’s using verified sources. It is about how to control subscriptions across social media, where to find a "white" list of outlets and why, for example, the pace of the news feed does not equal quality - because reputable publications always spend more time on verification.
Media consumption peculiarities also affect emotional state. News can cause physical stress reactions and exhaust people. It is not only the events that may be traumatic but also the relevant reports. The President's spouse stressed that news about tragedies should be treated with particular caution if a person has already gone through a similar traumatic experience because viewing such reports could become a trigger when a person is hooked and pulled into unwanted experiences.
According to Zelenska, this is about protection against media trauma. "A lot of practical advice: about deep, calming breathing, massaging your fingers, etc. - a whole first aid kit for self-assistance. The authors especially advise people not to give in to a false sense of guilt due to viewing certain content," she said.
And the general recommendation is that time according to personal rules is a guarantee of mental health, the First Lady emphasized.
As Ukrinform reported earlier, Zelenska believes a comfortable space should be created in Ukraine for all people mentally affected by war.
