It All Evens Out in the End — Bad News Will Come to Each of Us

In life we all experience highs and lows — it’s a simple fact of life. As good as things might be at any given moment, in the next moment we could be faced with challenges and hardships that make life seem difficult to bear.

Even if you’ve yet to experience a particularly devastating moment, in the end, bad news will reach all of us and we will be faced with the task of trying to process the news and navigate through life in spite of it. Understanding and to some extent expecting this can help mitigate some of the negative impacts of bad news.

However, the best way to perhaps cope in the face of bad news is by implementing coping strategies to help you deal with the news and your feelings and move through them in as healthy a manner as possible.

Bad News and Its Impacts

There’s no firm definition of what’s considered ‘bad news.’ A simple way to look at it would be to say that ‘bad news’ is any information regarded as unpleasant or undesirable. This means that what’s considered bad news can be different for everyone.

I might find it to be bad news that I have to move out of state for my job, while another person might be excited about the same opportunity. You might think a sports team losing their game is bad news while another person might be excited to find that the team lost. Regardless of what the specific news is, if it’s viewed as unpleasant or undesirable to you then it has the ability to impact you negatively.

This is even more true when the bad news is more personal to your life. For instance, the death of a relative, a spouse filing for divorce, or losing your job are all forms of bad news that are bound to have more profound negative impacts than having to move or a sports team losing.

This is because the more personal an event or situation is to you, the more emotion that tends to be tied to it, making it more challenging to endure. The manner in which bad news reaches us can also have a major impact on how we’re able to deal with it.

Bad news which may have been expected (i.e., the death of a friend who had been battling cancer), while still difficult to embrace, is generally more bearable than bad news that was totally unexpected (i.e., losing your home in a house fire).

All of these various facets of bad news can have negative impacts on our lives, most notably our mental health. Getting bad news can induce negative feelings such as anger, sadness, anxiety, and even depression.

Our bodies can also go into a stress response as bad news can heighten our sense of threat or danger and lead to increased stress levels. Not only that, but bad news can impact our perception and perspective moving forward. Depending on the severity and the frequency, we can begin to become pessimistic which can rob us of the ability to experience joy.

So how do we prevent bad news, which we can’t escape from, from having such negative and lasting impacts in our lives?

How to Cope with Bad News

As mentioned before, you’re bound to get bad news at some point in life and if you live a little, you’ll find yourself in a cycle of good news and bad news continuously. Since bad news is inescapable, learning how to cope with it is the best way to prevent bad news from getting the best of you.

Get Informed: A lot of the stress and anxiety that comes along with bad news results from a lack of information regarding the news itself. Generally, we’re only given a small portion of the incident or story which leaves our minds to wander about even more negative and severe outcomes and impacts. Taking some time to pause and gather more information can help you better understand the news and develop a plan for how to deal with the news.

Take Time to Process: Another good way to help you cope with bad news is to give yourself time. A failure to process the news received can lead to impulsive decisions and poor judgment. Thus, it’s vital to pause, take a deep breath, and accurately assess the situation. When you’re able to think through the situation, you can do a better job of coping with the stress of the event so that you can more effectively move forward.

Embrace Your Feelings: It’s important to note that it’s both normal and okay to feel negative, especially when on the receiving end of bad news. The key is to embrace how you feel rather than trying to run from your feelings. Research has shown that attempts to avoid your feelings and emotions can actually lead to more stress in the long term. Whereas individuals who accept their negative emotions instead of attempting to deny or alter them are better able to handle stress.

Reframing: In order to keep us from staying in a negative state of mind following bad news, reframing can be a useful strategy for moving ahead. The goal of reframing is to find a more positive interpretation or focus of an unexpected negative event. This requires you to seek out potential positives of the challenge rather than only seeing the negative. This can be a harder practice to embrace the more devastating the news, but there’s always something positive that can be highlighted.

Move Forward: Ultimately there comes a point where you have to choose to move forward. This means making a conscious decision to do whatever you need to do to help yourself not remain stuck in the pain of the bad news. This can take many forms such as talking to a trusted friend or therapist, engaging in self-care, or figuring out practical ways to make the best out of a bad situation. The key is to do something so that you don’t wallow in the negative place and allow negativity to grow.

Each one of us is bound to get bad news at some point in our life. Embracing this truth can help us prepare ahead of time for bad news we might receive.

When we know how to deal with bad news, getting it becomes something we can manage instead of something that cripples us. Via intentionality, patience, and action you can overcome bad news and go on to continue living a fruitful and fulfilling life.