Far too many people on social media live their lives in a constant state of perpetual outrage. Every post or nearly every post they share on FB, IG, X or Bluesky is to express their outrage over something in the world – typically things over which they have no control and have little or no impact on their own life.

They are constantly angry and upset.

Studies have shown that harboring this degree of anger increases stress and increases your risk of heart attack by a factor of 2x to 5x.

Here’s a story of woman who seems to have run into this – she had both real world, mostly non-controllable stress but was also stressed about everything else over which she had no control, might not be real, and has no immediate impact on her own life:

I Nearly Died From ‘Broken Heart Syndrome’ — And Here’s Why You Could Be At Risk, Too

At the very least, we’re all being subjected to the truly head-banging soundtrack of everything that’s going wrong in this world, including deep-rooted racism, misogyny, gun violence, natural disasters, political turmoil, the aftershocks of a global pandemic, and more. 

And these chronic stressors –– in addition to isolated events –– are heavy contributors to any given person’s cumulative stress level. 

She suffered cardiac arrest in surgery – and the team said it appeared to have been caused by stress, leading to a weakening of the heart muscle.

She is now in therapy learning to handle stress issues better – and hopefully learning to step away from the culture of perpetual outrage. But perhaps not, unfortunately. She goes on to write:

And if I –– an upper-middle class, straight, white homeowner, with a master’s degree, community support, a stable of resources, and an incredible amount of privilege –– can’t take care of myself in America today enough to avoid stress-induced heart failure, then how can anyone?

She is thus worrying on behalf of others over which she has no control.

Read more of her story and you’ll see she worries about even more which does not affect her and over which she has no control. She has much to learn.

Worry about those things you can control – don’t worry about those things you cannot control. Instead, identify how to work around them or cope with them by modifying things you can control.