I don’t know about you, but I am worn out. Lately I have spent a lot of time worrying about friends and family and fretting about the world in general. At some point, however, I realised that all this angst had no good place to land. I was going around in circles, unable to act yet unable to disengage.

I know I am not alone – many friends and co-workers are struggling to sleep and function amid what many consider extraordinary times.

Researchers refer to this state as “empathic distress”. The prevalence of empathic distress is partly an inevitable result of modernity. We consume distressing images, videos and content with greater immediacy and intensity than ever before. We have increased access to facts, information and analyses – not always accurate or valid – that we struggle to process and comprehend. And we are subject to an endless barrage of details about the lives of our friends, acquaintances and even strangers through social media.

At times this avalanche of information can be put to good use – it can expand our sense of the world and who we are within it and help us develop a richer understanding of complex social issues. However, it can also lead to perceived helplessness and, at its worst, a type of intractable cynicism.

We are particularly at risk of empathic distress when we obsessively........

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