I recently ended a week abroad with no news and no contact with the outside world.

I don't recommend it: The ending-it part, that is. It's amazing how calm you can get in that zone of blissful ignorance.

For a week in Mexico, I watched no television, listened to no radio, read no newspapers, logged on to no e-mail or Internet, and used the phone only to confirm an airline reservation. It was the most cut-off I may ever have been, and the most relaxed.

I listened to the cries of seagulls, and the waves slapping the shore. I lay on the beach and watched pelicans swoop down to swipe fish. I spent time with family, eating, drinking and talking.

It takes purging the toxins to see how unhealthy you were. Most of us lead unreasonably high-stress lives. We hurtle from thing to thing, worrying about work, money, relationships, bills, the kids, maintaining the house and car, staying fit.

And then, for respite, we turn to the TV, only to be reminded (every half hour, at least) that the sky is falling and it's a mean, scary world out there.

I was able to see clearly, after a week without it, what it is about the 24-hour news cycle — delivered on TV, online and even by cell phone — that makes one so jittery. Every story is crafted to leave you with that tumultuous "Oh, my God!" feeling.

As in: "Oh, my God, a kid made a threat!" "Oh, my God, Clinton said this about Obama! What will he say back?" "Oh, my God, we're too fat!"

It's one thing to be a news junkie, but another to be a media addict. That's the curse of having myriad forms of media at our constant disposal. It's easy to get addicted.

I assumed I was hooked on the presidential campaign for only high-minded reasons, because I care so much about the country's future. Ha! At some point, when you keep checking polls and you can't get enough of the talking heads and their predictions, it's no different from compulsive gambling or any other addiction.

What's more, if you have all the media going at the same time for long enough, it becomes hard to concentrate on any one thing for long. You develop an attention problem.

As we in the business keep thinking up new ways to deliver news, we need to rethink how we engage people with it. Not surprisingly, all the major stories the media were obsessing about when I came home involved sex, race and politics. Scandal-driven news engages you, but in a negative way. It leaves you panicky or cynical, dismissive or despairing.

The news can be told in ways that are empowering, that give people a sense of their own possibilities and solutions. That involves telling fewer stories, but in more depth, without the constant repetition and hand-wringing.

Likewise, all the new methods of communicating — YouTube, MySpace, blog sites — offer great new opportunities for engaging with one another. But they also provide not-so-great new ways to hurt one another. Just look at the online gossip sites that spread rumors about college students. That's not something you sign up for when you go to college, and could well destroy a student with a weak sense of self.

It's not easy to keep the stresses of daily life at bay. But until the media notice and start regulating themselves, you can try to control how much of that hysteria enters your life.

It's a process. I came home, turned on the TV, felt the purity of the week slipping away and turned it off. Then, uncomfortable with the silence, I switched it back on. And so it's been going.

So, here's hoping your "Oh, my God!" moments are minimal, unless they're true epiphanies.

Rekha Basu is a Gannett News Service columnist.