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Are you an ostrich or a meerkat? We all know about the poor dusty ostrich, that sticks its head in the sand, hiding from what frightens it and avoiding confronting problems head on.

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Yes, it might be a myth, but it's an easy thing for us to understand. After all, who's not had days when a situation has felt so overwhelming that all you've wanted to do is stay in bed, hide your head under the covers and wake up again when everything has calmed down a bit?

Or are you more of a meerkat? Constantly looking for the danger, constantly on high alert, constantly rearing up, looking out, wearing yourself thin with worry and stress?

That's how it can feel when we're looking at the headlines at the moment. The news can make the best of us anxious, spiralling into worry and fear when things are seemingly getting increasingly crazy, but it can be hard for us to look away.

'How we perceive the news can really impact and make us feel the world is scary and unpredictable,' says Dr Emma Hepburn. 'Most people usually go around thinking that most people are decent, and the world is a fairly safe place, but if we're seeing these things all the time in the news, that can be quite challenging, and trying to integrate that into our sense of beliefs can be quite hard.'

Hide or seek?

So are we better making like the ostrich or the meerkat? 'Being curious is a really good thing, and wanting to find out and be informed is a really good thing,' says Dr Hepburn. 'Curiosity and learning is very, very positive for mental health overall, but if you're constantly looking for more information and it's having an impact on you, then it can become detrimental.