How To Stop Doomscrolling Once And For All

It always starts the same way – you’re just checking your phone one last time before bed, maybe replying to a message or two, then you have a quick scroll on TikTok. And suddenly, its 2am and you are five tragedies deep into your For You Page, and your chest feels heavy with reasons you can’t seem to explain.

That’s doomscrolling. The modern way we consume bad news and online drama like it’s oxygen, even when it makes us feel worse.

We say we are just keeping up to date with events across the world, but when do we draw the line on being informed without the feeling of impeding doom? Is it really keeping us informed – or just more anxious?

What is doomscrolling?

Doomscrolling is a buzzword that came from COVID but has stuck around with us for the last 5 years. It is when we spend excessive amounts of time scrolling our way through negative news stories and upsetting content of war, violence and catastrophes. The algorithm keeps bringing these stories to our screens, and once we see one negative story they just seem to keep coming and before long we are down a rabbit hole and we can’t seem to look away.

While we think we are staying informed, the endless amounts of bad news and sensational stories leave us feeling quite the opposite, as our anxiety and feelings of hopelessness bubble as we are filled with tense emotion rather than information.

@jimbrillon What is Doom Scrolling? #therapy #mentalhealthmatters #therapist #psychology #psychiatrist #mentalhealthawareness ♬ original sound – Orange County, CA Therapist

But we why do keep doing it?

If we know these feelings are good for us than what makes us keep going back for more – and is this not just a price we have to pay for being informed?

Our brains have wired us to think this way since the start of the social media era. However, before social media, information on news stories would only be 20-minute clips from the national broadcaster or a quick read in the newspaper. We would get all the important info that we need, before returning back to our lives, feeling informed but not having it take over our lives. Even major news stories that would have 24 hour coverage would eventually come to a halt.

But now, with 24/7 access to information, we cannot escape the negative news. So much so that we have fallen into a constant state of FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) from current affairs, instead of feeling FOMO of missing out on a girl’s night out. With news so easily available at our fingertips, we believe that we have to be informed on everything and be constantly up to date on the next piece of information.

According to Dr. Craig Sawchuk and the Mayo Clinic, our brains are naturally wired towards threat, leaving us to be on alert for protection and safety. However, this has alert in our brain has started to backfire, as it sends our minds into a constant state of unrest.

With each scroll, we get small dopamine hit even when the content we are watching is tragic. This means that we go looking for more content, especially as our anxiety levels begin to rise and we are searching for that feeling of closure that we never get. We then enter a cycle as we scroll, try to sleep and block out the news… only to scroll again leading us back into the same cycle.

Staying informed is important – but you need to know your limit!

Staying informed about these news events is extremely important – in today’s world there is no excuse to turn a blind eye at things. To create a better world for now and our future we need to be informed – but not at the level we are at now.

Consuming news stories from around at home and around the world should have you feeling some emotion but not to the point where you feel hopeless, anxious and begin to live in a constant state of fear – that does more harm than good! I’m sure we can all recall a time where we scrolled through negative news so much that it completely affected our mood and how we perceive the world.

Things can also take a turn when we begin to start feeling numb to all the stories we see. With more and more tragic content appearing on our phones, we begin to lose all emotion of empathy and forget to understand that these issues are major problems happening to real people.

How to stop the doom scroll

To stop all these feelings from happening, we have to limit the amount we consume – a lot easier said than done. We should never totally cut information from our lives, but we should try and cut down on the level we are seeing the sensational stories that take away from the real issues.

Some ways to try and cut back on the doom scrolling:

• Limit your screen time on certain apps – this will be a cut off time for all your doom scrolling, meaning you can still access the information, but not as much as normal, and will put a stop to the endless swipe
• Only follow 2 reliable news outlets: by following only two news outlets, you can still get access to information, but you know it’s factual and reliable and reduces the amount of inaccurate and fearful stories
• Listen to a non-news related podcast or call a friend: sometimes you do just need to switch off from the information, and that’s not a bad thing and you shouldn’t feel guilty! Putting on a podcast or calling a friend can distract you from the negative stories and allow your brain to reset so you can go back and take in the important parts of the major news stories

We should always be informed about these issues but letting our brains go to a place that’s full of fear is never good for any of us.

Keep an open mind, and don’t feel guilty about turning off your phone for a while. You can always catch up on the important stuff later.