Doomscrolling And Mental Health: Why Bad News Can Be So Hard To Stop Reading

Doomscrolling is the habit of compulsively scrolling through negative news or distressing social media content, even when it leaves you feeling anxious, overwhelmed, or unable to stop. 

It can be hard to break doomscrolling because your brain is wired to notice potential threats, and news and social media platforms are designed to keep you engaged. 

What is doomscrolling?

Doomscrolling is the compulsive habit of going through social media feeds or news pages in order to consume negative content or distressing news. While you may surf the feeds at any time, doomscrolling before bed or right when you wake up in the morning is common. 

Many people turn to doomscrolling during uncertain times, such as global conflicts and wars, local emergencies, financial instability, or public health scares.

In fact, the term “doomscrolling” became popular during the COVID-19 pandemic when people were frequently searching for updates about the latest situation.

Examples of doomscrolling include:

• Reading breaking news late at night
• Refreshing social media feeds during a crisis
• Checking comment threads repeatedly for updates
• Watching one distressing video after another
• Searching for more updates even after feeling overwhelmed

Staying informed is one thing, but doomscrolling news feeds for negative news and the latest headlines may be more about the emotions than the information. 

Actively seeking out breaking or distressing news may quickly become a pattern that may affect your mental health. And doomscrolling generally doesn’t make you feel any more prepared or in control when it comes to receiving negative news. 

Why can doomscrolling be so hard to stop?

Many people may get into the habit of doomscrolling because they believe it is a way that they may stay in control by searching for certainty and answers. However, it's not so helpful if you end up going from one concerning headline to another without getting the clarity that you’re looking for. Even when you’re looking for reassurance, you're likely to end up feeling worse about the situation at hand.

Doomscrolling anxiety isn’t your fault. 

News and social media platforms make it hard to stop scrolling by using a few different tactics. Publishing emotionally charged or sensational headlines keeps readers hooked and looking for more. Apps have algorithms that learn how you browse, so they push and suggest content that is similar to what you’re consuming. 

Apps also have features like push notifications, autoplay, and For You pages that make it easy to keep watching. Not only that, but you may infinitely keep scrolling without ever running out of content.

• The effect of doomscrolling is that you may fall into a loop: 
• You feel worried, so you check for news updates. 
• You become briefly informed, but also more distressed. 
• As your anxiety and urgency increase, you start the cycle all over again. 

This may make you feel temporarily productive, but you end up more overwhelmed than when you started. But the habit is understandable, especially during stressful events.

Doomscrolling vs. staying informed

Intentional news scrolling is limited in the time it takes out of your day. It may involve checking trusted sources at planned times and reading enough to understand what’s happening, but not enough to trigger social media anxiety or news anxiety. You take action when appropriate and may stop when the information you’re seeing no longer feels helpful or useful.

Doomscrolling may involve checking the feeds without a clear purpose. It may often occur late at night, which makes it easy to lose track of time. You may realize that you’re reading content that is making you feel anxious or panicked, but you can’t stop. You may feel worse, but you continue scrolling anyway. 

Again, this is not your fault. Our brains are trained to stay alert to threats, and media apps are designed to make it difficult to put the phone down.

How can doomscrolling affect mental health?

Research suggests there may be a link between doomscrolling and mental health, and people may experience different symptoms from it. Doomscrolling doesn’t affect everyone the same and may vary from person to person. Factors that may play into how doomscrolling impacts you include the content you’re consuming, how much time you’re spending, and your existing stress levels.

Emotional effects of doomscrolling

Emotional effects of doomscrolling depression or anxiety may include:

• Anxiety
• Stress
• Irritability
• Sadness
• Helplessness
• Emotional exhaustion
• Difficulty feeling present

Cognitive effects of doomscrolling

Potential cognitive effects may include:

• Racing thoughts
• Trouble focusing
• Feeling mentally overloaded
• Difficulty shifting attention away from the news

Physical and behavioral effects of doomscrolling

Physical or behavioral effects are also possible and may include:

• Trouble sleeping
• Tension
• Headaches
• Fatigue
• Avoiding responsibilities
• Less time for movement, hobbies, or connection

Doomscrolling before bed may interfere with sleep habits, especially when upsetting content makes it harder to relax. 

As it often happens on social platforms, it’s helpful to understand the broader connection between social media and mental health. Current research is ongoing to better understand the psychological distress, stress, anxiety, and depressive symptoms related to doomscrolling. 

Why doomscrolling before bed can feel worse

Scrolling in bed when your energy is low may feel easy. You have fewer outside distractions, you have time to keep scrolling, and you don't get incoming notifications to pull your attention away. 

However, research suggests this may lead to disrupted sleep routines, as you may find it harder to relax while reading upsetting news. Not getting enough sleep may make stress and anxiety harder to manage the next morning, which continues the doomscrolling cycle.

If you feel like giving up on news scrolling is unrealistic, try to change the time of day that you do it. Move it up to earlier in the evening, and set a cut-off time so that you’re not tempted to bring your phone to bed.

How can you stop doomscrolling?

All of this information may leave you wondering how to stop doomscrolling. 

As with any habit, you’ll want to focus on reducing it, not perfectly controlling it. Start by identifying when doomscrolling starts and any emotional triggers that come with it. This may help you notice when you’re tempted to reach for your phone.

Next, focus on creating healthy social media habits:

• Set windows for when you’re allowed to check, and try to stick to a time limit. 
• Turn off any non-essential notifications and remove news or social media apps from your home screen. 
• Unfollow any accounts that trigger anxiety and distress, and shift to focusing on reliable news sources that you may check when the time is right.

Keep in mind that you don’t need to completely ignore current events to protect your mental health. Check in once in a while, but try to start to recognize when you start to feel overwhelmed. 

The goal is to stay informed without becoming emotionally flooded.

A simple 5-minute reset after doomscrolling

Grounding and mindfulness exercises may help bring attention back to the present moment after reading distressing news. Here are some steps you may follow to re-center and be in the moment:

• Put the phone down or place it across the room
• Take five slow breaths
• Name five things you can see
• Relax your shoulders and jaw
• Drink water
• Write down one thing you can control
• Do one offline action, such as washing a dish or stepping outside

These simple resets may help you break the doomscroll loop and bring you back to the present moment. 

When might therapy help with doomscrolling and anxiety?

If doomscrolling is contributing to ongoing stress, anxiety, or low mood, therapy may offer flexible access to licensed mental health support. You may want to consider getting support if you recognize any of the following:

• Feeling unable to stop checking despite wanting to
• Losing sleep because of the news or social media
• feeling persistently anxious, sad, irritable, emotionally drained, or stuck
• Avoiding responsibilities because of scrolling
• Feeling emotionally numb or drained
• Using news consumption to avoid difficult emotions

Seeking help for doomscrolling

A licensed therapist may help you identify your triggers and set realistic boundaries so that you may try to reduce your screen time. They may teach you coping skills to help you manage feelings of anxiety while managing your uncertainty about future events. 

If doomscrolling is disrupting your sleep or making anxiety harder to manage, online therapy may help. 

Platforms such as BetterHelp, allow you to connect with a licensed therapist from home, without having to go into an office. You can use video, text, and in-app messaging to reach out to your therapist. 

Flexible scheduling means support may fit into your routine, even when that routine feels overwhelming. BetterHelp accepts insurance for online therapy through major insurance plans; if your therapist is in-network, you may pay a copay per session rather than the full session rate. 

Insurance availability, coverage, and cost may vary by state, plan, provider network, therapist availability, and deductible status. Weekly cost is based on your location, source, preferences, therapist availability, and any applicable discounts or promotions.

When using insurance, certain BetterHelp features may be limited or unavailable, including chat-based sessions, groups/classes, and select self-help tools.