Table of ContentsView AllTable of ContentsHow to Know When You’re DoomscrollingWho Is Most Likely to Doomscroll?Why Do People Doomscroll Even Though It Harms Their Mental Health?How Doomscrolling Negatively Impacts Your Mental HealthHow to Stop Doomscrolling

Table of ContentsView All

View All

Table of Contents

How to Know When You’re Doomscrolling

Who Is Most Likely to Doomscroll?

Why Do People Doomscroll Even Though It Harms Their Mental Health?

How Doomscrolling Negatively Impacts Your Mental Health

How to Stop Doomscrolling

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According to psychotherapist and coachTess Brigham, MFT, doomscrolling is mindlessly scrolling through negative news articles, social media posts, or other content-sharing platforms.

Essentially, it’s reading one negative story after another. One Canadian study has even called this phenomenon “social media panic.”

Although it may seem as if 2020 and all its hurdles (the COVID-19 pandemic, political tensions, and social injustice, to name a few) inspired the term “doomscrolling,” it actually likely sprung up on Twitter in 2018, and has been a cultural term ever since.

If you’ve spent several minutes or perhaps even hours engrossed in reading stories or posts online—and they tend to be of the distressing variety—it’s likely that you’ve spent your time doomscrolling.

Tess Brigham, MFT

Brigham says that those who struggle with anxiety oranxiety-related disorders(these can include panic disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder [PTSD], obsessive-compulsive disorder [OCD], and social anxiety disorder) are especially prone to doom scroll because “anxiety is about control or the lack of control.”

“The more anxious we feel, the more we try and control the situations and people around us," says Brigham. “Being informed seems like a good way to control what’s happening around us, but it actually just creates more anxiety and fear.”

If deep down it’s affecting our mental health in a negative way, why do we continue to doom scroll?

“People doom scroll for many different reasons,” Brigham says. “The main reason is as a way of feeling in control in a world that feels so out of control all the time.”

She points to a feeling of, “If I know what’s happening, I can be better prepared when things get bad,” as a reason for doomscrolling. The fear is that something terrible might happen that you don’t see coming; doomscrolling seems to be an effective way to stay prepared.

Daily doomscrolling isn’t a wise idea if you’re striving for good mental health. “It’s bad for your mental health because there is no real benefit to doomscrolling,” Brigham notes. “It only makes you more anxious and paranoid about the world around you.”

Brigham also says that doomscrolling robs you of living in thepresent moment, since it’s a “mindless” activity.

Doomscrolling prevents you from paying attention to your thoughts and feelings, which is additionally detrimental to mental health. And, you may not even be fully conscious of how much it’s impacting you.

“While you’re scrolling through all these articles,” she says, “you may not be aware of how all of this negative information is affecting your psyche, but once you close your eyes and try and go to bed, your mind is spinning with terrible images.”

How ‘Doomscrolling’ Impacts Your Mental Health—and How to Stop

As tempting as it is to consistently consume negative news stories, there are ways to turn scrolling into a positive experience. “One way to make it positive is to only visit sites you trust to report on events in a fair manner,” Brigham says.

If you’ve found yourself in a swirling vortex of doomscrolling that takes place multiple times a day, it’s time to do a mental health check-in and apply Brigham’s tips and tricks so you won’t go down the rabbit hole.

Tips to Prevent Doomscrolling

How to Do a Digital Detox

1 SourceVerywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Depoux A, Martin S, Karafillakis E, Preet R, Wilder-Smith A, Larson H.The pandemic of social media panic travels faster than the COVID-19 outbreak.J Travel Med.2020;27(3). doi:10.1093/jtm/taaa031

1 Source

Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Depoux A, Martin S, Karafillakis E, Preet R, Wilder-Smith A, Larson H.The pandemic of social media panic travels faster than the COVID-19 outbreak.J Travel Med.2020;27(3). doi:10.1093/jtm/taaa031

Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.

Depoux A, Martin S, Karafillakis E, Preet R, Wilder-Smith A, Larson H.The pandemic of social media panic travels faster than the COVID-19 outbreak.J Travel Med.2020;27(3). doi:10.1093/jtm/taaa031

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