You pick up your phone to make a call, check notifications, or something else, but it ends up in infinite scrolling. And the interesting thing is, it’s not sports, not entertainment, and not inspirational content, but sad, distressing content influenced by wars, disasters, political conflict, crime, health scares, or any unpleasant event. Sounds familiar? If it is, then it’s called doomscrolling, and if you’re stuck in this habit, you are not alone; it’s common, especially during stressful events. However, it can be severe, leading to mental health disorders.
Today’s guide explains what doomscrolling does to dopamine, which is why scrolling feels so addictive, and what it does to your brain, increasing your vulnerability to being diagnosed with mental conditions.
Key Takeaways
- Doomscrolling is an excessive consumption of negative, distressing, or disturbing content
- Doomscrolling creates a dopamine loop that makes scrolling feel harder to stop
- Continuous negative content activates the amygdala, causing anxiety, stress, low concentration and memory issues
- Endless scrolling can also affect mental health, as people who scroll frequently reported a higher level of existential anxiety
What is Doomscrolling?
Doomscrolling is defined as the excessive consumption of distressing content. It could be endless scrolling on social media or browsing news sites to read sad, threatening, or discomforting news.It affects a person emotionally, depending on the nature of the content; for example, disturbing content can cause sadness while conflicting content can bring feelings of anger and exhaustion.
Can doomscrolling Be Positive?
No. Doomscrolling is negative, not positive, except that it keeps you informed.Doomscrolling is defined as consuming upsetting or threatening content online through social media and resources available on the web that may majorly harm mental health.
How Do You Know If You’re Doomscrolling?
Two things in doomscrolling define addiction to it: long screen time and excessive negative content consumption. If you find it hard to stop scrolling or browsing the web, apps, or forums on any conflict or news, that’s a sign you are doomscrolling.
Doomscrolling is a habit of compulsively scrolling, and most people find it tough to break; it often feels uncomfortable too, even when knowing it’s harming mental health. To figure out whether your time spent on online media is affecting your psychological health, the American Brain Foundation defines a self-observational technique. It includes a pause every 5 to 10 minutes during screen time to ask yourself: “How do I feel right now?” If you feel more anxious or your feelings intensify each time you check, it is a sign that it affects your mental wellness.
So, the question here is: why is doomscrolling so addictive? As a last phone check before sleep reshapes into an endless loop of negative reinforcement. Let’s answer it:
What Does Doomscrolling Do To Dopamine? Scrolling Addiction
To understand it, you first need to know about dopamine. Dopamine is an essential chemical, or a “feel-good” hormone.This means it is released when our brain finds something engaging and interesting. This neurotransmitter itself is responsible for feelings of reward, motivation, and attention management. So, when we find something that’s interesting, it is released and drives the desire to stick with what feels good, repeat it, or want more.
Here’s how doomscrolling causes scroll addiction:
1. The Dopamine Loop
That’s exactly where the loop starts. When we scroll or browse content that feels interesting and grabs our attention, like breaking news, dopamine is released. But the reality of social content is that every post, reel, or text feels rewarding, right? So, it doesn’t mean dopamine release will stop. Instead, the possibility of finding something good is enough to fire dopamine levels in the brain.
2. Anticipation without Satisfaction
At this point, our brain enters the possibility loop, called “anticipation without satisfaction”. Here, you keep scrolling not because every post or short video feels pleasing to you, but because the feeling of expectation or eagerness, “maybe the next post will matter or be important”, leads you to continuous swiping of the screen.
3. Chronic Stress & Brain Drain
Swiping through endless digital information influenced by negative events that are deeply connected to our emotions in any way, sadness, exhaustion, frustration, or anger, activates the brain’s alert system, called the ” amygdala.”
The amygdala works as an alarm system. It continuously scans for danger through sensory information, including what we see and what we hear. Continuously watching or listening to negative content activates it. This puts the body into fight-or-flight mode, causing an overflow of stress hormones, such as cortisol and adrenaline. That means chronic stress, more anxiety, and doomscrolling-related cognitive decline, including poor focus and memory.
Here, it’s worth clarifying one concern because most people searching for studies and other resources ask: does phone scrolling make you dumber? Well, it doesn’t make you dumber or lower your IQ directly. But it impacts your brain’s performance and causes cognitive decline, as discussed, which makes you feel or act like that.
4. The Learned Habit
At stage 4, the cycle we have discussed in the previous 3 stages repeats. Feeling stressed, overwhelmed, or depressed leads you towards your phone. This is because scrolling social media gives a little distraction and spikes dopamine, which initially feels good, despite the worse effects of mindless scrolling on mental health. This is very true for people with ADHD, because experiencing ADHD causes lower dopamine levels. The brain requires dopamine, and browsing social media is one of the effortless ways to get a little spike of it.
Over time, your brain learns, “When I’m stressed or bored, scrolling might help,” treating endless scrolling as a go‑to way to cope with stress and find relief, even though it’s not; instead, it’s actually a problem itself.
That’s how doomscrolling affects dopamine, making screen swipes feel easier and more important than stopping. Now, it’s important to understand its impact on mental health.
How Doomscrolling Impacts Mental Health?
Doomscrollers may notice or experience significant challenges in their mental health that go far beyond being sad; instead, it may contribute to chronic mental illnesses, including depression, anxiety, disruption of sleep patterns, and more. Here is how it affects your mental health:
Increased Anxiety & Depression
Studies show that doomscrollers often experience high anxiety and depression. Spending hours consuming distressing and upsetting content increases psychological distress and uneasiness.
According to a study in Computers in Human Behavior Reports 2024 involving 800 participants, it was found that people who reported frequent doomscrolling also reported a higher level of existential anxiety. Existential anxiety is a specific type of anxiety that makes a person feel dread, uneasy, or panicked when confronted with real truths.
Cognitive Fatigue
Repetitive negative content, in text form or visuals, can cause a major decline in a person’s cognitive functioning. Remaining stressed and anxious most of the day lowers the brain’s ability to concentrate and pay attention.
Sleep Issues
Late-night scrolling can cause severe sleep challenges. People with a habit of persistent consumption of alarming content often experience sleeplessness and daytime fatigue.
Despite these mental challenges, most people feel bad after doomscrolling due to activation of the amygdala and a cognitive drop, which is an emotional reaction, not a mental condition.
Doomscrolling Link with ADHD & OCD
Moreover, doomscrolling doesn’t directly cause mental disorders, like ADHD and OCD. However, people who are already experiencing these conditions may develop a severe compulsive behavior that feels worse.
If you want to know the impact of screen time on your child’s mental health, read our detailed guide on it. It explains everything parents should know, including the effects on mental health and behavior, along with guidance to protect them.
How To Stop Doomscrolling?
According to numerous reports, the average American screen time is approximately 7 hours per day (stable since 2021). Social media accounts for 1 hour 27 minutes, while watching TV/videos consumes 3 hours 16 minutes. So, there are several effective ways to stop or control scrolling on your phone that help reduce scroll time and protect you from mental drain. Here’s what may help:
- Try to keep yourself away from your phone and turn on the screen time tracker. It helps you know what consumes more time.
- Set a time preference for news and social media. You don’t need to cut them off from your life completely; what really matters is a healthy schedule.
- Make your phone’s homepage free of tempting apps and turn off unnecessary notifications. It helps you stay less distracted from daily life priorities due to the repeated impulse to check your phone.
- When you scroll through social media or web content, swipe for 5 to 10 minutes. Then put down your phone and engage in daily activities, or stand up and step outside; even deep breathing might be helpful.
How Can Therapy Help Prevent Doomscrolling?
Therapies such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) help avoid consistent doomscrolling. They help you control your thoughts and set clear boundaries for consuming social media content. Also, they control emotional distress caused by persistent scrolling at night or most of the time during the day. They can also be beneficial in controlling anxiety, depression, and other emotional impacts of doomscrolling to improve mental health.
Get Personalized Support at BPWIMH to Avoid Doomscrolling!
Brainpower Wellness Institute provides personalized mental and emotional support to individuals dealing with doomscrolling. Our compassionate care through therapies, medication, and counseling helps people break the patterns of endless scrolling and improves their mental health. Whether doomscrolling makes you anxious or a condition like ADHD or OCD makes you addicted to it, we offer holistic treatment to improve mental wellness.
BPWIMH is a reliable source for mental health care and an in-network partner of numerous insurance companies. If you are looking for a mental health provider in California who is accepting insurance, get in touch with us today. We provide in-person treatment in Long Beach, Corona, Orange, Yorba Linda, and several other locations, and also offer telepsychiatric services for remote care.
