By the clinical team at Next Step Psychiatry • Lilburn, GA
What Is Doomscrolling?
Doomscrolling describes the compulsive consumption of negative news and social media content, often late at night or during periods of heightened anxiety. Despite the content making you feel worse, you continue scrolling because your brain is seeking certainty and closure about perceived threats. The term gained mainstream usage during the COVID-19 pandemic but describes a pattern that predates it. A 2022 study in Health Communication found that people who consumed more than 30 minutes of news per day experienced significantly higher rates of anxiety, depression, and stress compared to moderate consumers.
Why Your Brain Gets Hooked
Doomscrolling exploits several psychological mechanisms. Negativity bias means your brain is hardwired to pay more attention to threats than to positive information, an evolutionary survival trait. Variable ratio reinforcement, the same mechanism that makes slot machines addictive, keeps you scrolling because occasionally you find a reassuring piece of information among the negative content. The need for cognitive closure drives you to keep consuming information in an attempt to reduce uncertainty, even though the news cycle never provides true closure. Social media algorithms amplify the effect by serving increasingly alarming content because it generates more engagement.
Impact on Mental Health
The mental health consequences of chronic doomscrolling are well-documented. It increases cortisol levels and maintains the body in a state of chronic stress arousal. It worsens anxiety by reinforcing the perception that the world is dangerous and unpredictable. It contributes to learned helplessness and depression by presenting overwhelming problems with no clear solutions. It disrupts sleep by combining blue light exposure with emotionally activating content. It reduces attention span and makes it harder to concentrate on other tasks. For people already experiencing anxiety or depression, doomscrolling acts as a behavioral amplifier of their symptoms.
Breaking the Cycle
Breaking the doomscrolling habit requires both behavioral and cognitive strategies. Set specific time limits for news consumption, ideally no more than 15 to 20 minutes twice daily, and use a timer. Designate news-free hours, especially the first and last hour of the day. Replace the scrolling habit with a competing behavior like walking, calling a friend, or a brief mindfulness exercise. Turn off push notifications for news apps. Curate your feeds to include positive and solution-focused content alongside news. Practice recognizing the moment when information-seeking shifts from informative to compulsive. If you notice increased anxiety while scrolling, that is your signal to stop.
When News Anxiety Needs Treatment
If you find it impossible to stop consuming negative content despite wanting to, if news-related anxiety is disrupting your daily functioning, or if doomscrolling has become a coping mechanism for underlying anxiety or depression, professional help may be warranted. At Next Step Psychiatry, we can evaluate whether your relationship with news consumption is a symptom of an underlying anxiety disorder that would benefit from treatment. Sometimes what looks like a bad habit is actually anxiety driving compulsive behavior, and treating the anxiety resolves the behavioral pattern.
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This article is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult a qualified healthcare provider. If you or someone you know is in crisis, call 911 or the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.