They Were Right, It Is The Phones: The Effects of Doomscrolling on Mental Health

What Doomscrolling Actually Does to Your Brain

The term “doomscrolling” emerged in 2020 during the pandemic, but the behaviour has evolved far beyond tracking COVID death counts. Medical News Today defines it as spending excessive time-consuming large quantities of content, particularly negative content that makes you feel sad, anxious, or angry (Medical News Today, 2025).

Here’s what makes it insidious: it’s not just about reading bad news. You’re also scrolling through breakup announcements, reading relationship advice for issues you don’t face, watching influencers whose sole purpose appears to be making you feel inadequate, and consuming endless streams of content about problems everywhere, constantly.

Cleveland Clinic psychologist Susan Albers describes the psychological trap: “When we’re depressed, we often seek information that confirms how we feel. Doomscrolling operates with the same mindset: If you’re feeling negative, then reading negative news only reconfirms how you should be feeling bad” (Cleveland Clinic, 2024).

It becomes a feedback loop. You feel bad, so you scroll. Scrolling makes you feel worse. Feeling worse makes you scroll more. Your brain gets stuck in a pattern it can’t break.

The Physical Damage You Can’t See

Harvard Medical School researchers documented the physical symptoms of doomscrolling, and they’re more severe than you’d expect: headaches, muscle tension, neck and shoulder pain, nausea, disrupted sleep, and even elevated blood pressure (Harvard Health, 2024).

Dr. Aditi Nerurkar at Harvard describes what she calls “popcorn brain” when you spend so much time online that your brain becomes overstimulated and can’t focus on anything else. One study found that 70% of people check social media from bed, and the more time they spend doing it, the harder it becomes to fall asleep (Cleveland Clinic, 2024).

Think about that. You’re lying in bed, trying to relax, and instead you’re feeding your brain a continuous stream of cortisol the stress hormone. No wonder you can’t sleep.

Women face particular vulnerability. Dr. Richard Mollica, director of the Harvard Program in Refugee Trauma, notes that women are hit harder because “most violent media is about hurting women and children.” People who’ve experienced trauma doomscroll out of fear, wanting to “get a handle on what’s going on” to calm anxiety. But the opposite happens doomscrolling becomes a trigger (Harvard Health, 2024).

Why You Can’t Just Stop

Understanding why doomscrolling is so hard to quit requires understanding platform design. Social media companies know exactly what they’re doing.

A 2025 survey found that 31% of American adults doomscroll daily. Among millennials, it’s 46%. For Gen Z, it jumps to 51% (Medium, 2025). This isn’t accidental. Platforms use algorithmic systems that track what captures your attention and serve you more of it, regardless of whether it’s good for you.

Better Mind, a mental health resource, explains that doomscrolling can spiral into what feels like addiction: “You may experience intense urges, and once you start scrolling, it isn’t easy to stop” (Better Mind, 2025). The platform’s infinite scroll and autoplay features eliminate natural stopping points. You lose track of time. Hours vanish.

The algorithms prioritise content with high emotional engagement, usually sensational or polarising material. Platforms don’t care if that engagement comes from joy or rage or despair. They just care that you’re engaged.

The Mental Health Crisis Hidden in Plain Sight

Cleveland Clinic’s Dr. Gregory Borland warns that doomscrolling fuels stress, anxiety, and disrupts sleep (Cleveland Clinic Newsroom, 2025). But the damage runs deeper than that.

Harvard research links doomscrolling to worse mental well-being, lower life satisfaction, and something called “existential anxiety”, a feeling of dread that arises when you confront the limitations of your existence (Harvard Health, 2024). Employees who doomscroll at work become less engaged with their jobs. The distraction isn’t just momentary it fundamentally changes how your brain processes information and makes decisions.

Medical research shows doomscrolling is particularly associated with neuroticism, sensation-seeking, and negativity bias. It leads to lower life satisfaction, social media addiction, emotional dysregulation, and interference with building successful relationships (Better Mind, 2025).

Here’s a phenomenon Cleveland Clinic calls “crazymaking”: you see one source saying something, then immediately scroll to another source saying the complete opposite. Your brain doesn’t know how to reconcile the two. “Your mind doesn’t know how to reconcile the two,” Dr. Albers explains. The cognitive dissonance itself becomes a source of stress (Cleveland Clinic, 2024).

What Actually Works (And It’s Simpler Than You Think)

Harvard’s advice is refreshingly straightforward: keep your phone off your nightstand. Not out of the bedroom, just out of easy reach. Dr. Nerurkar calls it “the biggest game changer for your stress from doomscrolling.” Wake up to light and your partner instead of your phone. Create a buffer before the stress response kicks in (Harvard Health, 2024).

Cleveland Clinic’s Dr. Borland recommends something radical: check in with yourself. “As you begin scrolling, are you noticing you’re getting a headache, muscle tension or just not feeling well? It’s important to recognise when your body is trying to communicate something to you” (Cleveland Clinic Newsroom, 2025).

Set your phone to grayscale. The visual change makes scrolling less enticing by removing the color saturation designed to capture your attention. Don’t bring your phone to dinner. Put it in a drawer during work hours, at least 10 feet away from where you sit (Harvard Health, 2024).

Medical News Today suggests more drastic measures if needed: delete news apps entirely. Unfollow accounts that consistently trigger doomscrolling. Ask friends and family to remind you to take breaks. Consider a complete break from technology if nothing else works (Medical News Today, 2025).

The Truth They Don’t Want You to Know

Here’s what the platforms will never tell you: the content isn’t curated for your benefit. It’s curated to keep you scrolling. Every algorithm adjustment, every feature update, every design choice is made to maximise engagement, not your wellbeing.

And it’s working. You know it’s working because you can’t stop, even when you know it’s hurting you.

The question isn’t whether doomscrolling is bad for you. The question is whether you’re going to keep letting an algorithm decide how you spend your time and how you feel about your life.

References

Better Mind. (2025, September 10). What is doomscrolling? https://www.bettermind.com/mental-health/doomscrolling/

Cleveland Clinic. (2024, May 6). What doomscrolling is and how to stop. https://health.clevelandclinic.org/everything-you-need-to-know-about-doomscrolling-and-how-to-avoid-it

Cleveland Clinic Newsroom. (2025, October 24). Why you should avoid doomscrolling. https://newsroom.clevelandclinic.org/2025/10/24/why-you-should-avoid-doomscrolling

Harvard Health. (2024, September 1). Doomscrolling dangers. https://www.health.harvard.edu/mind-and-mood/doomscrolling-dangers

Medical News Today. (2025, May 19). Doomscrolling: Definition, health effects, and more. https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/doomscrolling

Medium. (2025, January 27). Doom scrolling: The digital spiral we can’t escape. https://medium.com/fidutam/doom-scrolling-the-digital-spiral-we-cant-escape-6672d4c49f2b