Doomscrolling's Dark Side: How It Can Affect Your Mental Health

Scripps News speaks with clinical psychologist Dr. Shahrzad Jalali about the potential dangers of doomscrolling.

According to a recent survey, people spend hours each day on their cell phones. For example, Gen Xers spend almost 5 hours a day, while boomers spend more than 3 hours. This can have implications for our brains, health, and relationships.

"When you're exposed to a constant stream of alarming content, whether it's war, distress or political chaos, our nervous system does not just observe it, it experiences it," Jalali says. "So it cannot differentiate between reading the news or actually going to the phenomenon itself. And if our nervous system never gets a chance to calm down from this state, it can lead to emotional numbness, sleep issues, burnout and climate fatigue."

"Doomscrolling hijacks our brain's dopamine system. So the same thing happens as if we are involved in any other addiction, even if the content is negative, our brain starts chasing that unpredictability, thinking maybe the next will help us feel better, or understand better, or get more informed. The classic dopamine seeking behavior. So if you don't stop it, it can actually turn into an addiction for sure," Jalali says.

Dr. Jalali emphasizes the importance of being mindful of our phone use and recognizing when doomscrolling is affecting our mental health. She advises paying attention to signs such as feeling a baseline of tension, even when nothing is happening around you, or checking headlines first thing in the morning and last thing at night before bed.

Watch the full interview in the video above.