Doomscrolling: How to Overcome Addictive Habits
2024 was a year of challenging events, from wars and political unrest to climate change. And for those sensitive to the energies around them, 2024 was a year of internal challenges and self-realizations.
While many of us wanted to stay informed, watching historical events unfold in real-time, it contributed to our anxiety and stress levels. Suddenly, we are managing more than our daily stressors. We feel the weight of the world and self-realizations on our shoulders. Amid hopelessness, there’s a desire to have control over the circumstances and understand why everything is happening.
This can lead to doomscrolling, where you consume every article and video on a topic, even if it derails your mental health.
Overconsumption of social media and doomscrolling
Doomscrolling is a compulsive behavior in which you scan through a social media feed, searching for answers to soothe your fear of a situation. Some individuals routinely scroll online to stay up-to-date with the news, while others may go down a rabbit hole to maintain self-control and find answers to their internal challenges.
However, doomscrolling can have adverse effects on your mental health, leaving you feeling helpless, frustrated, and worried. It can also contribute to:
- Poor sleep
- Low motivation
- Social isolation
- Existential dread
Despite having poor implications on mental health, doomscrolling may be prevalent because social media stimulates the brain and releases dopamine, a chemical associated with pleasure.
In an analysis of social media in the U.S., Statista reveals that 40% of young adults between 18–22 years old and 37% of people between 23–38 years old feel addicted to social media. Participants ages 38–54 fall in the 26% category, while 21% of Americans between 55–64 believe they have a social media addiction.
Online content’s influence over our emotions
The internet has transformed how we navigate the world and our daily lives. There are more opportunities to absorb feelings from loved ones and strangers online. Whether the emotions are anger, sadness, or happiness, we may internalize them without realizing it.
In the process of gathering more details, we are also more susceptible to connecting with online communities that fuel our fire. Many people may feel obligated to participate, even when the context isn’t healthy or beneficial.
The more doom and gloom you witness, the more likely you will welcome it into your internal world. Fortunately, you have more power than you realize.
While you may not control job promotions or elections, you can control how you perceive, feel, and respond to new information.
The mind is a powerful tool. You are capable of managing your habits so you can build a life that supports how you want to be and feel.
Acknowledge the ways you numb yourself
Sometimes, when we experience information overload, we may turn to escapism for emotional relief over situations outside our control. Some forms of escapism include doomscrolling, alcohol, drugs, sex, gambling, and eating.
If you engage in escapism, consider if the coping mechanism is numbing you. Are you drinking or taking drugs excessively? Are you spending a disproportionate amount of time on social media?
Notice how you feel after engaging in these behaviors. Do they bring you joy and satisfaction or immediate gratification and regret? Waking up the next day feeling depleted may indicate that you’re numbing yourself too much.
Take this opportunity to listen to your body and mind and respond with intention.
Take small steps towards positive change
You are the curator of your life experience. You can make small changes in your daily life to promote healthier choices. For instance, if you struggle with doomscrolling, you can:
- Reduce your screen time.
- Use Do Not Disturb and Downtime mode.
- Unfollow accounts that negatively impact your emotions.
- Limit your news consumption.
- Reflect on toxic content and behaviors that tear you down.
- Improve your mood with self-care activities.
- Take a social media detox.
You can also practice self-hypnosis, meditation, affirmations, and visualizations. As you shift your habits, consider how you want to be and feel and visualize positive events unfolding in your life.
Empower yourself through hypnotherapy
Hypnotherapy is a powerful practice that can help you assess the cause of addicting habits and uncover the reasons behind your behaviors, which typically stem from a limiting belief. Once the limiting belief is discovered, we can transform it into a new powerful belief to help you have a new program running in your mind allowing you to move away from your addicting habits and behaviors.
When we engage in numbing and overconsumption, it may be because we feel compelled to. Asking yourself why you think, feel, or act a specific way is the first step towards transforming your mind.
From there, you can use hypnotherapy to:
- Explore the root cause of an issue.
- Address and transform limiting beliefs and blocks.
- Adjust your perspective to align with your desired outcomes.
- Cultivate a positive and powerful mindset.
- Reprogram your mind to achieve your goals effectively.
If you have an addiction to social media, drugs, alcohol, or anything else, schedule a virtual hypnotherapy session to discover valuable tools that can help you take charge of your mind.
