Is there a link between doomscrolling and ADHD? Is it worse for people with ADHD? Read this blog to find the answers to your burning questions.
Doomscrolling and ADHD can do hang-in-hand for many people, and it seems to be becoming increasingly common as a whole. This behaviour can have a negative impact on your mental health, and can make day-to-day life more challenging due to impulsive checking and scrolling that takes away productivity and well-being.
At the Brain Workshop, we are dedicated to helping carers and people with ADHD navigate the world and learn about neurodivergence. From helping you understand possible early signs of ADHD in children and debunking ADHD myths, to helping you manage ADHD in the workplace and support in schools and at home.
What Is Doomscrolling, and Why Does It Happen?
The term doomscrolling refers to when you spend a lot of time consuming negative news online. Some people may feel like they need to, and they cannot tear themselves away from the behaviour, or tell themselves that they are doing it ‘just to stay informed’, but it can become a habit that can make you feel stuck in a cycle of negativity.
According to professionals like Dr. Albers, doomscrolling can become a “mindless habit”, where you “might not even be aware you’re doing it” as it becomes second nature. It means that as soon as you have some time, you can start to subconsciously pick up your phone and begin scrolling.
In many cases, this behaviour reflects the way people act when depressed. As humans, we will look for information that will confirm our feelings and concerns, so if you are feeling negative or are in a bad mental space, doomscrolling will allow you to read negative news from around the world and confirm how you feel, creating a cycle that can be difficult to get out of.
Why is Doomscrolling so Bad?
Doomscrolling can reinforce catastrophising thinking, worsen anxiety and depression, and make your mental health worse overall due to constant bad news, worry, and even fear.
Doomscrolling can make catastrophising easier and more likely. It can become the go-to for many people, which can severely impact mental health and mental well-being, as your mind will jump to the worst possible conclusion in any given scenario.
How ADHD Increases the Risk of Doomscrolling and Brain Rot
Doomscrolling can be especially harmful for individuals with ADHD due to difficulties with impulse control and hyperfocus, leading to prolonged screen time and mental exhaustion.
Brain rot, on the other hand, is an informal term that refers to the cognitive decline and mental exhaustion that could be the result of excessive screen time, but it can also be used to mean online content that is low quality, which contributes to concentration difficulty, memory loss, difficulty making decisions, and more.
Dopamine deficiency results in the brain’s need for constant stimulation, and doomscrolling can be the perfect place for that stimulation. When we constantly read about awful news, shocking headlines, and rabbit-hole conspiracies, we get a hit of dopamine (the brain’s feel-good chemical) as a reward for the behaviour. Pair that with poor self-regulation and impulsivity that many people with ADHD have and time blindness, the picture comes together for why doomscrolling and ADHD go hand-in-hand and bat off one another for the worst.
It’s so easy for hours to disappear when you start to hyperfocus on bad news after bad news, and while you might feel like you have only been scrolling for five minutes, three hours might have passed. This can make meeting school, work, or personal targets that much more difficult, it can make you feel lazy, and this in itself can worsen your mental health.
5 ways ADHD makes doomscrolling worse:
- Time blindness can result in hours of doomscrolling passing when it feels like minutes
- Dopamine-seeking behaviours like doomscrolling reward the brain for the activity
- Hyperfocus can make you seek out bad news and doomscroll repeatedly
- Lack of self-regulation means that even if you know it’s bad for you, stopping the behaviour can be incredibly difficult
- Impulsivity can make you pick your phone up and start mindless doomscrolling without making a conscious decision to do so
What Are the Cognitive Effects of Excessive Scrolling on ADHD Brains?
The cognitive effects of doomscrolling and ADHD can result in increased difficulty completing tasks, worsened focus, increased distractibility, feeling overwhelmed, increased anxiety, more difficulty with regulation, and more.
Due to how ADHD brains are wired, doomscrolling can become much like an addiction, where you feel the need to participate in the activity to get your hit of dopamine that makes you feel good. However, doing this can worsen ADHD symptoms as a whole, as well as worsen anxiety, depression, and overall mental well-being because of the constant bad news and time that doomscrolling can take up, which means that you can miss out on achieving your own targets and fall behind on important things – including your relationships.
Breaking the Cycle: Strategies to Reduce Doomscrolling
Strategies to reduce doomscrolling can include localising your phone-checking and scrolling, being mindful of how you feel when scrolling, and being conscious about checking social media. To help with these things, you could also learn more about how protein helps with ADHD focus, and drinks to avoid if you have ADHD which could make symptoms like a short attention span worse, such as energy drinks and coffee.
The pairing of doomscrolling and ADHD can be incredibly difficult to fight and challenge, so let’s look at these strategies in a bit more detail below.
Localise Your Phone-Checking and Doomscrolling Behaviour
Localising a behaviour means that you limit doing that behaviour at set places or times (or both) to limit it and take back control. Decide how and where you will get your news, and stick to it so that your mind can focus.
To localise doomscrolling behaviour, you could:
- Put your phone in another room or away from your desk
- Set time limits for scrolling (this can be a daily limit, hourly limit, whatever works for you)
- Carefully curate your feeds to avoid excessive amounts of bad news (this is easily done on apps like TikTok)
Be Mindful of How You Feel When Scrolling
You will become more stressed and depressed when you are constantly taking in negative news, so you need to be mindful or when you start to reach this point and take action. If you start to feel anxious, put your phone away or seek out good news or something more relaxing.
Some signs to look out for might include:
- Stiff neck
- Tense shoulders
- Stinging eyes
- Feelings of dread
- Feelings of anxiety
- Feelings of sadness
- Racing heart
- Fast breathing
Check Phones and Social Media Consciously – Not Compulsively
Make sure that when you pick up your phone, you are doing it consciously rather than impulsively. You might be surprised by how often you subconsciously reach for your device without a conscious reason as to why – and more often than not open social media and start scrolling.
Question this, and stop this behaviour whenever you notice it. Practice thought stopping (a cognitive behavioural technique), and imagine a red stop sign. According to Dr. Albers, the “power of imagination can help curb your thinking”.
How to Train Your Brain for Healthier Digital Habits
To train your brain for healthier digital habits, you should slow down your scrolling, set boundaries, and always prioritise real-life things around you, including your relationships and friends, but also where you live and everything that it has to offer.
Three things that you can do to train your brain for healthier digital habits include:
- Slow down your scrolling – take a breath, and slow down. Limit the number of times you scroll, and read things in-depth rather than skim reading to slow down
- Set boundaries for yourself – set timers, and allow yourself to go without doomscrolling or even being on your phone at certain locations like restaurants, dinnertime, or wherever else makes sense for you
- Prioritise the real-life things around you – make sure you prioritise the people and things around you, and remind yourself that you live in the real world – not online.
How The Brain Workshop Supports ADHD and Digital Well-Being
Struggling with doomscrolling and ADHD and focus issues? Contact The Brain Workshop today for expert strategies to help manage ADHD and build healthier screen habits.
If you would like to learn more or get tested for ADHD, please don’t hesitate to learn more about us at the Brain Workshop, meet our team, check out events, or even read our FAQ. Or, if you would like to do some extra reading, find out if Elon Musk has ADHD, if ADHD can develop later in life, and if people with ADHD need more sleep.
