I am a doomscroller, are you?

[doomscrollingthedayaway]

constantly checking news stories, wasting my time rereading the same bad news in different formats on different sites, compelled to open the saddest, angriest MN threads, always just going to look at just one more, while the day vanishes like sand in an hour glass, and I end up, nothing achieved, unsatisfied and wound up. I need to break this terrible habit of wearing myself out on the bad stuff on Mumsnet and other social media instead of getting on with life...

Me too 😫 I’d like to stop doom scrolling too as I’m wasting hours and hours every day!

Watching this thread with interest!

And I have lost yet another hour of my life since I started this thread! Stepping away NOW - not returning until I HAVE ACHIEVED SOMETHING!!!!

Yes I am, and I don’t know how to stop.

I'm terrible for this, at least 2-3 hours every night, finishing an hour or more after I should be asleep. It's like I put my brain in neutral rather than turning off the engine and I don't know why.

Yes, me. I have struggled with this for years. I got diagnosed a few years ago with ADHD and when I eventually went on medication I stopped doom scrolling (well, mostly) because suddenly it FELT as boring as it actually is

However, this does not stop me in the evening as the medication wears off. But I already had some coping strategies for evenings.

My theory is it's the domapine effect - all these sites hook you in with actions that stimulate tiny little hits of dopamine. They do this on purpose because it makes their site addictive, and if you have normal dopamine levels then it feels fun, but it doesn't totally zombify you. The problem is if you're consistently dopamine-starved for whatever reason (ADHD being one for example) you'll keep craving it and keep going back in an endless loop, though you logically know it makes no sense - like how pregnant women get the pica cravings (want to eat non-edible things) when they are deficient in iron.

What I did to make it stop before medication was interrupt myself - at about 10pm I had a reminder that would come up on my computer to tell me it's bedtime and time to get a bedtime drink. I'd tell myself I'm just stepping to the kitchen to make a drink. I'd make something soothing like a cup of tea or hot chocolate. Then while I was waiting for the microwave or kettle to boil, because I'm away from the screen it breaks the spell and I reminded myself: This is your last chance today to have a shower/read a book in bed/play guitar/do some of your jigsaw (whatever my current hobby was) AND I'd have my drink to take with me, and then if I chose to go back to my computer it was because I actually wanted to, but also I'd have that little awareness of OK, I need to stop soon so I can't get into any really engaging threads, I can't watch any more TV, I can't play any games which have the annoying "Just one more turn" loops.

During the day with DC, it is best if I don't go on it at all but with the medication it is easier for me to hop on and off and I am less likely to get sucked in for the whole day.

If you can listen to PM radio 4 5-6pm mon-fri gives you in depth analysis of news from day before and as it's on radio you can cook/clean at the same time.

Has removed 90% of dooming scrolling from my life. Whilst remaining informed. Whilst doing something else.

Yes all day. Whilst watching TV etc...

I think I have adhd...

Also guilty of this, trying to get out of the habit

More radio less TV
But not the chat radio the informed journalist radio/podcast

Dooming scrolling - look at your motives, do you search to think, well I'm not as bad as them?

Yes. I have to physically put my phone in another room to stop it. I don't even really enjoy it, it's like a compulsion. Like biting my nails or something.

No.

I do faff about though.

A phone cage is what you need - see Amazon.

No I'm the opposite. I rarely read or watch the news. It is really depressing. I do skim the headlines and read the odd article or listen to radio news reports so I am reasonably well informed. But the thought of scouring news articles about horrible events would destroy me. It's not judging you at all, it's just saying how it would be for me.

My husband told me tonight about a guy he knows whose brother killed his mother. I felt physically sick and had to tell him to stop. I just don't think it's healthy for our mental wellbeing to fixate on horrible stories.

Yeah but I have little else to do tbh. Not mn anymore it's too dull I almost miss the water/bison troll, used to make me proper laugh.

I am and I'm sick of it. I've wasted hours just now when I could have got stuck into a book

well sounds like I am definitely not alone.