How to Stop Doomscrolling #

What is Doom Scrolling? #

“Doomscrolling” is the phenomenon of compulsively scrolling through stories on social media or news sites despite the negative impact on one’s mental health. More and more people are facing this problem globally, with many now describing it as an actual addiction.

Luckily, doom scrolling is proving to be the sort of habit that can be weaned off of slowly, however. One of the hallmarks of being human is having the ability to adapt. Humans can adapt to all kinds of crazy situations. Most people don’t like to have to adapt to new things, but that doesn’t mean they’re not capable of it.

Let’s take this ability and use it to our advantage.

How Do I Stop Doom Scrolling? #

About This Technique #

A lot of people find that they actually can’t just put their phone down and stop scrolling “cold turkey style.” They might even find that their habits improve for a day or two, but then fall right back to how they were very quickly. This can cause a lot of feelings of guilt, which is exactly the opposite of how you should be feeling when trying to stop addictive behaviors.

Doom scrolling can have a lot of similarities to other addictions (like drugs and alcohol).

If you’re the type to spend 3-4+ hours per day on your phone, this technique is probably for you.

We’ll call this technique Time-Split Behavior Modification.

Practice This Technique #

All you have to do is this:

To begin with, only allow yourself to doom-scroll during the last 10 minutes of each hour.

The point of this exercise is to basically create blocks of time where you are fully free from temptations. It may sound silly, but it actually works!

Let Your Subconscious Mind Do The Work #

The most crucial part is to stick to this. Don’t deviate from it at all. You’re training your subconscious to live totally freely from the temptation to get on your phone and scroll/waste time. You must not let yourself “cheat.” The point of this exercise is to fully convince your subconscious that you’re just really not going to listen to any temptations to doom scroll during your off periods. It’s not an option!

Basically, you’ll be operating like this: During the first 50 minutes of each hour, you must never doom scroll.

For example, if it’s 6:05 PM, you must always wait another 45 minutes left before you’re allowed to scroll. You must never break this rule. If you allow this rule to be broken, then you’re teaching your brain that it’s ok to keep tempting you to scroll during the off periods! You want to be free from temptations as much as possible.

In this example, once it hits 6:50 PM, you now have 10 minutes straight to doom scroll, waste time, and get caught up on everything you think you missed.

It doesn’t matter what you doom scroll, it doesn’t matter how quickly you did it, it doesn’t even matter why you doom scrolled. All that matters is that you stuck to your promise to yourself.

Eventually, after about a week of this constant practice: #

If you feel that you’re ready, it’s now time to switch to only doom scrolling during the last 5 minutes of each hour.

Just keep trying it. You’ll naturally begin to notice that the way you manage your time changes. You’ll learn a bit more about where your temptations actually come from and why.

After some time, as your brain adapts to the lowered amount of stimuli, you’ll eventually begin to be able to skip doom scroll periods entirely. It won’t feel as much like you’re missing out!

Congratulations! You have now lowered the amount of time you doom scroll for, and are beginning to realize you didn’t need to doom scroll anyways!

Final Tips #

It’s technically ok to “cheat” every once in a while. Most importantly, don’t beat yourself up too much. For example, let’s say there is some breaking news that you feel you absolutely must read up on. If you really believe you can’t wait under an hour to see what it’s about, then go ahead. But don’t make it a habit, and try to avoid this as much as possible (especially during the beginning stages of this exercise). You don’t want to derail possible progress. Remember, you’re breaking a powerful habit!

Also, the free scrolling period doesn’t have to be during the last 5 or 10 minutes of each hour. It could be any block of each hour, only during specific times of the day, etc. You can even take it further if you’d like! This practice is flexible and can be adjusted for your specific lifestyle.