Is Doomscrolling Rewiring Our Brains

What 2026 Might Look Like If We Do Not Stop

If you have ever told yourself you will check the news for just one minute and then found yourself still scrolling thirty minutes later with a tight feeling in your chest, you already know how powerful doomscrolling can be. It pulls you in without warning. It keeps you stuck. It makes you feel informed but never satisfied, and it feeds worry without giving solutions.

And the strange thing is that most people know it is bad for them, but they keep doing it anyway. It is the emotional equivalent of watching a storm from your window and being unable to look away.

But there is something bigger happening underneath the habit. Something that is affecting focus, mood, stress and mental wellbeing.

Doomscrolling is not only a time waster. It is beginning to literally change the way our brains function.

This is not about blaming yourself. It is about understanding the psychological trap that almost all of us fall into and learning how to reclaim control from something that thrives on our fear and our curiosity.

Why Doomscrolling Feels So Hard to Stop

People often think doomscrolling happens because they are weak or undisciplined. That is not true at all. Doomscrolling is a natural human response to uncertainty.

The brain is wired to look for danger because danger used to be a tiger in the grass or a storm on the horizon. Now the danger is abstract and constant. War. Climate events. Political chaos. Economic instability. People hurting. People struggling.

Because the world feels unpredictable, the brain works overtime trying to understand and prepare for what might happen next. Doomscrolling becomes a kind of emotional radar.

The problem is that the radar never switches off. You keep scanning for threats. You keep scrolling for updates. You keep absorbing stress your brain was never meant to handle.

This is why doomscrolling does not soothe anxiety. It magnifies it.

The Neuroscience Behind the Habit

The brain loves certainty. It wants answers. It wants closure. Doomscrolling provides the illusion of answers but never actually delivers any.

Each time you refresh the page, your brain releases a tiny burst of dopamine because you might find something important. Something that explains the chaos or something that helps you feel more prepared.

But because the news rarely provides resolution, your brain stays in a loop. Search, Refresh, Absorb, Fear, Repeat.

The loop is addictive only because it feels unfinished. So you keep going until your whole body feels tense and drained.

The Mental Health Effects

Doomscrolling does not simply make you sad or stressed in the moment, but it can have long-term effects that influence everyday life.

People who doomscroll often experience:

• Rising anxiety

• Emotional numbness

• Irritability

• Trouble focusing

• Increased catastrophising

• Sleep disruptions

• Feelings of helplessness

The more you absorb crisis content, the more your brain begins to believe the world is always dangerous, even when you are safe in your home. This creates a constant background hum of tension that makes normal tasks feel harder and more exhausting.

The Social Impact of Doomscrolling

Something else is happening too. Doomscrolling changes the way people interact. It makes them more reactive, more tired, more disconnected from their surroundings. It makes conversations heavier and more hopeless.

When you constantly absorb negative news, you begin to lose emotional resilience. Even small problems feel large. Plans feel pointless, and goals feel unrealistic.

It is not that people become negative. They become overwhelmed. And overwhelmed people rarely feel like their most grounded selves.

Speaking of grounding yourself, getting out of your device and onto paper can give the impression of the world slowing down. It gives the brain a chance to process all the information it's been storing and struggling to organise. The Discovery Journal helps you quickly "brain dump" and notice which areas of your life are causing the most anxiety!

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What 2026 Might Look Like If We Do Not Slow Down

If doomscrolling continues at the rate it is going, we will see a world where

People feel more anxious than ever before. Attention spans tighten even further, daily decisions become harder, sleep quality declines, burnout becomes more common, intimacy and connection shrink, and hope becomes harder to access. Sounds pretty drab, right?

It is not a dramatic prediction. It is already happening. You can see it in the way people talk online. In the way friendships feel thinner. In the way people say I am tired, but the tiredness is emotional, not physical.

Doomscrolling is draining the collective nervous system.

The Good News!

Our Brains Can Recover

The brain is changeable. It can heal. It can learn new patterns. It can unlearn old ones. But it needs space to breathe, and it needs moments of quiet.

You cannot stop doomscrolling through willpower alone. You stop it by giving your brain something calmer to hold onto.

This is where reflective writing becomes incredibly helpful.

Reflection Expansion Pack

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Why Journaling Breaks the Doomscrolling Loop

Doomscrolling creates emotional noise. Journaling creates emotional clarity.

When you put your thoughts on paper, you reduce the need to search for understanding outside yourself. You create a sense of internal stability that makes crisis content feel less overwhelming.

Journaling helps your brain realise, "I am safe", "I can choose what I focus on".

This shift alone can dramatically reduce the urge to reach for your phone when anxiety spikes.

The Discovery Journal is an ideal tool here. It offers guided prompts that pull your attention away from the noise of the outside world and back into your own inner world, and it helps you reconnect with calmness, structure and self-awareness, which naturally reduces doomscrolling urges.

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Building a Healthier Relationship With Information

You do not need to avoid the news completely. You simply need to relate to it differently.

Try this:

• Set a time limit for news checks

• Avoid scrolling before bed

• Do not use crisis content as background noise

• Ask yourself why you are checking the news before you do it

Most importantly... Replace one doomscrolling session per day with a short reflection writing moment.

Your mind will begin to feel clearer almost immediately.

You do not have to carry the weight of the entire world. You do not have to absorb every crisis. You do not have to prepare for every possible danger.

Your nervous system deserves rest. Your life deserves moments of quiet that are not interrupted by fear.

Doomscrolling may be powerful, but your mind is more powerful once you give it space.

And tools like journaling can be the beginning of reclaiming peace in a loud and overwhelming world.