why they cause addiction and how to get rid of it

Doomscrolling, or the psychological need to constantly read bad news, is a growing concern for psychologists. And if you, upon seeing the beginning of the headline, immediately felt the need to open this publication, it really is for you. Moskovskaya Pravda dealt with experts about the dangers of doomscrolling, how it affects our psyche, and why we need to get rid of this addiction.

We used to hang out in social networks and instant messengers, looking through a bunch of publics of various topics. Moreover, some spent up to 12 hours a day on this, which caused not only psychologists, but also other specialists in the field of medicine, who were not unreasonably worried. After all, scrolling not only creates problems with the perception of reality, but also threatens health disorders – both psychological and physical.

“There are several reasons for scrolling, and habit is far from the last of them,” says medical psychologist, candidate of psychological sciences Artur Timofeev. — Thanks to the development of technology, the information field surrounding each person has become supersaturated. And sometimes people are subscribed to so many information resources that they cannot fully absorb and process (dozens of news feeds in Telegram, groups in VK and other social networks).

In the past few years, the problem of society around the world has become doomscrolling (the term is derived from the English words doom – “evil rock”, “death” and scroll – “scroll, flip”). Why, of all media resources, people increasingly began to choose those in which negative information is published?

“The ability of the brain to cling to the negative is completely natural, this is how our psyche works,” family psychologist Emilia Javadova explains our craving for the terrible. “People are drawn to frightening headlines, extravagant names, they want to know more about everything, to figure out for themselves what and how.

According to the psychologist, it is very easy to fall for this bait and start to become more and more immersed in the process when you read one piece of news after another and cannot tear yourself away.

“There is nothing terrible in the fact that a person reads bad news,” Javadova says. — But when scrolling starts to be very addictive and affect our mood, and even more so – on the thought process, when, for example, you can’t work because you are constantly distracted by watching news feeds, this is already an indicator that you need to take some then measures.

By the way, recent studies by American scientists have shown that among doomscrollers, 74% experience mental problems, and 61% complain about physical health. They also scored highest on content preoccupation, preoccupation with thoughts about information received, reading obsessively in an attempt to reduce anxiety, difficulty ignoring information, and the negative impact of news on life.

– When we start watching news feeds with negative content, it affects our mood, we start to worry, the level of anxiety increases. And trying to cope with this anxiety, we begin to view the news more often, plunging into them more and more. A certain illusion of control arises: they say, if I own all this information, then I sort of control the situation, ”Dzhavadov explains the process of immersion in thought-scrolling.

But the level of anxiety, according to her, in the end practically does not decrease, and in the future the situation only gets worse. Because catastrophization is involved: a person reads one negative article, a second, a third, comments on them, and there is a feeling that everything is terrible, everything is bad and it will only get worse. Accordingly, the level of anxiety rises. The person again tries to cope with it, again tries to read as much news as possible, and a kind of vicious vicious circle is obtained, which leads to psychological problems.

Artur Timofeev, in turn, believes that there is also a reverse trend – people who already have certain mental health problems are more susceptible to doomscrolling.

“The data of American scientists are very revealing,” the expert says. – Those 74% who experience mental problems must have included a lot of people with anxiety and phobic disorders. And for these poor fellows, there is nothing worse than an excess of negative information in their personal information field, since their psyche cannot cope with this information and worsens their condition, but they themselves cannot get out of this trap and drag themselves even deeper, even despite strong recommendations of psychiatrists and psychologists to protect themselves from negative information.

However, mentally healthy people are also subject to doomscrolling. And according to the expert, they are also quite defenseless against this problem.

One of the strongest emotions is fear. And the strongest fear is associated with the unknown, as it instantly gives rise to a feeling of defenselessness and helplessness, says Artur Timofeev. “People end up falling into the trap of doom-scrolling because they think that if they get all the bad news as early as possible, they will feel prepared. But in fact, they do not receive any certainty, they only drown more and more in emotions and flows of negative information.

Even ordinary scrolling is dangerous because it becomes an information addiction, and, accordingly, like any addiction, it begins to subordinate a person’s life to itself.

– For example, if a person does not have access to the Internet and other sources of information, anxiety, irritation, sadness may occur. A person doesn’t know what to do with himself, but he doesn’t want to do everyday or important things either, Timofeev explains. – Doomscrolling worsens the situation many times, because in addition to addiction based on the constant absorption of information, there is also the destructive nature of the information itself, which destabilizes people with mental disorders.

According to the medical psychologist, for people with an unstable psyche, doom scrolling is a direct path to psychiatrists, and for mentally healthy people, at least the need to turn to psychologists and psychotherapists.

On the other hand, physical health is also under great pressure, as the constant high anxiety caused by doom scrolling contributes to the exacerbation of any chronic diseases. The strongest blow falls on the cardiovascular system, the gastrointestinal tract, the respiratory system – this is a classic of psychosomatic diseases, and anxiety will destroy, first of all, those systems that are already weakened in a person, warns Artur Timofeev. – Also, the social aspect cannot be missed: the doomscroller is inside terrible ideas about the reality around, he feels anxious, he is irritable and of course he will broadcast this to other people, as a result, he will “infect” others with his anxiety, for example, colleagues at work, and irritability and anger can be released on loved ones – on children, on a spouse, on their parents.

In general, the saying “the less you know, the better you sleep” in this case has definitely not lost its relevance. The flow of information received should be dosed, even if we are talking about normal scrolling.

“The fact is that the information environment has overwhelmed humanity too quickly, and cultural norms and rules have not yet arisen that will regulate the speed of information consumption,” Timofeev notes.

And the quality of the information received is also not yet controlled at the highest level. It’s no secret that the amount of fake news on the Internet is off the charts. And doomscrollers more often than others become its consumers and unwitting distributors.

“Since, first of all, doomscrolling draws in people with increased anxiety and low stress resistance, it often happens that doomscrollers lose their criticism of the information they consume and become more and more vulnerable to any emotional manipulations that the current information space is oversaturated with,” explains Artur Timofeev.

And this is another argument “for” to get rid of destructive addiction as quickly as possible. The first step towards this is to put yourself on a “digital diet”, says Emilia Javadova.

“As with a food diet, for this you need to monitor what and in what quantities you consume,” the expert notes. – So, give yourself some time to scroll through the news feeds. Before you start reading, set a timer for, say, 30 minutes, and try to stick to the time allotted for reading. Unsubscribe from a large number of news channels, because they duplicate each other anyway. Subscribe to publics where there is no negative content – these can be some interest groups or channels that publish funny videos. Try to switch your attention to them. In addition, to get rid of the illusion of being able to gain control over what is happening outside our sphere of influence, it is important to try to switch to something that we can actually control. Ask yourself the question: “what can I do that is in my control zone?” And act according to how you answer it. The simplest thing: you can start to control the state of your health, at least in terms of eating well, monitoring your sleep patterns, again, observing the timing of reading bad news.

Of course, it will not be possible to achieve a quick positive result here. In addition, in order to follow any diet, certain strong-willed efforts are required, which not everyone is capable of. And not everyone can realize the problem in time. And then relatives should help in this.

– If you see that a loved one is subject to the influence of doomscrolling, tell him about it. At the same time, it is important to point out the facts that confirm your words, advises Artur Timofeev. – Recommend that you contact a specialist to solve the problem. Or you can go to a family psychologist together: at a joint meeting, you will have a better chance of being heard.

By the way, residents of the capital with this and other problems can contact the Moscow Service for Psychological Assistance to the Population, where it is possible to receive free psychological assistance and support. Sign up for a free consultation, you can do it yourself or call: (499) 173-09-09.

Alena Bodrienko.

Photo by mobile reporter / Moskva agency