Video Summary - How to Stop Doomscrolling (And What to Do Instead!)

Key wellness strategies & self-care tactics to stop doomscrolling

Doomscrolling isn’t a personal failure—it’s driven by an attention economy designed to hook you.
Algorithms feed content with emotional spikes (fear, outrage, envy, drama).
Your brain has a negativity bias, so bad or emotionally intense content grabs attention fast.

The 5-Minute Interrupt When you catch yourself scrolling, pause and set a 5-minute timer (you’re not quitting—just breaking the spell).
Curate Your Scroll If you scroll, do it intentionally: choose calming, inspiring, or feel-good content (e.g., nature, art, cats, ASMR cooking).
Phone a Friend Text or call someone—short human connection helps regulate emotions more effectively than doomscrolling.
Make Your Phone Slightly Annoying Reduce access by adding friction:
- Move apps off the home screen
- Turn on grayscale
- Log out
Move Stretch, walk, dance, or otherwise move—physical movement helps reset your nervous system.
Create Something, Anything Shift from consumption to expression:
- Doodle, write a silly haiku, bake, make “chaos art” in Notes, etc.
Breathe Do a quick mindfulness reset: one deep breath, then another (close eyes if helpful).
Listen Instead Replace swiping with podcasts or audiobooks while walking, stretching, or cleaning.
Set a Phone Bedtime Prevent late-night scrolling by putting your phone to bed before you (even across the room).
Do That One Thing You’ve Been Avoiding Use a small start (about 5 minutes): open the tab, start laundry, email the dentist—action reduces mental load.

You don’t have to quit the internet completely—aim to take control of how it affects your time, peace, and attention.
Choose one alternative strategy to try today.

Psych2Go (video creator/source; mentioned as the channel providing mental health guidance)