Doomscrolling, Dopamine, and the Nervous System

Jessica (: 00:09

Hi friends, welcome back to Healing is My Hobby. I'm Jessica Colerco, a licensed clinical social worker. We're living in a time of constant information, urgency, and uncertainty. When the world feels dysregulated, our nervous system needs training, not criticism.

This month, we're talking about staying regulated in a dysregulated world.

And in today's segment, therapy is my cardio. That means building emotional fitness. Small, repeatable practices that help your nervous system feel safer, even when the world feels anything but. This is where we treat emotional regulation like fitness training, something we practice, build, and return to. Not something we're expected to be perfect at. If you've ever picked up your phone to just check one thing,

and suddenly realized you've been scrolling for far longer than you intended, this episode is for you. Doom scrolling often comes with a lot of shame. Why can't I stop? What's wrong with me? And I wanna start by saying this clearly. Doom scrolling is not a willpower problem. It's a nervous system response. And if you wanna go back to previous episodes,

you wanna know more about social media and how it impacts our nervous system, I encourage you to listen to all of my December episodes where I really focused on social media and its impact.

I also just wanna say I am here healing with you. That is why I named the podcast Healing is my hobby because I'm constantly trying to be a better version of myself and learn new ways, new strategies, tools, techniques to help me feel better about things and I have been feeling incredibly dysregulated because this is hitting home, like not only, okay, let's say I totally leave news, I'm interacting with people. It's coming in my office, it's coming in my practice, everything that's

happening

in the world that's coming into my home. And so I wanted to learn strategies to help me. So hopefully today's segment will give you some tips, some tools, some things that will help you understand why you're feeling this way and a strategy to help you improve. We always start therapy as my cardio with a warmup.

When the world feels unpredictable or unsafe, our nervous systems go looking for information, not because we want more bad news, but because our brains are wired to seek certainty, control, and preparedness. Doom scrolling often lives at the intersection of anxiety, uncertainty, a desire to stay informed, and a nervous system trying to protect us.

Then we add in the dopamine hit of novelty, new headlines, new updates, and it becomes a loop that's hard to break. When we talk about doom scrolling, it's helpful to understand what's happening in the brain, not to pathologize it, but to normalize it.

Dopamine is a neurotransmitter involved in motivation, anticipation, and reward. It's released when our brain senses that something new, important, or potentially useful might be coming. And one of the biggest triggers for dopamine is novelty, new information, new updates, new possibilities. News feeds and social media are designed around this. Each scroll offers the possibility of something different, a new headline, a breaking update, a different perspective,

Even when the content is distressing, the uncertainty of what's coming next keeps the brain engaged. For an anxious nervous system, this can feel temporarily soothing. It creates the sense that maybe I'll find clarity, maybe I'll feel more prepared, maybe this next piece of information will help. So the dopamine hit isn't about enjoying the news, it's about the anticipation of resolution or control.

The brain gets a brief sense of relief, even though the content itself may increase anxiety afterward. That's why doom scrolling can feel compulsive. The nervous system is chasing that momentary feeling of certainty, even as the body becomes more activated and exhausted over time. This isn't a lack of discipline. It's a brain doing exactly what it's wired to do, seeking information and safety in an uncertain environment. Once we understand that this loop is about safety, not weakness,

it becomes much easier to interpret it with compassion instead of force. So if this is something you struggle with, I want you to hear this as a reframe,

criticism. Your nervous system is trying to help. It just doesn't always pick the most supportive strategy.

Our workout today is a three step doom scroll reset. And I'm not gonna try to say that three times fast. So step one, pause and name. Step two, ground in the body. Step three, replace, don't remove. So step one, pause and name. Before changing anything, simply notice I'm feeling the urge to scroll. Naming the urge creates a small pause.

between impulse and action, and that pause matters. Step two, ground the body. Bring your attention out of your phone and into your body. Put your feet on the floor. Take one slow inhale and a longer exhale. You know I like breathing in through the nose, breathing out through the mouth. Notice one sensation, the temperature, pressure.

movement. This helps your nervous system shift out of threat mode and back toward regulation. Finally, step three, replace, don't remove. Instead of forcing yourself to stop scrolling, offer your nervous system another way to feel safe. You can try standing up and stretching, making a cup of tea, stepping outside, turning on music, humming or sighing.

We don't break nervous system loops with force. We break them by offering safety.

Let's shift toward our cool down today. Before we move on, take a moment to check in with yourself. If doom scrolling is something you've been hard on yourself about, I wanna invite a gentler thought. I'm not failing, I'm learning what my nervous system needs. Change happens faster when we lead with compassion instead of criticism. If this episode is resonating with you, I created a free resource called the Collective Calm.

toolkit. Inside you'll find grounding practices, a media boundary plan, and journaling prompts to help you stay informed without overwhelming your nervous system. You can get this free resource by joining my newsletter. You can go to healingismyhobby.com to sign up or Jessica Colarco LCSW to sign up and the link is also in the show notes. Next week, we're taking this out of theory and into real life in the healing lab.

I'll be trying a few nervous system experiments, including a short news fast, a social media boundary, no news after 7 p.m., polyvagal practices like humming, cold water, and nature walks, and a what's in my control journaling practice. I'll share what actually helped, what didn't, and how my anxiety, focus, and energy shifted along the way, because healing is rarely one size fits all. If you wanna see what it looks like to experiment with these tools instead of trying to be perfect,

You won't wanna miss this episode. Until then, be gentle with yourself. Your nervous system is doing its best, and with a little support, it can learn new ways to feel safe. If you'd like to see some of my content, any reels I have going on, videos, more tips and tools, you can go to healingismyhobby.com, or you can go to Instagram or YouTube at healingismyhobby. And again, if you wanna learn more about my clinical practice, you can go to jessicaclaricalcsw.com.

or follow me on Instagram at JessicaClerkoLCSW. Take care and have a great week.