The Social Media Stress Cycle: How Digital Spaces Impact Your Brain & Body

Jessica Colarco (: 00:11

Welcome back to Healing is My Hobby, where we explore the science, the stories, and the soul work behind feeling better from the inside out. I'm your host, Jessica Colarco LCSW, and today we're kicking off a brand new December series all about something that touches every single one of us, social media and mental wellness. Whether you're someone who loves posting, rarely posts, but scrolls for hours,

or tells yourself you don't use it that much, the truth is our digital world shape our emotional worlds more than we realize. Today's episode is all about giving you real insight into why social media can make you feel anxious, depleted, overwhelmed, or never enough. We're talking about the neuroscience of scrolling, the comparison cycle, algorithm driven anxiety,

decision fatigue and micro stress, and how all of this impacts burnout. Let's get into it. Okay, let's start with what's actually happening in your brain when you scroll. Every time you refresh your feed or swipe to the next video, your brain releases dopamine. Dopamine is the neurotransmitter associated with anticipation and reward. When the brain releases dopamine,

It creates feelings of pleasure and motivation by signaling the brain's reward system that a desirable event has occurred. This feel-good chemical acts as a messenger between neurons, reinforcing behaviors like eating, sex, or achieving a goal and helping to regulate mood, movement, learning, and attention.

However, dopamine is strongly associated with the anticipation of a reward, not just its receipt.

is triggered by the desire and motivation to seek out a reward, and it's often greater during the period of waiting for something positive to happen. This anticipatory dopamine surge is a key driver for motivation and can be seen in

everyday behaviors as well as an addiction, not satisfaction, anticipation. So I find this so fascinating. Over the summer, I came across the idea of a dopamine menu and I created with so many of my clients a dopamine menu of small, actionable steps that created positive feelings. But now, you know, learning this information more is that, you know, there's no satisfaction with dopamine.

It's just the anticipation. We're getting those dopamine hits with the anticipation. So again, that's why scrolling feels like just one more video, just one more swipe. Maybe the next thing will be interesting. And this is called a reward prediction loop. And platforms are designed to keep you in it. Your brain is chasing the next hit, not enjoying the one it just got.

Over time, this loop reduces attention span, increases compulsive behaviors, overstimulates the nervous system, and creates a low-level feeling of restlessness. Your brain is basically stuck in what's next, what's next, what's next, not calm, not grounded, not satisfied, just searching.

Constant cognitive searching makes you tired. Not because you're lazy, but because dopamine loops are exhausting.

Let's talk about something we all feel, whether we want to admit it or not, comparison. This is, you know, my clients know my favorite, one of my favorite quotes, comparison is the thief of joy. Even if you logically know that people post their highlight reels, your emotional brain doesn't process it that way. It sees someone's vacation, someone's celebration, someone's perfect family photo and thinks,

I'm behind. I'm not doing enough. I should be further along. What's really happening underneath? Your brain is activating your shame network, the part responsible for evaluating social belonging and status. Shame network theory is not a single formal psychological theory, but rather describes the application of a network analysis.

and methods to study shame and related

This approach views emotions and mental health issues not as caused by a single underlying factor, but as a complex system of interacting symptoms and variables. So there's interconnectedness. Shame is a complex emotion that is closely intertwined with other factors. Network analysis helps to visualize

understand these complex interrelationships in a holistic way. our brain is wired for survival and the message it receives is other people have what I don't therefore I'm at risk of falling behind. So then this creates urgency, anxiety, self-doubt,

and a quiet sense of inadequacy. Even if the post was harmless, comparison culture doesn't shout, it whispers. And over time, those whispers chip away at your self-worth.

Going back to my favorite quote, comparison is a thief of joy. The reason I love that is because we have to remember comparison is not going to end up with us feeling good, right? Comparison is not positive for us. And like we just talked about, it then creates shame. Let's kind of look at the emotional cost of constant stimulation. We don't talk enough.

about the cognitive load of social media. I know we do in my home and my children are tired of hearing about it. But you know, every time you scroll, your brain is processing. You are processing images, videos, sounds, captions, emotions, opinions, reactions, facial expressions,

jokes, music.

Trauma, ads, news, tragedies, celebrations, politics, filters, beauty standards, snark, inspiration, overwhelm. And that's just one minute of scrolling. This creates information overload. This leads to decision fatigue, fragmented attention, irritability.

emotional numbness, mental exhaustion. Your brain is constantly switching tasks, evaluating stimuli, navigating micro stressors, and shifting your emotional state dozens of times per minute. No wonder people feel burnout. Your brain was never meant to process thousands of emotional stimuli in a single sitting.

And this is where social media is connected with burnout. A lot of people think burnout only comes from work, but digital burnout is real, and it shows up like this. You feel fried after scrolling. Your focus is shot. Your creativity drops.

You feel disconnected from yourself. Your mood is reactive. You feel overwhelmed by small things. Your nervous system feels always on. When your brain is constantly pulled between emotions, tasks, and microstressors, your sympathetic nervous system, which you know we talk about this all the time in this podcast, the fight or flight system stays activated.

And when you add normal life stress to that, burnout gets worse. Social media doesn't cause burnout alone, but it absolutely amplifies it.

Let's look at algorithm anxiety and let's talk about the algorithms because these platforms are not neutral. Social media algorithms are not neutral. They are designed to prioritize engagement and keep users scrolling by showing them content they are most likely to interact with, which can lead to personalized feeds that don't necessarily reflect reality. These algorithms are built on rules and signals analyzing user behavior to create a feed tailored to each

potentially creating filter bubbles and echo chambers where users are mostly exposed to content that confirms their existing beliefs. Social media doesn't show you what's happening, it shows you what keeps you scrolling. And you know, that's where I think like when we're in those echo chambers and filter bubbles where we're exposed to things that.

already confirm existing beliefs, that's scary to me. And I feel like that's why in American culture today, and really globally we feel so polarized, like you're either on this side or this side, because you're only getting a loop of things that you believe in and then it continues to reinforce your beliefs, and then you're not being exposed to differing opinions, to other things that might have you questioning your beliefs, might encourage curiosity, you know?

social media, right, when it shows you what keeps you scrolling, it is often anxiety, outrage, drama, insecurity, conflict, comparison, and sensationalism. You're not imagining it. These platforms heighten emotional intensity

because intense emotions keep you online longer and your nervous system pays the price. So let's explore some signs that social media might be taking a toll on your mental wellness. And I encourage you to tap into yourself and check in.

to see if you're experiencing any of these signs. You feel anxious before or after scrolling. You compare yourself to others constantly. You feel less than without knowing why. You feel emotionally drained. You can't stop checking your phone. You feel FOMO or left out. You doom scroll without meaning to.

You feel numb, detached, or overstimulated. You struggle to rest or relax. You're hyper-focused on likes, engagement, or being seen. If any of these resonate, doesn't mean something is wrong with you. It means your nervous system is responding exactly how it was designed to respond to overstimulation.

three biggest cognitive traps social media activates. Perfectionism, the belief that I need to be more, do more, look better, or have it together before I share or speak. Catastrophizing, interpreting something you see online, news, opinions, comments as danger or threat. And external validation.

feeling good only when engagement is high or feeling rejected when a post isn't noticed. These mind traps keep you stuck in cycles of self doubt and emotional reactivity. I feel like this totally happened to me. I remember a million years ago I got on Facebook to post photos of my daughter for my family. I have a private account and I look back at those photos and the back of my house, behind my daughter's photos was messy.

and I was just living a normal life and I was just posting whatever, maybe I had makeup on, maybe I didn't, my daughter would be wearing whatever. And then I noticed after a few years, I was like, what's in the background? I started really being careful of what I was posting and I think about that in the perfectionism trap. I need to be more, do more, look better, or have it together before I share or speak. I think that has definitely happened to a lot of us in today's climate.

catastrophizing, I get messages from friends all the time who are totally freaking out and feeling that they are in danger or under threat because of their algorithm, right? And external validation is always dangerous, right? That we're only feeling good if other people are giving us those thumbs ups and the hearts, right? So let's look at some healthy reframes.

Here are a few gentle reframes you can start practicing.

Mindful scrolling. Pause before opening an app and ask, what am I needing right now? If the answer is comfort, rest, distraction, connection, great, but let it be intentional. I've talked about that in our, the healing lab, in October episodes where I took a break from my phone and.

I realize that sometimes I like to go on social media for a little bit of time just to dissociate, and so what I've done is just set a timer. Just set a timer so you don't get stuck in that loop. Intentional consumption. Curate your feed the way you curate your home. Who stays, who goes, what drains you, what inspires you. I love this, I've done this before. I wrote a blog post about it a million years ago about curating your social media feed and noticing how you're feeling.

And so I was really following a lot of people in the body positivity movement, following things that make me feel good and happy. So that's where you wanna be careful that you're, when you're on social media, you're not looking on your for you page, but you're looking on what you're following if you have curated a social media feed that has you feeling good and positive. And finally, digital neutrality. When you see someone thriving online, the reframe is their success isn't proof of my.

failure. Move from comparison to neutrality and then hopefully to self-trust. Social media isn't the villain and it's not going anywhere. But understanding how it impacts your brain and body gives you the power to use it with awareness instead of autopilot. Next week in our Therapy is My Cardio episode, we're diving into digital boundaries. What they are, how to set them,

and why they matter for your mental wellness this season. Until then, take a deep breath, soften your jaw, unclench your shoulders, and remember, your worth isn't measured in views, likes, or engagement. Your worth is built into you. See you next time. If you wanna follow what's happening with me, you can check me out at healingismyhobby.com.

And you know I'm on social media, so I'm at Healing Is My Hobby on Instagram and YouTube. And again, if you wanna know more about my clinical practice, it's jessicaclarcolcsw.com or at jessicaclarcolcsw on Instagram. Thank you and have a wonderful day.