'Recovering Doomscroller' shares how he was able to break his news 'addiction' in revealing post
He was scrolling through the news during dinner with his family and knew he had to stop.
A man sits in his chair apathetically scrolling through social media.
Keeping up with the 24-hour news cycle in real time can be overwhelming. It can lead to a negative cycle known as “doomscrolling,” or endlessly scrolling through negative news, usually without realizing the emotional impact it's having.
Doomscrollers can get fixated on various topics, such as politics, crime, social justice, celebrity news, and even the personal lives of people they know on social media.
A Reddit user named Max wrote a revealing post about his doomscrolling habit on the Taoism subreddit. It explained how he got wrapped up in the vicious cycle, how it affected him on a biochemical level, and how he freed himself from the addiction. Taoism is a 1,900-year-old philosophy developed in China centered around balance, harmony with nature, simplicity and spontaneity.
Max started his post like he was speaking at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting.
"I used to spend long nights refreshing the news sites. I'd open my browser looking for a hit of dopamine, something to be hopeful and happy about, but all the bad news only gave me a buzz of adrenaline (a survival hormone) and cortisol (a stress hormone.) But what's worse, when the adrenaline and cortisol wore off, I'd go in and re-dose.Not only can doomscrolling be addictive, but the fight or flight response also shuts down our thinking brain … so when doomscrolling sets off the fight or flight response, it also turns off a lot of our higher thinking and reasoning. It sends us panicking when we should be planning.
I told myself I was just staying informed. That's how it started. But then I couldn't look away. It's like I had to know what was happening, y'know? 'If I don't check the news the world will burn.' It got to the point where I was doomscrolling at work, and at family dinner, in my free time, and I started feeling distraught and depressed."
Max’s description of the biochemical impacts of doomscrolling is backed up by science. “Information-seeking is a distinctly human trait, encouraged by neurochemical reactions. When our curiosity is piqued, the sense of discovery releases hits of dopamine in the brain, triggering the reward system, which in turn encourages us to explore a topic, knowledge, or question even further,” Jeffrey Davis writes in Psychology Today.
Susanne Babbel, a psychotherapist specializing in trauma recovery, told CNN that when we hear bad news, we go into “stress mode” and our bodies release “hormones like cortisol and adrenaline” that can put us in a fight-or-flight response.
Dr. Karin Gepp supports the claim that when we go into fight or flight mode, it deactivates "the part of your brain responsible for rational, logical thinking."
Max realized that his constant doomscrolling wasn’t helping anyone.
"But then I asked myself 'What good is this actually doing for me? I already vote, I already campaign and donate, I already advocate for solutions, and I already try to be part of the solution in my daily life.' Doomscrolling wasn't making me more engaged, it was making me more depressed, and being depressed, and scared, and stressed, only made it more difficult to address my problems and the problems of others."
Max believes his new focus on action over attention has helped him exit the vicious cycle of doomscrolling. He used climate change as an example:
"Voting to protect the environment is good; having panic attacks because your desktop wallpaper is a live feed of the ice caps melting is not good. If you're already voting, you don't need to keep watching the video."
Humans are incredibly complex beings, and it can be tough to grasp that the things we think are helping ourselves and others may sometimes be causing everyone more harm. But it seems Max has come to a healthy bottom line that anyone who uses social media can take to heart: We only have so much time, and we should spend more of it working on solving problems than indulgently wallowing in them.
- Indian village takes a digital siesta for a few hours every day so that people talk to each other ›
- Jennifer Garner explains the simple, empowering way she keeps her teens off social media ›
- A compelling theory on why social media promises fun but ultimately leaves us bored and listless ›
- Is social media 'killing the real you'? - Upworthy ›
"Now your fishes will be warmed."
"To have one’s eyes lined with ham."
"To lay your head in water."
"Repetition teaches the donkey."
"I only understand train station."
"To speak directly from the liver."
"Horse horse, tiger tiger."
Beaver in water. Photo by 
An actual beaver dam on the now-thriving Price River
Medusa image of giant squid in Gulf of Mexico off of Mississippi Gulf CoastPhoto credit: 
Sign warning against feeding alligators next to alligator in Mississippi marshlandsCourtesy of Jacalyn Wetzel
Mississippi Gulf Coast beach in BiloxiCourtesy of Jacalyn Wetzel
2009 photo of giant squid caught in Gulf of Mexico near Mississippi GulfPhoto credit: 
Thank goodness this story has a happy ending.
There's a reason why some people can perfectly copy accents, and others can't
Turns out, there's a neurodivergent link.
A woman in black long sleeve shirt stands in front of mirror.
Have you ever had that friend who goes on vacation for four days to London and comes back with a full-on Queen's English posh accent? "Oooh I left my brolly in the loo," they say, and you respond, "But you're from Colorado!" Well, there are reasons they (and many of us) do that, and usually it's on a pretty subconscious level.
It's called "accent mirroring," and it's actually quite common with people who are neurodivergent, particularly those with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). According Neurolaunch, the self-described "Free Mental Health Library," "Accent mirroring, also known as accent adaptation or phonetic convergence, is the tendency to unconsciously adopt the accent or speech patterns of those around us. This linguistic chameleon effect is not unique to individuals with ADHD, but it appears to be more pronounced and frequent in this population."
Essentially, when people have conversations, we're constantly "scanning" for information—not just the words we're absorbing, but the inflection and tone. "When we hear an accent, our brains automatically analyze and categorize the phonetic features, prosody, and intonation patterns," writes Neurolaunch. For most, this does result in copying the accent of the person with whom we're speaking. But those with ADHD might be more sensitive to auditory cues. This, "coupled with a reduced ability to filter out or inhibit the impulse to mimic…could potentially explain the increased tendency for accent mirroring."
While the article explains further research is needed, they distinctly state that, "Accent mirroring in individuals with ADHD often manifests as an unconscious mimicry of accents in social situations. This can range from subtle shifts in pronunciation to more noticeable changes in intonation and speech rhythm. For example, a person with ADHD might find themselves unconsciously adopting a Southern drawl when conversing with someone from Texas, even if they’ve never lived in the South themselves."
People are having their say online. On the subreddit r/ADHDWomen, a thread began: "Taking on accents is an ADHD thing?" The OP shares, "My whole life, I've picked up accents. I, myself, never noticed, but everyone around me would be like, 'Why are you talking like that??' It could be after I watched a show or movie with an accent or after I've traveled somewhere with a different accent than my 'normal.'
They continue, "Apparently, I pick it up fast, but it fades out slowly. Today... I'm scrolling Instagram, I watch a reel from a comedian couple (Darcy and Jeremy. IYKYK) about how Darcy (ADHD) picks up accents everywhere they go. It's called ADHD Mirroring??? And it's another way of masking."
(The OP is referring to Darcy Michaels and his husband Jeremy Baer, who are both touring comedians based in Canada.)
Hundreds of people on the Reddit thread alone seem to relate. One comments, "Omfg I've done this my whole life; I'll even pick up on the pauses/spaces when I'm talking to someone who is ESL—but English is my first language lol."
Sometimes, it can be a real issue for those around the chameleon. "I accidentally mimicked a waitress's weird laugh one time. As soon as she was out of earshot, my family started to reprimand me, but I was already like 'oh my god I don’t know why I did that, I feel so bad.'"
Many commenters on TikTok were shocked to find out this can be a sign of ADHD. One jokes, "Omg, yes, at a store the cashier was talking to me and she was French. She's like 'Oh are you French too? No, I'm not lol. I'm very east coast Canada."
And some people just embrace it and make it work for them. "I mirror their words or phrase! I’m 30. I realized I start calling everyone sweetie cause my manager does & I work at coffee shop."