How do I stop doomscrolling?

Sometimes your brain needs a break from work and a dopamine novelty hit will get you back on track.

Feed apps have a random chance of giving you the dopamine novelty hit, but it's pretty small, and usually it's not a very good one. But our brains are trash at randomly sized rewards - that's why people get addicted to gambling and gacha games - so you'll unthinkingly go check one of those trash fires to look for one.

Once you recognize that's what you're looking for, you can go get it somewhere that'll actually give it to you. Which doesn't have to be something profound or classy, it can be watching an old episode of The Muppets or Dragonball Z Abridged or a cute cat video or solving a sudoku.

Often you'll get halfway through whatever that is and feel kind of bored of it - the scrollers have trained you that means to go back to searching, but that's actually your signal that you've gotten what you needed and it's time to go back to work.

Added this comment as a response but it's important. Finding something to do during your regular scroll time is vital. If you cut cold turkey, you'll substitute for some other platform. Cutting out reddit increased my twitter use. So instead think of what you can do during scroll time. It probably has to be engaging enough to keep your attention and easy enough to pick up quick, just like when you get the urge to scroll. I've been practicing timed math problems through an app so I can get good at mental math

you should especially try and cut out Reddit for your health. get banned on purpose, that's what i did with twitter. recently i had been scrolling hexbear too much so I set a 1-hour app timer on mobile Firefox per day. I've surprised myself by sticking to it, since i know I have a limit i only scroll for 5 minutes at a time and i usually haven't even been hitting the limit.

put screens away and resist touching them no matter what. it'll get easier as you go.

I don't mean to be condescending, I've had the exact same problem you had. But the sooner you delete your reddit account and app, the better. Something WILL happen in reddit that absolutely disgusts you and pushes you to delete your account, so the sooner the better. It's like being in a toxic relationship, you can divorce the asshole now, or after 5 more years of trauma marriage and two STIs.

With your mobile, you're better off just deleting the apps. Back when Facebook was still fun, I had my partner own my fb account, so I literally had to ask her to login if I wanted to use it.

I own a Kobo ereader. Reading epubs during free moments is just so damn calming, I swear to God it literally feels good to read at lunch. There's epub readers for mobile if you need to stick with your phone. Podcasts are a good alternative if you don't like reading.

I could recommend manhwa for you to scroll through

Been slowly trying cut down on my doomscrolling too so I wanted to share some of the things that worked for me. These are more geared towards doomscrolling on your phone, but can be applied generally as well.

Something that has been really helpful for me is actually "scheduling" when you doom scroll, having certain set times when you'll free to doomscroll gulit free (make sure to set up a timer tho). Kinda helps you be aware of when you shouldn't scroll and should be doing something else. Somewhat related is also having "screen intermittent fasting", where you try not to doomscroll right before you go to bed and after you wake up.

Have physical and digital barriers to doomscrolling is more of a last defense vs. scrolling but can be very helpful. Putting your devices out of reach, in a different room, or even getting those lock boxes for you phone give you a physical reminder to not scroll. Make it habit to stand up whether you doom scroll too, since you're probably less likely to scroll for hours on end when standing vs. laying/sitting down (plus the physical effort to just make yourself stand up may make you too lazy to start doom scrolling in the first place). Install blocking apps like Leechblock. Straight up delete apps or log out of accounts (though this is less effective against scrolling on

Replacing that habit of doomscrolling is pretty essential on top of that. Like what other commenters said, replace it with things like reading, listening to music/podcast, etc. I've been playing Sudoku and Wordle type games when I get bored lately. Beyond that, fulfilling hobbies, real™ social interaction, touching grass do wonders as well. Though not for everyone you might want to try mediation.

I've also been reading the book Indistractable by Nir Eyal; it's a bit lib at times, but the information in there is pretty helpful imo. It touches on stuff similar to your situation, the psychological reasons why we might want to distract ourselves instead of doing what we want/need. It's also where I got tips like scheduling when you doom scroll from.

Remember this is a uphill battle, especially with websites like Reddit, which are literally built to keep you on the website as long as possible by capitalists. Practice a positive mindset when you find yourself doom scrolling too much, people rarely get better by being talked down upon. Can feel a bit awkward at first tbh, but I like to imagine it as maybe like talking to a friend.

May I direct you towards the words of Tyler the creator?

No idea but when you find out, let me know!

I still doomscroll, but a little while back picked up a little Linux handheld emulator device to have a different option. If you're okay with touch controls/like games that work well with them using your phone is an option too. I've been playing some random itchio games on it and working on Mario and Luigi superstar saga. I really like having good games with actually usable controls on me though.

edit: oh and another big thing I love about these handhelds is portmaster which lets you run kind of a lot of PC games, both classics and modern lightweight indie games. Big plus if you want to play for slightly longer sessions imo.

Breath meditation. Developing the impulse to stay tuned in to how you're feeling and your breath will give you more opportunities to pull away from the doomscroll and quit doing it in that moment.

I set limits on screen time for each app, and I generally follow them. It takes some conviction frankly but it's for my own good