Change Your Brain Every Day - Doomscrolling: What It Does to Your Mental Health

Episode Date: January 12, 2021

In this boiling political climate, many of us are finding ourselves glued to Twitter or other online news sources to keep up with everything that’s going on. But at what point are we merely “doomscrolling” and causing harm to our brains? In this episode of the podcast, Dr. Daniel and Tana Amen discuss the phenomenon of doomscrolling, and then tell you specific strategies you can use to keep this harmful form of social media addiction at bay. 

Welcome to the Brain Warriors Way podcast. I'm Dr. Daniel Amen. And I'm Tana Amen. In our podcast, we provide you with the tools you need to become a warrior for the health of your brain and body. The Brain Warriors Way podcast is brought to you by Amen Clinics, where we have been transforming lives for 30 years using tools like brain spec imaging to personalize treatment to your brain. For more information, visit amenclinics.com.

The Brain Warriors Way podcast is also brought to you by BrainMD, where we produce the highest quality nutraceuticals to support the health of your brain and body. To learn more, go to brainmd.com. Welcome back. We are talking about doom scrolling. This is so important going into the new year because we are talking about how do you get your mental health together. If you want to get your physical health together, you need to get your mental health together because it really starts with your mind. It starts with your mentality and just really getting your mind right. So doom scrolling is affecting your mental health. And most people suffer because of what is not only on social media, but the news. So let's talk about doom scrolling. Yeah, that's one thing I learned. So think of doom scrolling, like pouring toxic doom and gloom thoughts into your brain. The constant frightening images activate the brain's fear centers, the amygdala, making you feel chronically anxious and afraid. Information is like crack. Brain imaging research in a 2019 issue of PNA found that

information triggers the dopamine-fueled reward system in the same way as food, money, or even drugs. The authors suggest that this neural mechanism explains why we are susceptible to clickbait. Droomscrolling is like clickbait on steroids. Neuroscience shows us that the human brain is wired for negativity and pays extra attention to anything that might harm us. In a survey from the American Psychological Association, 56% of people said that regularly following the news causes stress. That's just following the news, not even close to the obsessive clicking and consumption

that comes with doom scrolling. Over time, elevated stress hormones shrink the memory centers in your brain, increase inflammation and put excessive fat around your waist. So this is so true. And I know I'm one of those people who's really susceptible to what's on the news. I get very triggered by negative news and frightening news. And so I had, why are you looking at me like that? So I had to learn, I mean, you have that look,

you have that shrink look right now. So I had to learn to discipline my thoughts and not, and turn the news off. And I grab headlines from a more neutral source, but I don't listen to the news. But one thing I like about social media, I really don't spend time scrolling because I don't have time.

I go on my own page, I answer questions, I pay attention to that, but I don't spend a lot of time scrolling. But for the few pages that I do follow, you get to choose. Like, hello, people, you get to choose who you follow. So choose wisely. Doc Amen. Right. So choose wisely. Or Tana Amen. So I mostly follow mental health pages. We're going to put out stuff that helps you, never things that hurt you. Right. So I choose to follow pages that are

about mental health, that are about inspiration, that are about those types of pages. But every morning I start with the Good News Network. I know they're funny because i just want to know what's right in the world where you bring your attention always always always determines how you feel if you focus on what is fearful you'll feel afraid if you focus on what's horrible you'll feel awful awful. If you focus on uncertainty, you're going to feel off. And if you focus on what you're grateful for, you're going to feel happy and who you appreciate, you'll feel appreciative. And you have to train your mind because your mind evolved or was made, however you want to go with that, to pay attention to what's wrong, to what protected you from the tiger. So when you wake up, your default mode network that we've been talking about

is like chattering about safety. This is one of the reasons I think pets help people so much, because if you're in a bad mood, like if I'm, if I, if I listen to the news and I get really angry, but my dog comes over, I have the most amazing dog. He comes over, he's like a therapy dog, right? And he comes over and he's just always so loving, so gentle. It, it takes my mind off of it. If I go outside and watch the hummingbirds, those of you who are nature lovers, see there, he hasn't got his nose up enough. Um, he's just amazing. But I think people who have animals, they start petting their dog and their mind starts to shift away from what's their heart rate variability. Right.

And so I think that's one of the reasons animals, people who are animal lovers have that, they know what we're saying. It's like, oh, just take a minute, pet your cat, pet your dog. It really has that ability to shift your attention. So, you know, one thing, I have no financial interest in the Good News Network, but find a way to start your day with what's right rather than wrong. When my feet hit the floor in the morning, I always go, today is going to be a great day. And then my mind finds why it's going to be a great day. When I go to bed at night,

I think to myself, what went well today? And it's my favorite exercise because I'm always finding super cool things. And it sounds so cliche to say, find something you're grateful for, but don't just find something that you're grateful for. When I first wake, you know, find something you're grateful for, but don't just find something that you're grateful for. When I first wake up, I think about something I'm grateful for, but I've trained myself to think about very small things I'm grateful for, because I think that's one of the things I learned in 2020 was, you know, being grateful that we're

going to Europe. Okay. That's going to set you up for, for it to be very sad, but being grateful for small things, all of a sudden that can make you very happy. Being grateful that your family is healthy. You know, even though you lost your dad, you're grateful that your mom is healthy. Even though if you can start to focus. I was grateful he was my best friend for the last five years, you and he were my best friend. And so being able to focus on some of the small things, being able to focus on the fact that, you know, we've got a roof over our heads that, you know, my dog is, you know, this amazing creature that brings me happiness and focusing on some of those little things. No matter, I think the smaller, the better. And stop the doom scrolling.

That I think that's really the point of this. So what can you do to stop it? You want to kick your doom scrolling habit, set time limits for scrolling no more than 15 minutes at any time. Add good news to your daily scrolling, make it a rule to start and end your day with some positivity. Go on an intermittent information fast. That's funny., mentally unplugged from your news source on a regular basis. So turn off the alerts because the alerts will just interrupt you all the time. If you're

tempted to send a snarky reply to a post, say stop and count to 10 before hitting the send button or here's one here's what i do with that thanks thanks for your feedback thanks for your opinion set up blocks and filters on your devices if certain news sites or social media sites are particularly distressing block them make your bedroom a technology free zone and don't use devices right before bedtime or make it or it may make it hard for you to sleep so um eliminate doom scrolling so we know the podcast is doing really well if we have people outside the grocery store with posters got eliminated doing scrolling um we are so grateful for you and as you go into 2021 you've got to get your mind right that this is the most important uh part of you your brain because it controls everything you do and your mind you know where you focus determines how you feel. So I'm so excited. Relentless

Courage of a Scared Child is coming out this week. And as a gift, as a thank you to all of you for your support, I want to give away signed copies. But to do that, what I would like from you is either take a screenshot of this right here. Those of you who are watching or those of you who are listening, you can go to relentlesscourage.com. And what I need you to do is take a screenshot. So anybody who sees it, take a screenshot, tag 10 friends. If you do that, and then you either tag me at Tana Amen, or you go to brainwarriorswaypodcast.com and send me that, you know, send me a screenshot. Let me know you've done that. I will send you a signed copy. What'd you learn today? Post it on any of your social media sites. I mean, write it down, post it and hashtag brain warriors way podcast. What you've

heard me say a lot is the end of mental illness will only begin with a revolution in brain health. Brain Warriors, revolutionaries, you're going to help me end mental illness by creating a revolution in brain health. Stay with us. If you're enjoying the Brain Warriors Way podcast, please don't forget to subscribe so you'll always know when there's a new episode. And while you're at it, feel free to give us a review or five-star rating as that helps others find the podcast. If you're interested in coming to Amen Clinics, use the code PODCAST10 to get a 10% discount on a full evaluation at amenclinics.com. For more information, give us a call at 855-978-1363.