Embrace My Antsy and Take Lots of Breaks From the News for Better Mental Health

I have some restless tendencies that include, among other things, impatience, anxiety, and a desire to jump from news article to news article and site to site in a downward spiral of doom scrolling . One of the unfortunate results of these behaviors is they feed each other and create an ever worsening feedback loop if left unchecked. The 24-hour news cycle offers me a constant stream of varying types of information on the Internet. There’s absolutely no reason to pay attention to any of it all the time. It’s a constant struggle to fight the pull of heavily biased news media, which can be quite addictive because it’s engineered that way, engineered to elicit strong emotions. Engaged eyeballs make money.

Check Those Emotions

It takes a concious effort to catch myself before or during a doom scrolling mental anguish anger spiral. By “catch myself”, I try to identify when my anxiety and emotions change for the worse. “How do I feel right now”, I ask myself. Lots of times I realize it too late and, before I know it, my mood’s turned sour. And that’s okay. Self improvement is a continual process. As long as I’m able to trigger my brain to do a quick emotional check, it means I’m building the right mental muscles. The more I do it, the quicker I’m able to react to my emotional state and to adjust my actions accordingly. The reward is I get extra time, once spent doom scrolling, to go do something positive like step outside with my dog or just walk around the block.