5 Ways To Improve Your Mental Health and Limit "Doomscrolling"
It’s a beautifully sunny day, you’re woken up by your adorable cat who just wants to play (at ungodly hours) and what’s the first thing you reach for? Your trusty phone. Just as you go to unlock it a News notification appears, then another and another. You swipe it to read… 3 hours have passed and you’re still going. There’s so much going on in the world, you have to know. Right? Well, a balance is always healthy. So let’s halt that doomscrolling for a bit.
Source: Urban Dictionary
While it is tempting, and good to educate ourselves on the important events happening in the world, it is just as crucial to take a step back and pause. But that can be hard to do sometimes, so here are 5 tips to help you avoid doing this every night;
1. Allocate specific time for news
It’s becoming easier everyday, due to the events occurring in the world, to end up in an endless scroll of doomsday news. You need to take a break sometimes, your mental health is important too. A great way to implement this is to use your phone to help you; set a reminder to turn off your phone, use the plethora of apps available to limit your daily usage, create habits like reading the news for 15 minutes then putting it down for a few hours so that this behaviour becomes ingrained within you.
2. Set time aside to hang out with your family, pets, friends.
Your loved ones are here for you, and maybe they’re going through the same problem right now (well, excluding your pets). Doomscrolling has become a problem for many people in our current society, so reach out and suggest maybe hanging out somewhere or just video call and binge-watch that new drama you’ve been waiting for. We guarantee spending time with your loved ones will instantly make you feel more happy!
3. Don’t use your phone for at least an hour before bed!
“Oh, but it helps me sleep.” Does it? Is 3am a great time to sleep? We’re not judging here, but just stating some harsh truths we all need to accept. Develop this great habit over time, start off by shutting off your screen 15 minutes, then 30 minutes before and before you know it - you’ll be shutting it off an hour before. Exposure to blue light has been scientifically proven to mess with your body and mind’s ability to sleep, as it blocks melatonin (a hormone used to make you sleepy). A good amount of sleep is a necessity, not a choice. Prioritise.
4. Make a conscious effort to avoid using your phone.
We know, it is SO tempting to wake up and check your phone first thing in the morning but we need to change that ASAP. The easiest way to do this is to shut off those pesky push notifications, use your lockscreen to see your special kitty, not lines and lines of panic.
Another great way is to change up the order of your apps. Remember that great iOS 14 update that took over Pinterest for a bit? If you can carve out the time to personalise all of your apps, then you can also shift the order of your apps. Move Twitter, Facebook and the News apps to the second or even third slide. You don’t need to see those all the time and be tempted to enter that blackhole again.
5. Replace negative with positive, read good news!
While the events around the world at the moment are very serious and impactful, there are also amazing things coming out of these distressing times. Shift that angle a little bit a few times a day, it’ll show you that while humanity may be facing tremendous challenges right now some good has come out of it too. Some funny cat or dog memes also help with any bad mood. You have to make a conscious choice to distance yourself from negative news.