Doomscrolling and Teen Mental Health: Managing Digital Overload in Adolescents
You know the feeling: it’s late at night, you tell yourself you’re just checking one last thing on your phone, and before you know it, an hour has vanished. Post after post, video after video, most of it negative or unsettling. This endless cycle has a name: doomscrolling. And if you’ve ever found yourself trapped in it, you’re definitely not alone.
Doomscrolling and teen mental health can create a cycle of negativity, which can go in both directions. While doomscrolling can worsen symptoms of conditions such as anxiety and depression, heightened symptoms can also lead to more time spent online.
If you’re concerned about the effects of doomscrolling on your teen’s well-being, you may be wondering how to break this cycle. A mental health professional is well-placed to give advice and support. This guide can also help, as it breaks down:
- What doomscrolling actually is
- Why doomscrolling happens and who’s most at risk
- How it connects with social media addiction and mental health struggles
- The impact doomscrolling can have on teens’ wellbeing
- What you can do if you think doomscrolling has become a problem
What Is Doomscrolling?
When online content doesn’t immediately capture our attention, the instinct is to keep scrolling until something does, and when we finally find it, the relief is typically short-lived. A clip might last a few seconds or an article a few minutes, but as soon as it’s over the cycle begins again, pushing us straight back into the feed.
At first, this habit might feel harmless. After all, isn’t it just keeping yourself entertained or staying up to date? Perhaps not; research shows that the reality could be far more complicated.1
During the pandemic, people turned to their phones for every scrap of information about COVID-19, hoping that answers would make them feel safer in the middle of uncertainty.1 The issue is that most of what appeared in feeds was negative, and rather than easing fears, it created a stronger urge to keep scrolling. This means that, instead of finding reassurance, people often found themselves stuck in a cycle where the more they read, the more unsettled they became.
Experts now describe doomscrolling as a habitual, almost immersive search for negative information online, and this description explains why it feels so difficult to stop.2 You might not set out to look for bad news, but your brain is wired to keep seeking anything that might relieve the tension of the unknown. Algorithms then amplify this process, remembering what captures your attention and feeding you more of the same, ensuring the cycle repeats.
No matter what your reasons are for doomscrolling, the end result is the same: compulsive scrolling that leaves you feeling worse than before you picked up the phone.
Are Teens More Likely to Doomscroll?
It’s easy to assume that teens are more at risk of doomscrolling because they’re more connected to technology than older generations. But the research tells a different story. Doomscrolling can affect anyone, and the difference in who it impacts might lie less in age and more in personality traits.
For example, one study found that doomscrolling was less common in people high in conscientiousness, extraversion, and agreeableness, and more common in people high in neuroticism.1 When you look at the descriptions of these traits, this finding makes sense:
- Conscientiousness: People who are conscientious are typically good at controlling their behavior and staying focused on their goals. They often take responsibility and show commitment in their tasks, which can help limit time on social media.
- Extraversion: Extraverted people may have a stronger desire to join social activities and tend to be more likely to experience positive emotions. This can lead them to use the internet to connect with others and enjoy their time online rather than falling into negative scrolling.
- Agreeableness: Traits like trust, cooperation, and flexibility are linked with agreeableness. These qualities can help people use social media feeds in a healthier way. People high in agreeableness are also reported to be less likely to overuse their phones.
- Neuroticism: People high in neuroticism may be more vulnerable to emotional instability, distress, and anxiety. They also often react more strongly to negative emotions. This makes them more prone to sadness and low self-esteem, which increases the risk of doomscrolling behavior.
So while teens may seem to be the most likely group to doomscroll, the truth is that personality traits likely play a far bigger role than age alone. But is it only personality traits that would make a person more likely to doomscroll? Research suggests it’s not the only reason.
What Is Social Media Addiction and Is It Linked to Doomscrolling?
Think about a crowded bus or train. Some people might be chatting with each other, but most are locked onto their phones, with social media steering their concentration. Yet you wouldn’t raise an eyebrow or show displeased body language cues in response to this behavior as you might with someone drinking alcohol at 7am. It’s this kind of social acceptance that makes behavioral addictions such as social media addiction harder to spot.
Social media addiction (SMA) has its own hallmark signs.3 It shows itself when someone feels restless if they’re not online, when they lose hours scrolling without realizing, or when checking social media gets in the way of daily life. Social platforms are designed to keep us hooked, and this constant pull is what makes stepping back from them feel so difficult.
This is exactly where doomscrolling comes in. One study found that doomscrolling had positive links with FOMO (fear of missing out), SMA, and the number of hours spent online each day.1 For someone already caught up in SMA, it can be even harder to stay away from the compulsive cycle of doomscrolling. The addiction draws them to the platforms in the first place, and once they’re there, the endless stream of negative news keeps them scrolling long past the point of comfort.
How Does Persistent Doomscrolling Affect Teens’ Mental Health?
As a teen, you might even be thinking, Well, my emotions are flying around everywhere most of the time anyway, so why does it matter if doomscrolling affects these things? The truth is that these areas build the foundations for how you grow and develop. So, if they’re weakened now, this effect can last well into adulthood.
The following sections take a look at how doomscrolling could affect teens’ mental health.
Life Satisfaction
Life satisfaction centers around feeling content with your world and your place in it. Doomscrolling makes this contentment harder because it filters life through negativity. The more time you spend stuck in bad news, the easier it becomes to lose sight of the positives around you, potentially leading to conditions like anxiety and depression.
Research shows that when children and adolescents already have mental health problems, they often carry lower life satisfaction and poorer quality of life into adulthood.4 In other words, what happens now could shape the years ahead.
Mental Well-Being
Overall mental well-being is your everyday state of mind: how you feel, how you manage stress, and how resilient you are when things get tough. Doomscrolling drags mental well-being down because it fuels worry and unease. When well-being is low for too long, it can tip into mental health conditions. Studies show that while conditions like anxiety and depression can affect all ages, people between 10 and 24 are at the highest risk.5 This makes this stage of life particularly important to protect.
Harmony in Life
Harmony is the sense that things flow together rather than pull you apart. Doomscrolling disrupts this balance by keeping your focus on fear and uncertainty, which makes it harder to feel present in your own life.Research on human happiness has found a U-shaped pattern when it comes to harmony: Happiness tends to be higher in childhood, dips through the teen and young adult years, then rises again later in life.6 This dip shows how delicate the adolescent stage is. If doomscrolling adds more strain now, it can deepen the low points and affect how you grow into adulthood.
At What Point Does Scrolling Become Doomscrolling?
So, we’ve covered the rough side of doomscrolling and the links it has with things like social media addiction and mental health. At this point, you might be thinking, I don’t want to end up in this spot at all. But before you start blaming yourself for picking up your phone, it’s important to clear a few things up.
Scrolling itself isn’t the issue. If you’re passing time on a train, or catching up on the latest news story because you want to stay informed, there’s nothing wrong with that. You shouldn’t feel guilty for being on your phone, and that’s not what this page is about. The problem lies in when scrolling shifts into the kind of action that pulls you into negativity and starts to link with issues that hurt your well-being.
If you’re not sure where you stand right now, the best step is to be honest with yourself. Below are a few questions about your scrolling habits. These could help you clarify whether your scrolling habits are healthy or starting to lean into problematic territory.
Doomscrolling Self-Assessment:
- Do you often keep scrolling even when you already feel drained, anxious, or low?
- Have you noticed your scrolling habits leaving you tired, distracted, or less present with friends or family?
- Do you feel restless or uneasy when you try to put your phone down, almost like you need to keep scrolling?
- Have you caught yourself going to your phone for comfort but feeling worse afterwards?
- Do you regularly lose track of time while scrolling, realizing hours have passed when you only meant to spend a few minutes online?
If you answered “yes” to some of these, don’t panic. Recognizing the signs is the first step, and it means you’ve already started breaking the cycle. The good news is there’s help out there. For some, this might mean working on the scrolling habit itself. For others, it may be about addressing the underlying mental health struggles that fuel the behavior.
Either way, support is available, and you don’t have to figure it out alone.
How Mission Prep Can Help
If doomscrolling is taking up more of your teen’s time and energy than they want, or if it’s feeding into struggles like anxiety, depression, or SMA, it’s important to know there is help available. Parents can feel reassured that support exists to help young people step out of the cycle and build healthier routines.
At Mission Prep, we create a safe space where teens can explore what’s driving their doomscrolling and the emotions that come with it. Our therapists use CBT to challenge the negative thought patterns that keep scrolling going, and DBT to build skills for managing the intense feelings that often trigger it. Family therapy is also encouraged as it brings everyone into the conversation, with the aim of helping parents understand how to support their teen at home.
For teens who need a change of pace, our locations provide time away from the pressures of everyday life so they can focus fully on recovery. With close guidance, they can break down the habits that have been weighing them down and build practical strategies they can take back into their daily lives.
No matter how overwhelming doomscrolling feels right now, progress is possible. The cycle can be broken, and with the right support, you can find balance again. Reach out to us today if you’re ready to start.
References
- Satici, S. A., Gocet Tekin, E., Deniz, M. E., & Satici, B. (2022). Doomscrolling Scale: its Association with Personality Traits, Psychological Distress, Social Media Use, and Wellbeing. Applied Research in Quality of Life, 18(2), 833–847. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11482-022-10110-7
- Sharma, B., Lee, S. S., & Johnson, B. K. (2022). The dark at the end of the tunnel: Doomscrolling on social media newsfeeds. Technology, Mind, and Behavior, 3(1: Spring 2022). 10.1037/tmb0000059[Ref list]
- Tullett-Prado, D., Stavropoulos, V., Gomez, R., & Doley, J. (2023). Social Media Use and Abuse: Different Profiles of Users and Their Associations with Addictive behaviors. Addictive Behaviors Reports, 17, 100479. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.abrep.2023.100479
- Schlack, R., Peerenboom, N., Neuperdt, L., Junker, S., & Beyer, A.-K. (2021). The effects of mental health problems in childhood and adolescence in young adults: Results of the KiGGS cohort. Journal of Health Monitoring, 6(4), 3–19. https://doi.org/10.25646/8863
- McGorry, P., Gunasiri, H., Mei, C., Rice, S., & Gao, C. X. (2025). The Youth Mental Health crisis: Analysis and Solutions. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 15. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1517533
- Singh, S. (2023). Health, Hope, and Harmony: A Systematic Review of the Determinants of Happiness across Cultures and Countries. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 20(4), 3306. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20043306
