Doomscrolling Climate News: a 21st Century Obsession
We’ve all done it. You open your phone to check your email or read a text and ten minutes later you’re somehow six Wikipedia pages deep into the invention of the ironing board. For people with climate anxiety, this is an even more dangerous game.
Many people today find themselves caught doomscrolling, the habit of continuously consuming negative or sensational media that gets looped and feels impossible to escape. Time can pass quickly doing this, and before you know it you’ve read multiple articles about climate change and the future of the planet.
Caring about the environment is important. However, constant exposure to distressing information can leave you feeling overwhelmed, anxious, and drained.
Why Climate News Can Be So Hard To Stop Reading
Our brains are naturally wired to pay attention to potential threats from an evolutionary perspective. Noticing danger used to help us survive. Now, though, those danger signals can latch onto things that they don’t need to latch onto that strongly, such as posts we see on social media. Social media is designed to keep us engaged, often highlighting the worst news and urgency. When these updates focus on environmental disasters and worst-case scenarios, it can make us feel like it is our responsibility to keep scrolling, even to the detriment of our mental health.
While awareness is valuable, it is also dangerous for people already prone to anxiety and climate fears. Some people may realize that they feel more anxious or on edge, discouraged, or distracted. Over time, this always-available stream of information can lead to even more anxiety and fear than previously.
Caring For The Planet Without Sacrificing Your Mental Health
The most important thing to realize about doomscrolling is that staying informed does not require constant exposure. It is helpful to set boundaries around media and bad news. This could mean choosing a specific time of day to read updates, setting timers for scrolling, or taking breaks when you start to feel overwhelmed. It is also helpful to notice how your body feels while consuming this stressful media. If you feel tense, anxious, depressed, or notice physical symptoms like chest pain, that is your sign to take a break and shift attention elsewhere.
Feeling concerned about climate change is not a weakness. It shows that you are empathetic and aware of the challenges we and the future generations face. However, caring about the world does not mean you need to carry the weight and responsibility for the entire planet yourself. It is impossible to solve a huge global issue like climate change on your own–you need to protect yourself in order to make changes in your community and with loved ones.
Learning To Stay Informed Without Losing Your Peace
Learning to step back, recharge, and put your phone away when needed allows you to stay engaged with environmental issues in a more sustainable way. Taking care of your mental health is not ignoring the problem. In fact, it can make it possible to continue caring, advocating, and working to change what you can while breathing out what you cannot. If climate concerns are becoming difficult to manage, climate anxiety therapy can offer a supportive space to process those feelings without disconnecting from the issues that matter to you.
As for doomscrolling, that has become an almost unavoidable part of living in 2026. Perhaps instead of climate news, though, we should all stick to baby kittens and screaming goats.
