 This week on the anxious truth. We're talking about social media and the dreaded doom scroll how you can be more intentional with your social media Use to avoid the pitfalls and the traps. So let's get at it Hello, everybody. Welcome back to the anxious truth. This is podcast episode number 267 recorded in July of 2023 I am drew linsellata creator and host of this fine podcast or at least what I hope is a fine podcast The anxious truth is the podcast that covers all things anxiety anxiety disorders and anxiety recovery So if you are struggling with things like panic attacks or agoraphobia This is the place for you and if you're new to the YouTube channel or new to the podcast You just sort of accidentally stumbled in welcome I hope you find it all useful and applicable in some way Of course, if you're a returning viewer or listener welcome back. I'm always glad that you're here today We're gonna talk about social media and the dreaded scroll of doom and we'll talk about what the doom scroll is It's kind of a funny thing that everybody's decided to call it. We'll get into that in a little bit We're gonna talk about how to be a bit more intentional with your social media use so you can get the most out of social media in your anxiety Recovery without falling into some of the traps that are really common in this community before we get into that It's just a quick reminder as always that the anxious truth is more than just this video or this podcast episode on my website At the anxious truth comm you will find a bunch of other resources including books that I've written and workshops and courses that I've created 266 previous podcast episodes all of which are free a bunch of free social media content a bunch of stuff that I think is useful in recovery It's useful psycho educational material. It's inspirational. It's encouraging. Hopefully it points you in the right direction Head on over to the anxious truth and take advantage of all the goodies free and otherwise If in fact you are using this work in your recovery and you're digging it And you want to find a way to support it in a more official or formal way All the ways you can do that are also on the website at the anxious truth comm slash support Including maybe buying a book or some merchandise or taking one of my courses, but while that's always nice It's always appreciated, but it's never ever required in any way that you can support this work By maybe just subscribing to the YouTube channel or liking a video or writing a podcast review or just asking a question in my Comment section somewhere. Thank you. I appreciate it very much. It means the world to me So let's get into today's topic, which is the dreaded social media scroll of doom to doom scroll And a lot of people have never heard this term many people have but some people don't and they get a little nervous Like what's the doom scroll? Well doom scrolling is just sort of a popular term I don't know who coined it, but I kind of dig it It's that thing where by default when you don't know what else to do you pick up your mobile device You pick up your phone and you just start scrolling Maybe that's on Instagram or tiktok or Twitter or Facebook But you just scrolling and scrolling and scrolling all day long. It's become known as the doom scroll And why do we not like the doom scroll? Well, listen, everybody gets a little bored and sometimes we want to fill time and we will scroll social media to fill time I get that sometimes we just are out of brain cells and it's been a long day And you just want something mindless and you might scroll through social media to do that. That's totally fine I'm not saying that it's always evil and you should never ever ever be on tiktok or Instagram. I'm not saying that at all Of course, there are there can be benefits to using social media in your anxiety recovery But there can also be some pitfalls and what we're gonna talk about today is a way to be a little bit more mindful in your use Of social media as an anxiety recovery tool so you can help to avoid some of the traps and pitfalls that that sort of Default doom scrolling can lead you into So for anxious people who are trying to get help with their anxiety On social media platforms the doom scroll often becomes a distraction technique or a soothing technique And distraction being oh, I'm getting really anxious I better pick up my phone and go on Instagram and start scrolling really rapidly or go on You know tiktok and scroll or go to YouTube and find a video to watch Sometimes it's a soothing thing. I'm really afraid right now because my anxiety is kicking up And it's triggered this fear in me and I feel like I'm under some sort of threat that I can't identify Let me fire up Instagram and go look at what Drew has to say and what Josh Fletcher is saying what Kim Quinlan is saying and Let's see maybe somebody's gonna make me feel better So there's distraction. There's the instantaneous soothing Sometimes we go into the default scrolling scrolling scrolling mode because we're just looking for answers Which is totally fine Everybody's entitled to look for some answers and I'd like to think that I'm providing some quality information You know my usual collaborators that I work with all the time. I trust the things that they have to say I think there's good information out there But sometimes the excessive perpetual doom scroll that you engage in by default Some days is meant to just try and find that one little bit of magic information Where's that magic post? Maybe there'll be a new person that I can follow Maybe there's a technique that I haven't heard of yet. Maybe I'll hear somebody describe my Specific fear perfectly and and will soothe my fear and tell me that it's gonna be okay And that can become a bit compulsive So you can have a compulsive need to read and learn and gather resources and gather stories and and and be Calm down and and be educated and learn the mechanics and the theories and all of those things and that can become part of your automatic doom scrolling too But in the end that can lead to Maybe less than perfect results or even less than beneficial results Certainly you can use social media as a tool in your recovery But if we are not careful and we default to just mindless Automatic compulsive scrolling all the time without a goal in mind or a realistic or critically Evaluated goal we can fall into some traps. What are those traps? The first trap would be That you use social media scrolling as a safety device when you get anxious you immediately go and start scrolling That's a problem because it teaches your brain that when you are anxious You have to do something to get away from it and we know based on the principles of recovery If you've been following along or reading my books or whatever it happens to be You know that that's kind of a habit that we want to break So the doom scroll the automatic scroll the mindless Unintentional scroll can become a safety device or an avoidance behavior You can also wind up being overwhelmed with anxiety and recovery information So this becomes especially true if you are following a bunch of accounts like mine on Instagram and tiktok and all over the place and you just follow 50 different anxiety accounts and Advocates and gurus and teachers and coaches and therapists and you just spend all day long consuming all of the information that we create You can wind up an information overload. This is actually reasonably common Even for people who maybe don't have the automatic doom scrolling problem every once in a while Almost everybody winds up in a situation where they are just drowning in Information about anxiety and being constantly reminded of it and constantly immersed in it That could be a negative consequence of defaulting to picking up your phone and immediately scrolling social media without any intention Just doing it just because so information overload is a thing and Information overload as it pertains to anxiety recovery can sometimes lead to recovery paralysis like I all I I've seen 16 different posts today about exposures and and steps and techniques and tapping and oils and and meds and Regulating my nervous system and facing fear and I'm just overloaded with it I'm overwhelmed and I'm paralyzed because I don't know what to do Like if you've ever Been in that position know that you're not alone That's actually a very common place that many people wind up with wind up in quite often when they consume so much Information in the doom scroll of anxiety social media That's normal if you find that you're you go into sort of brain lock because you're just Overwhelmed with the amount of information you're being being you know immersed in it's like a fire hose coming at you That's a thing. It's not just you And the other thing that can really happen and there are other issues that that can be pitfalls in terms of just mindlessly scrolling social media for Your anxiety, but the other common one is mixed signals So many times if you are looking to social media for anxiety and recovery resources You feel like you have to follow everybody that seems to make some sort of sense Or if they have a big following or your friends mentioned this person I better follow them too So then you wind up following me and other people who sound like me and other therapists and some coaches and some mental health Advocates and some wellness people and next thing you know you are following a hundred and fifteen different anxiety and mental health related accounts and that overwhelming fire hose of information isn't only a problem in terms of its volume and the amount of information but you start to get mixed signals and differing Opinions and differing advice so I can tell you right now that if I picked up my Instagram And I scrolled for maybe ten minutes just the people that I follow who are other content creators in this space If I was a recovering person I would hear at least probably three different almost conflicting approaches to this Now I'm not saying that they are entirely in opposition to each other But without somebody to help you integrate those desperate this not desperate Desperate that's very different Different messages together and understand how to put them into the particular context that you go in and out of every day It would start to feel like well this person is telling me to do one person This person says to do another this person says that I have to regulate my nervous system This person says that's not a thing this person says I should tap on my cheek This person says don't ever do that this person says avoid your triggers This person says triggers aren't a thing you can really wind up in a bit of paralysis because you don't know who to trust and You don't know what to do like everybody's giving me different things here. Which one is the right air quotes right thing So those are the most common problems that you come up against when you just default to scrolling on social media Endlessly, I'm gonna say mindlessly because that's a bit of a nasty thing to say but without direction So if you're scrolling is not intentional. It's just automatic I scroll just because I have to scroll and I have to look for I get to see what all the anxiety people are saying today But why so what I would tell you to do is not to just sign off forever and sometimes I get a little bit I get up, you know get my my my Dander up and sometimes I'll post things about like hey turn off your phone for the rest of today And I'll continue to do that from time to time as reminders You don't have to leave social media completely But one way that you can probably avoid the doom scroll and the pitfalls I just talked about is to get a little bit more intentional when you decide that you're going to access social media from an anxiety standpoint And you could do that by asking yourself a few questions So before you pick up your phone and you fire up tiktok or Instagram or whatever it is you're gonna go to Maybe you can ask yourself a couple of questions and the first question that I would ask is what am I hoping to find right now? Why do I need to scroll do I have a specific question that maybe drew or Josh or somebody might be able to answer and maybe they Said something about it today. Okay, that's fair. Do I have something specific that I'm looking for is there something I'm unclear about is there a success story a particular success story that maybe I'm hoping to see I don't know Maybe you don't have to answer that question. I can't answer for you but first ask what am I looking for right now and if the answer is Well, I'm bored and bored makes me anxious So I need to scroll through all my anxiety accounts to see what they're saying just to scroll Well, maybe that's the thing you want to question if you are dealing today with some intrusive thoughts that really scare you Maybe they're disturbing thoughts about themes that you really hate and are afraid of or maybe you're having a particular physical symptom That really scares you What are you hoping to find am I I'm gonna scroll just because maybe somebody will say something about this racing heart And it'll make me feel better about that. Okay. Well, that's at least an answer to the question. Ask the question What am I trying to get today when I scroll? Then consider putting a time limit and you could set it you could use your watch you could use an egg time You could use the phone itself There are sometimes apps you can use that limit your screen time on certain social media apps You could try all of those things, right? But now that I've decided that I'm looking for something specific and there's no right or wrong answer there But at least you've set some sort of intention. How long am I gonna allow myself to scroll to try and find what I just said I'm looking for 10 minutes 15 minutes 20 minutes 30 minutes only you could decide what's right for you But it's all too common to not set that intention to do it sort of automatically on autopilot and boom 90 minutes later or two hours later. You're still scrolling and you don't even know why So what am I looking for and how long will I give myself to find it? The third question that I think is valuable to ask is If I know what I'm looking for and I know I'm gonna give myself 20 minutes to find it And then I'm shutting this down and walking away from it It what am I gonna find in those 20 minutes? If this is a thing that I have been looking for for weeks or months or possibly years in the scroll and I still Haven't found it. What are the odds that I'm gonna find it today? So this is where you it's almost a follow-up to the first question What am I looking for cool that answer that without judgment, but then maybe pop back in and say, okay? Well, this is a new thing. I'm looking for is it practical Is am I looking for an answer to a question that even exists? Have I been searching for this information now for the last six months? Hoping to hear something a little bit different about dpdr that will somehow make me less afraid Am I likely to find that today in the 20 minutes? I'm allotting maybe not So what happens if I don't look for it today ask yourself that question And then I think the other thing that you might consider is What else could I do right now? This is not to say that you should never access social media Let me be clear about that. I want to make sure that I'm being clear about that But maybe you set a time during the day where well This is when I this is when I do that or this is when I do that about mental health again You know if you want to scroll through funny cat videos just because your brain is a little fried and you need To break totally fine. I get that maybe don't make that the only thing you do today But that's okay to do that But if you're gonna set limits and be intentional about your mental health use of social media in the context of anxiety information anxiety recovery ask yourself well instead of scrolling now to look for Something else about dpdr or something else about the scary thought or something else about you know air hunger That I've been looking for for months and months and months Maybe this is the day that I'll find the magic words that will make it click And I won't be afraid of that anymore. Am I likely to find that probably not so what else can I do today in this moment? For this next 15 or 20 minutes instead of scrolling. What can I actually do to take some step toward recovery? That's a pretty big question to ask and sometimes there might not be necessarily a clear answer Because you might be going to the scroll automatically because you feel incapable of taking action But that's a good time to put down the phone for a second and ask Okay, wait a minute. I'm scrolling because it's a substitute for taking action because I don't feel like I can do anything right now But maybe I can do something and some days That's as little as getting out of bed or off the sofa putting on some actual clothing brushing your teeth brushing your hair Making yourself a cup of tea and having a sandwich on some days That is actually forward progress and that's perfectly okay Forward progress doesn't have to be oh my god I busted through my anxiety brick wall and I made a huge leap forward and look at me recovering now Recovered doesn't work that way anyway, so Challenge the automatic scroll by asking what else can I do instead of that for the next 15 or 20 minutes? So take yourself through those series of questions. What am I looking for? How long will I give myself to find it? Should I even be looking for that or is this something that I've been looking for for months? And what are the odds that I'll magically find it today if I haven't already found it and what might I do instead of scrolling for the next 15 minutes? That can actually show me that I'm capable of taking care of myself even in the smallest ways So when you ask those questions Before you fire up Instagram or tiktok or YouTube you're being a little bit more intentional with Why you're going to scroll right now? I'm going to scroll for this particular reason now These aren't always black and white questions Sometimes you won't have good clear answers to these but even just asking the questions can put the brakes on a little bit and make you a little Bit more mindful and a little bit more intentional when you decide to scroll because if you ask the question Or am I looking for and your answer is I don't even know okay? But you at least answer the question and now you are making a more mindful and conscious choice to scroll anyway So that counts ask yourself those questions go through that little exercise It'll only and you know mentally it's only going to take you 20 seconds 30 seconds probably to run through that and then you can decide Should I scroll now? Yeah, let me put it off. I'll do it later. Okay, cool What else can I do right now while I'm anxious or while I don't have answers while I don't know while I'm unsure? What can I do? That's a big question and finding answers to that is really a big part of the recovery process So I don't want to belabor the point because now we've gone on for about 15 minutes on this topic And that's about enough But when you can be a little bit more mindful a little bit more purposeful a little bit and a little bit more Intentional with the way you use social media as part of your recovery You may find that you're getting more benefit from it when you do scroll. It's more productive. It's more educational It's more informative and maybe it motivates actual actions and on the flip side of that You may find that you're experiencing less adverse impact from just endless endless scroll because another thing that the scroll can do is make you feel bad because I keep looking and I keep reading and I see all these Posts and they're so happy and sometimes it makes you feel bad Sometimes it makes you feel bad because you have a little bit of resentment for people who are feeling better That's normal. By the way, everybody feels that it doesn't make you a bad person Sometimes it makes you feel like you're failing and you're never going to get it And the other thing that can happen is at the end of that unplanned two and a half hour scroll You feel like I just wasted another 200. What am I doing? That's another two and a half hours that I wasted I could have been doing my exposures. I could have been cleaning the house. I could have been taking care of the kids I could have been doing my email or my schoolwork. It can make you feel bad and there's no reason for that That's a self-inflicted wound So consider being a little trying your best use those five questions come up with your own questions It doesn't matter. You don't have to use my questions but start with those to try to make your use of social media in a mental health and recovery context a bit more intentional a bit More mindful a bit more purposeful and it'll help keep you out of that like endless doom scroll That just never ends and often doesn't go anywhere and doesn't really have a purpose when you really dissect it So hopefully that has been helpful I mean, I think it's a practical tip. It's something you can try Remember whenever you do things that are different So if scrolling social media is a habit and it's a habit based on Soothing yourself or distracting yourself or trying to find words that make you feel better in the moment Not doing that will be a challenge So while this might not seem like a big scary exposure thing to do it is the breaking of a habit and in the context of an anxiety disorder so many of our habits are Essentially comfort and safety seeking so when you back away from that habit and challenge it and do something a little different often It will feel difficult. It will be challenging. You might feel Little responsible a little scary to do that. You might feel a little vulnerable if you stop scrolling today That's okay. You can work through that know that that is normal. You're changing your habits You're changing your routine and that's hard for all human beings. It's even harder for anxious people So that's it. That is episode 267 of the anxious truth in the books on more mindful and intentional use of social media to get away from the dreaded doom scroll Again, if you're digging all of this and you want more from me Just go to the anxious truth calm and check out all the other stuff that I have And of course if you are listening to the podcast on Apple podcast or Spotify Some place where you can rate and review the podcast Maybe leave a five-star rating if you dig it or take a second and write a nice review because it helps other people find the podcast And then more people get help which is kind of why I do this to begin with first If you're watching on YouTube hit the like button leave a comment subscribe to the YouTube channel hit the notification bell So you know when I upload new stuff, but I will be back next week again with another podcast episode Don't know what I'm gonna be talking about but I will be here remember that Disordered which is the podcast that I do with Josh Fletcher comes out every Friday This one is every Wednesday. Disordered is every Friday go to disorder.fm and check that one out It's really good. That's some of the best work. I've ever done digging doing that with Josh and yeah See you guys next week Be more intentional today be more mindful with your social media use and take some tiny step Forward toward recovery because no matter how small that step is they all do add up in the end Every one of them counts even when it's hard even when you struggle even you don't get it perfectly right It's better to try to take a step than to not take a step at all. I'll see you next week