Doomscrolling rewires your brain: Why nonstop bad news feels addictive

Constant exposure to negative news, called doomscrolling can overstimulate the brain and fuel stress, anxiety, and poor focus among young professionals. 

Scrolling through endless streams of bad news may feel like staying informed, but psychiatrists warn that this habit, known as doomscrolling, can seriously affect how your brain works. From altering memory and focus to increasing anxiety and stress, experts say the constant cycle of negative news can rewire your brain in ways that harm both mental health and daily productivity. 

 

So, if you are someone who thinks “just five more minutes” of news won’t hurt, this is for you. Here is what doctors and neuroscientists are discovering about the doomscrolling trap, and how you can step out of it.

What happens in your brain when you doomscroll?

According to Dr Astik Joshi, Child, Adolescent and Forensic Psychiatrist, doomscrolling lights up your brain’s dopamine system, the same reward circuitry involved in addictive behaviours. Every unpredictable headline or breaking update gives you a tiny dopamine hit, much like pulling a slot machine.

Your amygdala (the brain’s emotion processor) gets overstimulated, while your prefrontal cortex (the rational decision-maker) struggles to rein things in. The result? A compulsive loop that keeps you scrolling long after you meant to stop.

Can doomscrolling cause long-term brain changes?

Yes. Dr Joshi explains that chronic doomscrolling can alter key brain structures:

 

Prefrontal cortex: weakens impulse control and emotional regulation.

 

Amygdala: stays hyper-alert, fuelling anxiety and fear.

 

 Hippocampus: struggles with memory formation and emotional balance.

 

Over time, research even suggests reduced grey matter in these areas, impairing focus, decision-making, and resilience against stress.

Is doomscrolling as addictive as gambling or social media?

“Absolutely,” says Dr Gorav Gupta, CEO and Senior Psychiatrist, Tulasi Healthcare, Gurugram. The brain craves that unpredictable reward—each headline could either shock you, reassure you, or confirm your worst fears. This unpredictability keeps you hooked, reinforcing a  very similar to gambling or excessive social media use.

Why do we get stuck on negative news more than positive?

Blame your evolutionary wiring. According to the experts, humans have what psychologists call a negativity bias: our brains are hardwired to pay more attention to threats than to neutral or positive signals. Add Fomo (fear of missing out) on “vital” updates, and doomscrolling becomes a perfect storm.

How does doomscrolling affect your daily work life?

Doctors warn that the impact isn’t just in your head, it shows up in your productivity, too. Excessive doomscrolling can:

• Disrupt focus, making it harder to concentrate during meetings.
• Impair memory, overwhelming the brain with too much information.
• Cloud judgment, leaving you mentally fatigued and indecisive.

If you have noticed yourself zoning out in office discussions or feeling drained before the day even starts, doomscrolling may be a hidden culprit.

Working millennials and Gen Z are more at risk

According to both doctors, young adults and office-goers are at higher risk because their brains are still more neuroplastic (adaptable). Dr Joshi said doomscrolling at this stage can hardwire habits of anxiety sensitivity, compulsive reward-seeking, and poor emotional regulation. Add peer pressure and social media, and the loop tightens further.

Can doomscrolling have a lasting impact on sleep and mental health?

Unfortunately, yes. Dr Gupta notes that constant exposure to grim news can fuel:

• Chronic stress and elevated cortisol levels.
• Sleep disturbances due to overactivated brain circuits.
• PTSD-like symptoms, intrusive thoughts, or rumination.
• Increased vulnerability to anxiety and depression.

Can you rewire your brain back from doomscrolling?

The doctors say it is possible. The brain's neuroplasticity works both ways, meaning positive habits can undo harmful wiring. They suggest:

• Mindfulness practices: meditation, deep breathing, or yoga.
• Digital boundaries: set app timers, disable push alerts.
• Content diet: consciously balance negative headlines with positive or neutral stories.
• Therapy options: Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), habit substitution, or neurofeedback.

Dr Joshi emphasises that “intentional scrolling” and planned news breaks can help restore balance.

 

 

 

This is only for your information, kindly take the advice of your doctor for medicines, exercises and so on.   

https://gscrochetdesigns.blogspot.com. one can see my crochet creations  
https://gseasyrecipes.blogspot.com. feel free to view for easy, simple and healthy recipes    
https://kneereplacement-stickclub.blogspot.com. for info on knee replacement
https://GSiyers home remedies.blogspot.com   is the latest addition to my blogs

A Child Psychologist says—Here’s What To Do if Your Child Sees Something Violent Online

They’re hard to avoid lately. Violent content is circulating online, sometimes hitting our kids’ screens before we even know what happened. Many are graphic and tagged with minimal warnings, if any. Even young kids can stumble on these images and videos, especially when something’s trending, or when multiple copies of a video are bombarding the feed, overriding even the most stringent parental controls.

It’s natural for parents to think, How do I block this completely? But in today’s digital world, even the most thoughtful rules and filters can’t catch everything. 

Instead of focusing only on prevention, we need to understand how our children process disturbing content if they come across them and know what to do afterward. Because as someone who speaks to parents and teachers daily, I know it’s likely your child will come across unsettling photos or videos at some point.

A Child’s Brain When They See Something Disturbing

The part of the brain that detects danger—the amygdala—can’t always distinguish between something happening in real life and something viewed on a screen. Its job is to detect and react to threats.

To the amygdala, a violent video watched in your bedroom can feel like a violent event is happening in your bedroom. It sounds the alarm: adrenaline and cortisol flood your system, your heart rate speeds up, your digestion slows, and your body mobilizes to face the danger. 

The problem? Bedrooms are supposed to feel safe. But if something terrifying appears there (or in any space that should feel safe), and yes, that means even virtually, it can scramble those safety cues. That’s when we see sleep disruptions, anxiety, irritability, or sudden changes in behavior. 

How To Handle Your Child Seeing Disturbing Content Online

Luckily, there are ways for parents to help their kids handle violent images they may encounter on social media or hear about through friends.

Don’t assume your kid will just tell you

You might think if your child saw something that scared them, they’d say so. But many don’t. Little kids, especially, may engage in magical thinking. They don’t always understand what they saw, but they do feel their own stress response. And they might assume they did something wrong.

Older kids might understand more but feel too embarrassed or worry they’ll get in trouble. That’s why it’s important not to wait for them to bring it up. 

Be direct. You can say something like, “There’s been some scary news today. Did you see anything about it?” Or even: “I heard a video is going around. Did anyone show you something upsetting?”

Even if your kid hasn’t seen a specific video or photo, you’re not opening a can of worms by bringing it up. You’re opening a door.

In my work with schools and parenting classes, I’ve learned that even if a child didn’t see the video, they’ve usually heard about it. Their friends are talking about it on the playground, at lunch, or in the group chat.

It’s better they hear about it from you, with calm facts and an invitation to ask questions, than from a classmate who’s still trying to make sense of it themselves.

‘Just don’t think about it’ doesn’t work

When a child has seen or heard something disturbing, the most common response I hear from adults is: “Try not to think about it.”

Here’s the thing. That’s not just unhelpful advice and it’s impossible. We can’t not think about something on command. If I say, “Don’t picture a pink elephant,” guess what just popped into your head?

Telling a child not to think about something usually makes them think about it more. It focuses their attention on the very thing they’re trying to avoid. Then they’re failing on two counts: they’re not following your advice, and they’re still feeling stressed out. 

Ask them to retell their experience watching it

The best thing to do when a child sees something disturbing is to talk about it. For school-aged children through adolescence, you can have them reiterate what they saw. Ask them questions, such as, “Where were you?” “What else was going on?” and “What could you see, hear, smell, or feel?”

This helps the brain locate the memory in time and space. It cues the prefrontal cortex—the part of the brain that understands context, perspective, and safety—that this event is over. It’s not happening right now. It was something they saw on the school bus, at lunch, or at a friend’s house. They weren’t actually in the room where the frightening event took place; they were watching it on a screen. The amygdala needs that update, so that it can stop setting them up for hypervigilance. 

Sometimes, kids need to tell the story multiple times, until it gets boring. That’s the best way to process it. Turning a visual image into a story that can be filed away helps the brain contextualize information. The brain will then be able to calm down.

After talking, try a simple grounding activity to calm the nervous system even more:

• Name three things in the room that are round, two that are square, and one that’s a triangle.
• Suck on an ice chip, and feel the sensation of cold as it trickles down your throat.
• Breathe in for a count of four, hold for four, and exhale for four. 

These small actions help shift the brain from fear to safety. 

Watch for signs of distress

Not every child or teen will struggle after seeing violent content. But some will. Often, when kids don’t talk, they show. Signs that something’s unsettled them include:

• Trouble sleeping
• Nightmares
• Irritability or quick temper
• Withdrawal
• Heightened startle response

If you see these signs, stay calm and open. Blanket punishments or heavy restrictions around phones or friends can backfire. Kids won’t come to you if they think they’ll get in trouble.

This is especially true for parents who carry trauma themselves. We tell ourselves, My child must never go through what I did. So when something scary breaks through, it feels like a personal failure. That fear can quickly turn into shame or anger. The impulse to criticize, lecture, or clamp down hard comes from a place of pain. But those reactions can shut the door just when your child needs it most.

 

 

This is only for your information, kindly take the advice of your doctor for medicines, exercises and so on.   

https://gscrochetdesigns.blogspot.com. one can see my crochet creations  
https://gseasyrecipes.blogspot.com. feel free to view for easy, simple and healthy recipes    
https://kneereplacement-stickclub.blogspot.com. for info on knee replacement
https://GSiyers home remedies.blogspot.com   is the latest addition to my blogs 

Newly Identified Memory Pathway Could Prevent PTSD

In a newly published study, a team of researchers show that blocking amygdala cells’ interactions with serotonin after trauma may prevent post-traumatic stress disorder.

About 8 million Americans suffer from nightmares and flashbacks to a traumatic event. This condition, known as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), is particularly common among soldiers who have been in combat, though it can also be triggered by physical attack or natural disaster.

Studies have shown that trauma victims are more likely to develop PTSD if they have previously experienced chronic stress, and a new study from MIT may explain why. The researchers found that animals who underwent chronic stress prior to a traumatic experience engaged a distinctive brain pathway that encodes traumatic memories more strongly than in unstressed animals.

Blocking this type of memory formation may offer a new way to prevent PTSD, says Ki Goosens, the senior author of the study.

“The idea is not to make people amnesic but to reduce the impact of the trauma in the brain by making the traumatic memory more like a ‘normal,’ unintrusive memory,” says Goosens, an assistant professor of neuroscience and investigator in MIT’s McGovern Institute for Brain Research.

The paper’s lead author is former MIT postdoc Michael Baratta.

Strong memories
Goosens’ lab has sought for several years to find out why chronic stress is so strongly linked with PTSD. “It’s a very potent risk factor, so it must have a profound change on the underlying biology of the brain,” she says.

To investigate this, the researchers focused on the amygdala, an almond-sized brain structure whose functions include encoding fearful memories. They found that in animals that developed PTSD symptoms following chronic stress and a traumatic event, serotonin promotes the process of memory consolidation. When the researchers blocked amygdala cells’ interactions with serotonin after trauma, the stressed animals did not develop PTSD symptoms. Blocking serotonin in unstressed animals after trauma had no effect.

“That was really surprising to us,” Baratta says. “It seems like stress is enabling a serotonergic memory consolidation process that is not present in an unstressed animal.”

Memory consolidation is the process by which short-term memories are converted into long-term memories and stored in the brain. Some memories are consolidated more strongly than others. For example, “flashbulb” memories, formed in response to a highly emotional experience, are usually much more vivid and easier to recall than typical memories.

Goosens and colleagues further discovered that chronic stress causes cells in the amygdala to express many more 5-HT2C receptors, which bind to serotonin. Then, when a traumatic experience occurs, this heightened sensitivity to serotonin causes the memory to be encoded more strongly, which Goosens believes contributes to the strong flashbacks that often occur in patients with PTSD.

“It’s strengthening the consolidation process so the memory that’s generated from a traumatic or fearful event is stronger than it would be if you don’t have this serotonergic consolidation engaged,” Baratta says.

“This study is a very nice dissection of the mechanism by which chronic stress seems to activate new pathways not seen in unstressed animals,” says Mireya Nadal-Vicens, medical director of the Center for Anxiety and Traumatic Stress Disorders at Massachusetts General Hospital, who was not part of the research team.

Drug intervention
This memory consolidation process can take hours to days to complete, but once a memory is consolidated, it is very difficult to erase. However, the findings suggest that it may be possible to either prevent traumatic memories from forming so strongly in the first place, or to weaken them after consolidation, using drugs that interfere with serotonin.

“The consolidation process gives us a window in which we can possibly intervene and prevent the development of PTSD. If you give a drug or intervention that can block fear memory consolidation, that’s a great way to think about treating PTSD,” Goosens says. “Such an intervention won’t cause people to forget the experience of the trauma, but they might not have the intrusive memory that is ultimately going to cause them to have nightmares or be afraid of things that are similar to the traumatic experience.”

The Food and Drug Administration has already approved a drug called agomelatine that blocks this type of serotonin receptor and is used as an antidepressant.

Such a drug might also be useful to treat patients who already suffer from PTSD. These patients’ traumatic memories are already consolidated, but some research has shown that when memories are recalled, there is a window of time during which they can be altered and reconsolidated. It may be possible to weaken these memories by using serotonin-blocking drugs to interfere with the reconsolidation process, says Goosens, who plans to begin testing that possibility in animals.

The findings also suggest that the antidepressant Prozac and other selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), which are commonly given to PTSD patients, likely do not help and may actually worsen their symptoms. Prozac enhances the effects of serotonin by prolonging its exposure to brain cells. While this often helps those suffering from depression, “There’s no biological evidence to support the use of SSRIs for PTSD,” Goosens says.

“The consolidation of traumatic memories requires this serotonergic cascade and we want to block it, not enhance it,” she adds. “This study suggests we should rethink the use of SSRIs in PTSD and also be very careful about how they are used, particularly when somebody is recently traumatized and their memories are still being consolidated, or when a patient is undergoing cognitive behavior therapy where they’re recalling the memory of the trauma and the memory is going through the process of reconsolidation.”

This is only for your information, kindly take the advice of your doctor for medicines, exercises and so on.     
https://gscrochetdesigns.blogspot.com. one can see my crochet creations  
https://gseasyrecipes.blogspot.com. feel free to view for easy, simple and healthy recipes    
https://kneereplacement-stickclub.blogspot.com. for info on knee replacement 

How beneficial is yoga for the brain?

While aerobics has long been known for strengthening the brain and the growth of neurons, only a few studies have examined how yoga affects the brain. A review of the science finds evidence that yoga enhances many of the same brain structures and functions that benefit from aerobic exercise.

The review has been published in the journal Brain Plasticity. Focusing on 11 studies of the relationship between yoga practice and brain health. Five of the studies engaged individuals with no background in yoga practice in one or more yoga sessions per week over a period of 10-24 weeks, comparing brain health at the beginning and end of the intervention. The other studies measured brain differences between individuals who regularly practice yoga and those who don't.

Each of the studies used brain-imaging techniques such as MRI, functional MRI or single-photon emission computerized tomography. All involved Hatha yoga, which includes body movements, meditation and breathing exercises.

"From these 11 studies, we identified some brain regions that consistently come up, and they are surprisingly not very different from what we see with exercise research," said University of Illinois kinesiology and community health professor Neha Gothe, who led the research with Wayne State University psychology professor Jessica Damoiseaux.

Though many of the studies are exploratory and not conclusive, the research points to other important brain changes associated with regular yoga practice, Damoiseaux said.

The amygdala, a brain structure that contributes to emotional regulation, tends to be larger in yoga practitioners than in their peers who do not practice yoga. The prefrontal cortex, cingulate cortex and brain networks such as the default mode network also tend to be larger or more efficient in those who regularly practice yoga.

Like the amygdala, the cingulate cortex is part of the limbic system, a circuit of structures that plays a key role in emotional regulation, learning and memory, she said.

The studies also find that the brain changes seen in individuals practicing yoga are associated with better performance on cognitive tests or measures of emotional regulation.

The discovery that yoga may have similar effects on the brain to aerobic exercise is intriguing and warrants more study, Gothe said.

"Yoga is not aerobic in nature, so there must be other mechanisms leading to these brain changes," she said. "So far, we don't have the evidence to identify what those mechanisms are."

Yoga helps people with or without anxiety disorders manage their stress, Gothe said.

"The practice of yoga helps improve emotional regulation to reduce stress, anxiety and depression," she said. "And that seems to improve brain functioning."

this is only for your information, kindly take the advice of your doctor for medicines, exercises and so on.     
https://gscrochetdesigns.blogspot.com. one can see my crochet creations  
https://gseasyrecipes.blogspot.com. feel free to view for easy, simple and healthy recipes    
https://kneereplacement-stickclub.blogspot.com. for info on knee replacement     

Binge Drinking in Teenage May Raise Anxiety Later

Are you a heavy drinker? Take note. Alcohol exposure early has lasting effects on the brain and increases the risk of anxiety in adulthood, say researchers.

A study showed adolescent binge drinking, even if discontinued, increases the risk for anxiety later in life due to abnormal epigenetic programming.

"Epigenetics" refers to chemical changes to DNA, RNA or specific proteins associated with chromosomes that change the activity of genes without changing the genes themselves.

"Binge drinking early in life modifies the brain and changes connectivity in the brain, especially in the amygdala, which is involved in emotional regulation and anxiety, in ways we don't totally understand yet," said a Prof.

"But what we do know is that epigenetic changes are lasting and increase susceptibility to psychological issues later in life, even if drinking that took place early in life is stopped," said the Prof.

For the study, adolescent rats that underwent an assessment for anxiety were exposed to ethyl alcohol for two days on and two days off or to the same protocol using saline for 14 days.

The rats were allowed to mature to adulthood without any further exposure to alcohol.

The rats exhibited anxious behaviour later in life, even after the binge drinking regimen stopped in late adolescence. They also had lower levels of a protein called Arc in the amygdala.

Arc is important for the normal development of synaptic connections in the brain.

Rats with less Arc also had about 40 per cent fewer neuronal connections in the amygdala compared with rats that weren't exposed to alcohol.

The decrease in Arc levels is caused by epigenetic changes that alter the expression of Arc, and an enhancer RNA, which modifies the expression of Arc. These changes are caused by adolescent alcohol exposure, said the Prof. 

THIS IS ONLY FOR INFORMATION, ALWAYS CONSULT YOU PHYSICIAN BEFORE HAVING ANY PARTICULAR FOOD/ MEDICATION/EXERCISE/OTHER REMEDIES.                                    PS- THOSE INTERESTED IN RECIPES ARE FREE TO  VIEW MY BLOG-                                                                                           https://gseasyrecipes.blogspot.com/                                                                                                                                                         FOR INFO ABOUT KNEE REPLACEMENT, YOU CAN VIEW MY BLOG-                                                  https:// kneereplacement-stickclub.blogspot.com/           

                                                                           FOR CROCHET DESIGNS                                                                                                                                                                                                  https://gscrochetdesigns.blogspot.com