Doomscrolling & Dopamine Looping

You know that feeling when you pick up your phone “just for a second” and suddenly it’s three hours later and you’re deep in a rabbit hole of increasingly depressing news? Or when you’re cycling through the same four apps over and over, even though nothing new is happening?

Yeah, we’ve all been there. And if you’re neurodivergent, you might find yourself there more often than you’d like.

Doomscrolling is when you get trapped scrolling through negative or alarming content — news, social media drama, comment sections that make your heart race. Dopamine looping is the broader pattern of compulsively checking, refreshing, or switching between apps, chasing that little hit of “something new.”

Here’s the thing though — your brain isn’t broken if this happens to you. Especially if you’re neurodivergent, these patterns often serve a purpose:

• They can feel soothing when you’re overwhelmed (like a digital fidget)
• They provide stimulation when your brain feels understimulated or flat
• They give you a sense of staying “on top” of things, even when life feels chaotic
• They offer distraction from difficult emotions or situations

For ADHD brains especially, the constant novelty can feel really compelling. For autistic brains, it might provide predictable stimulation in an unpredictable world.

The tricky part is that while these loops might feel helpful in the moment, they can leave you feeling drained, anxious, or more scattered than when you started.

If you recognise yourself in this, please be gentle with yourself. You’re not weak or undisciplined — you’re human, and your brain is trying to get needs met in the ways it knows how. The goal isn’t to shame yourself out of these patterns, but to understand what your brain is asking for and maybe find some other ways to give it what it needs.