How to Stop Doomscrolling and Stay Informed

You open your phone to check one headline. Several updates later, you are still reading, but you feel less settled and no clearer about what to do. How can you stop doomscrolling without losing touch with events that matter?

Start by giving each news check a purpose and an ending. The aim is to make room for useful information, then return to the rest of your day. The practical plan below is an experiment you can adapt, not a prescribed screen-time limit.

When does keeping informed become doomscrolling?

Doomscrolling describes repeatedly consuming upsetting online content even when the experience is making you feel worse. Cleveland Clinic’s guide to doomscrolling highlights repeated refreshing, losing track of time and continuing despite feeling drained as signs to notice.

A useful question is: “What am I finding out now that I did not know ten minutes ago?” You might genuinely need a new update. Or you might be reading the same uncertainty in twenty different comments. That distinction gives you somewhere practical to begin.

1. Write down what you actually need to know

Before opening a feed, finish this sentence: “This check is for…” Make the answer specific enough that you can recognise when it is complete.

• A practical decision: “I need to know whether my train is running.” Go to the operator’s service information.
• An important development: “I want a summary of what has changed since yesterday.” Choose one established news source and read its overview.
• Contact with someone: “I am worried about my friend.” A direct message may answer that need better than another general update.

If you cannot name a question, you can choose to put the phone down for now. You are allowed to be interested in the world without having to investigate every alert.

2. Choose a news window with a clear finish

The UK Mental Health Foundation recommends noticing your limits, taking breaks and being intentional about news consumption. One way to apply that advice is to choose a short, planned check rather than leaving a feed open throughout the day.

For example: “After lunch, I will read one summary for up to ten minutes, then close the app.” Ten minutes is simply a starting example. Adjust it to your responsibilities. If you work shifts, attach the check to a meal or another reliable event rather than a fixed clock time.

Keep essential safety alerts and necessary contact available. If an event directly affects your safety, travel or loved ones, follow relevant official guidance and make a plan suited to that situation.

3. Give the news a different route into your day

Cleveland Clinic suggests practical boundaries such as keeping the phone out of reach and using time limits. Try one change that addresses your own pattern:

• If a feed opens automatically whenever you unlock your phone, move its shortcut off the first screen.
• If comments keep pulling you back, read the main report and leave the discussion unopened.
• If non-essential headline alerts interrupt meals, mute those alerts while leaving important calls available.

You do not need to redesign every setting today. Choose the entry point that most often turns a deliberate check into an unplanned session.

4. Prepare the moment after you close the app

An ending is easier to follow when you know what comes next. Before reading, decide on a small action: clear your cup, open the book beside you or return to the person you were talking with.

Try this sentence when another update tempts you: “I have checked what I needed. My next check is after lunch tomorrow.” If tomorrow is too far away for your circumstances, choose a realistic next time. The point is to make a decision you can use.

If a story matters deeply to you, write down one constructive response to consider later. That could be checking on someone affected or finding a local volunteering opportunity. You do not have to keep watching distressing material to demonstrate that you care.

5. Review one moment, rather than judging the whole day

After a few days, look at one occasion when you intended to stop. Did you reach the ending you chose? What pulled you back? What needs changing?

Here is a simple example to copy:

My check: One lunchtime news summary.
My stopping point: When I have read the main developments.
My next action: Put the phone on the shelf and make lunch.
If I reopen the feed: Close it when I notice, without extending the session to “finish everything”.

A longer-than-planned session gives you information about the plan. If the same difficulty keeps returning, make the next experiment smaller. Our guide to breaking unhelpful habits explores the broader process of noticing cues and practising a different response.

Optional listening: practise pausing and choosing

Break Unhelpful Habits — Pause, Choose and Begin Again is a 36-minute 20-second guided hypnosis recording. It offers a separate time for relaxation and imagining a different response to familiar habit cues.

This is a general wellbeing recording, not a tested treatment for doomscrolling, addiction or anxiety. It does not guarantee a change in your phone use. Practical changes and appropriate professional support remain important.

Want an offline copy? View the complete MP3 download for £6.95, with a one-time payment, permanent access and no subscription. You can also listen to the complete recording free on YouTube before deciding whether to buy.

Prefer listening in an app? Explore the Letting Go Hypnosis Android app, which includes three free recordings: Deep Sleep Reset, Build Self-Confidence, and Let Go of Stress & Deeply Relax.

Listen safely and know when to get support

Only listen to hypnosis somewhere safe to sit or lie down. Never listen while driving, cycling, operating machinery or doing anything that needs your attention. Stop if uncomfortable and become fully alert before resuming activities.

The NHS cautions that hypnotherapy may not be safe for people with schizophrenia, a history of psychosis or epilepsy. If this applies to you, seek advice from your treating clinician before using hypnosis.

If news-related distress persists, brings up traumatic memories, or interferes with sleep, work or relationships, speak to your GP or a qualified mental health professional. You do not need to wait until you have exhausted self-help. This article and recording do not replace medical or psychological care.

Try one change today: choose the question your next news check will answer, and write down what you will do when that check is finished.

Sources linked above: Mental Health Foundation (UK), Cleveland Clinic (US) and NHS (UK). These organisations provide independent guidance and do not endorse this recording. Product details checked on 3 November 2026.

Featured photograph: Manu Del Moral on Unsplash, used under the Unsplash licence. Illustrative image; no endorsement or personal experience is implied.