Odd that ‘doomscrolling’ only first appeared in 2018, but here we are with it a relevant household term. While widely recognized as increasing anxiety, distress, and emotional fatigue, in the moment, doomscrolling …relaxes us. Since constant exposure to distressing content reduces emotional responsiveness and empathy, it actually allows our brains to confirm our bias that everything is crap – which produces a dopamine burst, providing brief satisfaction. It creates the illusion that by reading about the news we’re somehow in control of it, even a little bit. Which we aren’t…even a little bit… which our brains points out to us later, usually between two-thirty and three AM.
Psychologists have a name for this constant emotional dysreguation via doomscrolling: Headline Stress Disorder.
“Do not go gentle into that good night,” Dylan Thomas advised us. If we’re all going to crumble, let it not be like this, led to our executions with our souls abscessed and our eyes glued to our phones. The only way we can reliably bear witness is to occasionally bare our faces to fresh air and sky, connect with what we’re fighting to preserve, and stay grounded. Rage against the dying of the light – and admire a bit of moonlight, too. Otherwise, none of us will finish this race, and it’s a marathon, not even a little bit of a sprint…
(im)passive
had I my druthers
I’d always come out swinging
walk with running steps
plan every contingency
prepared for whatever comes.
given no choices
I’ll take what I am given:
my own self-control
conscious delusion? Maybe.
…most we can do is our best.
