When Staying Informed Is Making You Anxious

Have you ever picked up your phone because you were worried about something happening in the world, only to put it down 30 minutes later feeling considerably worse?

Congratulations. Your plan worked perfectly.

You’re now much more informed and possibly much more anxious.

We live in a time when there is always another headline, another notification, another opinion, and another breaking-news alert waiting for us. Staying informed is important. But at some point, gathering information can quietly turn into something else.

It’s called doomscrolling, the habit of repeatedly consuming negative or distressing news online. And researchers are beginning to understand why some of us have such a hard time stopping.

Why Do We Keep Scrolling?

Here’s what’s interesting. You might assume we keep scrolling because we enjoy it.

We don’t.

Often, we’re looking for reassurance.

When something frightening or uncertain is happening, our brains naturally want more information. We think that if we just learn enough, maybe we’ll finally understand what’s happening, know what comes next, and feel better.

Except the internet never says, “That’s it. You’re completely caught up. Nothing else to worry about. Have a nice afternoon.”

There’s always another update.

A 2025 study published in Personality and Individual Differences found that anxiety, difficulty tolerating uncertainty, and doomscrolling are connected. People who struggle with uncertainty may be more drawn to consuming negative information, while psychological resilience appears to offer some protection. 

In other words, sometimes we keep searching for information because we’re trying to make uncertainty go away.

Unfortunately, we may be feeding the very anxiety we’re trying to calm.

Are You Looking for Information or Reassurance?

Here’s a question worth asking the next time you reach for your phone:

Am I looking for information, or am I looking for reassurance?

There’s a difference.

Reading a reliable news source to understand what’s happening is one thing. Checking five more sources, refreshing social media every few minutes, and reading hundreds of comments probably isn’t giving you much more useful information.

At that point, you may no longer be learning. You may simply be feeding the loop.

Put Some Boundaries Around the News

You don’t have to stop paying attention to the world to protect your mental health.

Try choosing specific times of day to check the news rather than allowing headlines and notifications to interrupt you constantly. Turn off unnecessary alerts. Choose a few trustworthy sources instead of endlessly searching for more.

And perhaps most importantly, give your brain some time off.

Take a walk. Talk to someone you love. Exercise. Cook dinner. Read a book. Work in the yard. Do something that reminds you that the world you’re reading about on your screen isn’t the only world you’re living in.

Don’t Take the News to Bed

This one matters more than you might think.

A 2025 longitudinal study followed participants over multiple time points and found that problematic social media use predicted later anxiety and depressive symptoms. Poor sleep and insomnia partially explained that relationship. 

So if your nightly routine involves lying in bed scrolling through everything that’s wrong with the world, you might want to reconsider the arrangement.

Your brain needs sleep more than it needs one more headline.

Give yourself a cutoff time before bed and let tomorrow’s news wait until tomorrow.

Know When You Know Enough

Being informed is useful. Being consumed by information isn’t.

If you’ve read four versions of essentially the same story, the fifth probably isn’t going to give you the certainty you’re looking for.

That’s the moment to put down the phone and return to the life that’s actually happening around you.

You can’t control everything happening in the world. None of us can.

But you can control how much access you give it to your mind.

Being informed helps you respond to the world. Being consumed by information makes the world harder to live in.

So stay curious. Stay engaged. Stay informed.

Just remember to stop scrolling long enough to actually live your life.