If you’re feeling overwhelmed, anxious, and unable to stop checking the news, you’re not alone.
Doomscrolling – constantly consuming negative news – has skyrocketed due to political chaos, instability, and uncertainty.
Like so many others, you are experiencing fear about an uncertain future and difficulty making sense of decisions that will greatly impact your life.
You feel a lack of control and are worried about what lies ahead – but you’re also EXHAUSTED.
The stress from the dizzying circus of political activity is making you question how informed you can continue to be.
It’s not that you don’t care, but you can only take so much. Caring can be stressful. And the things you are stressing about feel like they are 100% out of your control. Maybe by stressing about it, you feel like you’re staying involved on some level.
Or maybe your F.O.M.O is in overdrive. You haven’t been able to unplug since Will Smith slapped Chris Rock at the Oscars in 2022. (That shocking story kept me up for 2 days with all the commentary and analysis.)
If you’re struggling with political fatigue and news overwhelm, check out my book about political burnout – Unshakable: A Woman’s Guide to Managing Political Burnout.
You want to ignore everything. You need to ignore something, or you might explode. But your conscious is screaming at you to stay engaged.
What may also be confusing to understand: your brain is doing what it is supposed to do amid the political upheaval – paying attention to the never-ending threats and danger.
So, how do you continue to remain informed without driving yourself crazy?
Doomscrolling, Bad News, and Anxiety: How Your Brain Traps You in a Stress Loop
To understand why you are having trouble looking away from the news despite your political fatigue, it helps to understand why your mind keeps getting triggered, even when you hide under a rock.
Your brain’s top priority is to protect you from danger, and when it senses a threat — like, say, distressing headlines — it kicks off your stress response. Cue a flood of stress hormones, increased anxiety, and tunnel vision that locks your focus onto the perceived danger.
The amygdala, your brain’s built-in alarm system, is at the center of this. It’s designed to detect threats and trigger your fight, flight, or freeze response — without your conscious input. It also processes fear and anxiety, making it a key player in keeping you glued to bad news.
Once it’s triggered, your brain craves more information, thinking it’ll help you stay safe. But instead of relief, you get stuck in a loop — more stress, more scrolling, more anxiety. And just like that, you’re trapped in the doom cycle focused on nothing but political chaos.
Back in the day, this alertness to danger kept you from being eaten by saber-toothed tigers. Now, it just means you can’t look away from terrifying headlines.
The problem? Your brain reacts to bad news as if it’s happening directly to you.
Reading about political chaos, war, or economic collapse triggers your fight-or-flight response, flooding your body with stress hormones. But there’s no actual saber-toothed tiger to fight. So instead, you just marinate in anxiety.
And since our brains are naturally wired for negativity (thanks, evolution), we’re more likely to click on tragic or outrageous stories. The media knows this. Social media algorithms definitely know this. That’s why your feeds are a revolving door of catastrophe, hot takes, and celebrity scandals.
Care About the World Without Carrying the Weight of It
Caring about the world, caring about people means that you want to stay informed and that you’re going to feel things when you see other people suffer or politicians acting in opposition to your beliefs and needs.
While our brains are wired for negativity, they are also wired to counterbalance with happier or better news. But that response gets lost as your anxiety and stress ramp up. This makes you less able to respond thoughtfully or take action to keep yourself calm.
This is where perspective comes in. You need to ask yourself:
Is the news showing me the whole picture, or just the most dramatic parts? Are there also positive, safer things happening that I’m not seeing?
You have to provide yourself with a choice. If you let your fear-driven brain call the shots, you’ll stay stuck in a cycle of stress, anxiety, and overwhelm. Instead, you need to consciously hit the reset button — actively seek out the good, the calm, and the balance.
Why? Because where your attention goes is where your energy flows.
How to Stay Informed Without Falling into a Doomscrolling Trap
You and I can’t escape the news no matter how hard we try because it is affecting our everyday lives. Jobs are in jeopardy, the cost of everything has gone up, and our friends and family are feeling the squeeze, too.
If you don’t take control of your focus, your brain (and the social media algorithm) will gladly do it for you — and let’s be honest, they’re not prioritizing your mental health. Instead, be intentional about what you consume and how you respond.
I consider these options more like “active worrying.” You care, so you worry, but you do actively do something about it.
- Set Boundaries with News & Social Media
- Limit negative news exposure – Set a specific time limit for updates instead of endlessly refreshing.
- Control social media use – Unfollow accounts that stress you out and set time limits to avoid mindless scrolling.
- Remember: Your brain and social media algorithms work the same way – They feed you more of what you focus on. So, if you keep clicking on doom and gloom, that’s all you’ll see.
- Shift Your Focus to What Matters
- Re-center on your priorities – Your values, your career, your family — these deserve your attention too. The same principle about your attention applies here too. Shifting your focus to something meaningful to you, will shift your energy towards feeling more positive.
- Follow positive sources – Seek out uplifting stories, inspiring ideas, and solutions-focused content. This is where the internet wins: animal videos. Find an excellent source of funny videos that shift your perspective to laughter and warmth. (I do this several times a day.)
- Practice daily gratitude – Actively remind yourself of the good in your life and the world.
- Take Action — Because Clarity and Action Kill Anxiety
The worst thing you can do is nothing. Just helplessly watching and scrolling fuels anxiety. Instead of just consuming bad news, do something about it:
- Get informed – Educate yourself on the situation, the history, and the key players.
- Advocate for change – Call your elected representatives, join a protest, or use your voice online.
- Vote – Policies change when people show up.
- Volunteer – Support organizations actively working on solutions.
- Prepare your own life – Build an emergency fund, stock up on essential supplies, and create a sense of security.
- Be the change – Lead with kindness, solve problems peacefully, and offer compassion instead of criticism.
- Ask Yourself: What Actions Can I Take Based on What I Consume? If the content you’re consuming only leaves you feeling anxious and powerless, it’s time to adjust your approach. Take control. Be intentional. Otherwise, you’ll stay stuck in the cycle — stressed, overwhelmed, and, frankly, kind of useless.
Jennifer Bassman is a stress management and burnout recovery coach for women and supports them through obstacles so they come through feeling empowered. She writes about relatable topics that affect women or women experience in the professional/personal daily lives.
You can learn more, stay awesome, and hire her to speak or lead a workplace wellness workshops at JenniferBassman.com.
