News anxiety and doomscrolling

It is a winter night in Siddheswari, the kind when the fog sits on the rooftops and the night guard’s whistle sounds very far away. Jamil, 44, a branch manager at a bank in Motijheel, is under two quilts, scrolling. A war abroad, a fire in a chemical godown, a rumour about the dollar rate forwarded by his Chachu to the family WhatsApp group with three red sirens.

“Ki, will the war end sooner if you watch it?” asks his wife, Lovely, from the other pillow.

“One more headline, and then I’ll sleep.”

“Abbu refreshes the news more than I refresh my game,” says their son from the doorway, and even Jamil laughs. At two he is still reading. In the morning, on the bank floor, his chest is tight, his patience is short, and he has the strange sense that something terrible is about to happen to someone he loves.

An illustration drawn from common experience. The person is invented; the pattern is not.

Understanding news anxiety

Doomscrolling is not a diagnosis. Researchers describe it as persistent, repeated engagement with negative or threatening online information, often with difficulty stopping. For some people it is a habit that steals sleep. For others it feeds, and is fed by, an anxiety condition such as generalised anxiety disorder, where worry is hard to control and spreads across many areas of life, or by low mood and insomnia. A doctor looks at the whole pattern, not only the screen time.

How common it is

There is no reliable figure for how many people doomscroll, in Bangladesh or elsewhere. A 2026 systematic review of 44 studies found doomscrolling associated with anxiety, depression and psychological distress, and with lower wellbeing. The authors rated the certainty of the evidence as very low and noted that the studies cannot show which comes first. In a survey of more than 4,600 Americans after the Boston Marathon bombings in 2013, six or more hours a day of bombing-related media in the week afterwards was associated with higher acute stress than direct exposure to the bombings.

Signs worth noticing

• Reading the news in bed long after you meant to sleep
• Feeling worse after scrolling, and scrolling again anyway
• Worry about family, money or the country that will not switch off
• Tight chest, restlessness, or irritability the next day
• Forwarding alarming posts before checking them, or arguing about them in family groups

How care helps

WHO notes that approaches based on cognitive behavioural therapy have the most evidence for anxiety disorders, and that stress management skills such as relaxation and mindfulness can also help. In CBT, people learn to notice the pull of the next headline, test the worries it feeds, and build routines that end the day calmly. A psychiatrist will also ask about sleep, mood, alcohol and caffeine, and check for physical causes of anxiety such as thyroid problems. Medication is considered only where an anxiety disorder or depression is present, and discussed openly.

What getting better can look like

Jamil’s evenings might look like news twice a day, at breakfast and after Maghrib, the phone charging in the drawing room overnight, and a cup of tea on the balcony with Lovely instead of one more headline.

Common questions about news anxiety

Is doomscrolling bad for your mental health?

Studies link doomscrolling with more anxiety, depression and distress, but most are surveys taken at one point in time, so they cannot show that scrolling causes the problems. It may work both ways: anxious people scroll more, and scrolling may keep anxiety going. If you feel worse after reading the news, that is reason enough to change the habit.

How do I stop checking the news at night?

Choose set times for news, turn off news notifications, and keep the phone out of the bedroom. If worry still keeps you awake for weeks, or spreads to many parts of life, an assessment for anxiety or insomnia can help, and both are treatable.

When to see a psychiatrist

If worry is keeping you awake most nights, or spilling into work and family life, please book an appointment.

Care here is personal: built around your history, your health and what you want to change, and reviewed with you as it goes.

If you or someone else is in immediate danger, call 999 or go to the nearest hospital emergency department.

Sources

• Li and Yin, Frontiers in Psychology, 2026 (PMID 42827532)
• Holman et al., Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2014 (PMID 24324161)
• WHO, Anxiety disorders fact sheet, 15 September 2026