Tips from a Therapist in Tacoma, WA: How to recover after doomscrolling

We’ve all been there: one minute you’re checking the news “for just a second,” and the next thing you know, you’re 40 minutes deep into doomscrolling, your shoulders are in your ears, and your brain feels like it’s sprinting a marathon it never signed up for.

If you’ve ever wondered why doomscrolling leaves you feeling anxious, depleted, or disconnected, here’s the quick explanation: your nervous system thinks the danger is happening to you right now. Even though you’re just staring at your phone, your body responds as if you’re on the front lines of every crisis you read about.

According to an article from Harvard Health:

“Doomscrolling is rooted in our brain's limbic system — often referred to as the lizard or reptilian brain — that's dominated by a structure called the amygdala. It promotes self-preservation and drives the fight-or-flight response to danger, fueling us to troll for threats.

"Stress stokes our primary urge to scroll," she says. "We're hypervigilant and scanning for danger. The more you scroll, the more you feel you need to."

When you catch yourself doomscrolling

We all know we need to cut back on our digital obsession. We need to put the phone down. We need to use apps like Freedom or devices like Brick to limit phone usage or time on socials. We need to be off devices first thing in the morning or before bed. But no matter how much good advice we get about disconnecting, we’re all guilty of succumbing to the dreaded doomscroll. And when that time comes, here are some tips about what to do about it.

I don’t think anyone has come up for air after a doomscrolling session and actually felt better about their life. If anything, snapping out of it feels like waking up from a really disorienting nightmare. Again, Harvard Health talks about the “popcorn brain effect":

“On a practical level, Dr. Nerurkar says, doomscrolling can give us "popcorn brain," which happens when we spend too much time online. "It's the real, biological phenomenon of feeling your brain is popping because you're being overstimulated online," she explains. "Then it's hard to engage with the real world, which moves at a much slower pace."

As a therapist in Tacoma, WA who works with clients navigating stress, overwhelm, and digital burnout, here are some practical grounding and somatic tools that can help reset the nervous system after a doomscrolling spiral.

Here are several simple, effective exercises you can do anytime you notice that you're stuck scrolling and feeling worse afterwards.

Set a “Re-Entry Ritual”

Choose one small thing you do every time you put down your phone after doomscrolling.
Examples:

• Say out loud, “I’m back”

• Stretch your arms overhead

• Take a sip of water

• Step outside for one deep breath

This signals to your brain that you’re shifting out of consumption mode and back into your real life.

Getting outside can be particularly powerful. A short walk around the block, or at least stepping outside for some fresh air can be a full-body reset that really helps change the channel in your brain after the numbing effects of doomscrolling.

Shake It Out (Literally)

Animals naturally shake after stress; humans tend to just store the tension.
Stand up and shake your hands, arms, legs, shoulders—whatever feels right—for at least 10–15 seconds.
This discharges excess adrenaline and softens that wired, buzzing feeling doomscrolling can create.

tapping and humming

Similarly, you can use your hands to pat or slap yourself comfortably all over your body. This tactile activation can feel soothing and help get you back in your body after a bout of doomscrolling. Notice what pressure feels good to you—light, or a little more forceful.

You can also pair it with humming. You can make a “voooooo” sound as you tap around your torso, or on your arms, etc. The vibration of the humming is stimulating for your vagus nerve, which runs from your brain down to your belly.

Squeezing or brushing the body

Another technique involves using your hands to gently squeeze different parts of your body briefly. Giving a quick squeeze to your arms, along your legs, to parts of your torso, glutes, etc. is another way of releasing energy and getting more present in your body.

In addition, you can use your hands to brush across your skin in a similar method. As if you’re brushing leaves off your clothes or something, do this all across your limbs and trunk.

Notice as you tap, hum, squeeze, and brush how these different movements feel to your body. The gentle pressure should feel grounding and pleasant. You can also have a partner do these actions to you as well.

arm swings with exhales

After doing the tapping, squeezing, and brushing exercises, you can try simultaneously raising your arms above your head, and swinging them down together in unison by your sides, while breathing out a forceful exhale. Inhale as you bring your arms up again, and then exhale as you swing them down quickly to your sides. Repeat this 8-10 times.

See these somatic exercises in action

To see all of these practices strung together, check out this video from Johns Hopkins Medicine about how to use these somatic exercises to get your brain out of the functional-freeze-state of doomscrolling and get your body more regulated. The exercises start at minute 3:57 in the video.

This video from Johns Hopkins Medicine shows a few somatic exercises grouped together than can help you regulate your nervous system after doomscrolling

Here’s a list of more somatic exercises that with emotional regulation that you can try from Johns Hopkins Medicine:

https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/office-of-well-being/connection-support/somatic-self-care#shorts

The 5-4-3-2-1 grounding Reset

A quick grounding technique that brings you back to the present moment.

• 5 things you can see

• 4 things you can touch

• 3 things you can hear

• 2 things you can smell

• 1 thing you can taste

This moves your attention out of digital stress and into your real environment.

Taste and smell can be particularly powerful ways to get us back into our bodies, so don’t skip over those. (I have clients that swear by tasting something super sour like a Warhead to instantly get them out of a spiral and into a more grounded state—try it!)

Box Breathing

Inhale for 4, hold for 4, exhale for 4, hold for 4.
Repeat 4–6 times.
This is one of the fastest ways to flip your brain out of fight-or-flight and into regulation.

The “Phone Down, Feet Down” Technique

Put your phone on a table or counter—somewhere not in your hand.
Then plant both feet firmly on the ground.
Feel the weight of your body, the floor supporting you, and your breath.
This simple act creates a physical boundary between you and the digital spiral.

Quick Body Scan

Starting at your forehead and moving downward, ask:

• “Is there tension here?”

• “Can I soften it by 5%?”

Micro-relaxation works even if you can’t fully let go of tension. Repeat this process til you feel a shift.

Cold Temperature Reset

A splash of cool water on your face or placing something cold on the back of your neck activates the mammalian dive reflex.
This naturally lowers your heart rate and calms stress signals.

Similarly, you could take a cold shower, or even just step outside into the cold air for a quick reset.

The 2-Minute Refocus List

Grab a sticky note or your Notes app (but don’t scroll!).
Write:

• One thing you can control

• One thing you’re grateful for

• One small task you can do next

This breaks the helplessness that doomscrolling often fuels.

five-minute timer activity change

It can be hard to shift gears into action after doomscrolling, so overcome the inertia of moving again by setting a five-minute timer to start doing something physical. It could be washing the dishes, a productive task, taking a walk outside, even doing some light stretching, or moving to music. Start with 5 minutes, and you may find when the timer goes off you feel capable of doing more and continuing to switch up that energy.

If Doomscrolling Is Affecting Your Mental Health, You’re Not Alone. therapy in tacoma, wa can help.

Therapy in Tacoma, WA and WA state to help with anxiety and emotional regulation.

Modern stressors hit differently when you carry them in your pocket. If you notice that your mood, sleep, or attention is getting pulled into nonstop digital overwhelm, mental health therapy can help.

Working with a therapist in Tacoma, WA can give you personalized tools to regulate your nervous system, set healthier phone boundaries, and navigate the emotional impact of constant online news.

If you're ready to feel more grounded, more present, and more in control of your mental health, therapy is a great place to start. Brainspotting in particular is a somatic therapy that can get to the root of dissociative behaviors like doomscrolling and help you make the changes to your mood and behavior that you want to experience long-term. Click below to learn more about how brainspotting therapy in Tacoma, WA could help you.