Why the World Feels So Heavy Right Now (And What to Do About It)
Why the World Feels So Heavy Right Now (And What to Do About It)
Can we talk about something that's probably happening to you right now? You open your phone to check the weather, or buy something on Amazon, and somehow fifteen minutes later, you're deep in your social media feed, watching reels, watching news clips, reading comment threads, and spiraling about global events you can't control, wondering if you should move to a cabin off-the-grid somewhere.
Just me? Not from what I’m hearing in so many client sessions.
If you’ve been feeling wired, tired, anxious, or like your thumb has developed a mind of its own (“just one more scroll”), you’re not broken or too sensitive. You’re human. You’re having a totally normal nervous-system response to living in the 24/7 machine of modern media and social networks.
Let’s unpack why your brain feels like it’s under siege every time you open your phone, and, more importantly, what you can actually do about it.
Your Brain Thinks You’re Being Chased by a Bear (Except It’s Just the News and Instagram)
Here’s the deal: your beautiful well-meaning brain hasn’t evolved fast enough to tell the difference between actual danger and perceived danger. When you see a video of a war zone, a natural disaster, or political turmoil…even if it’s happening on the other side of the planet…your amygdala (that tiny alarm system in your brain) lights up like Time Square.
Your nervous system doesn't know the difference between "bad thing happening on screen" and "bad thing happening to ME right now." It just knows: THREAT DETECTED. ACTIVATE ALL SYSTEMS.
So your heart races. Your chest tightens. Your thoughts start spinning worst-case scenarios faster than Breaking News alerts. And suddenly you're Googling "how to prepare for societal collapse" at 2 AM. This isn’t you overreacting or being dramatic. It’s biology. This is your nervous system doing exactly what it was designed to do, protect you from danger. The problem? The danger isn't actually in your living room. But try telling that to your amygdala. But your amygdala doesn’t understand that the “danger” is a screen, not a bear
or a tiger.
The Negativity Bias: Why Bad News Hooks You
Evolution gave us what psychologists call a "negativity bias", basically, our brains are hardwired to look for and to pay more attention to threats than to positive information. Makes sense when you're a caveman trying not to get eaten. Less helpful when you're trying to maintain your sanity in 2025.
News outlets and social media platforms know this. They've built entire business models around it. "Local family has a nice Tuesday in Toronto" doesn't get clicks or engagement. "BREAKING: Everything Is Terrible and Getting Worse" absolutely does.
So every time you tune in or scroll through your feed, you're essentially giving your brain a highlight reel of every scary, sad, infuriating thing happening on the planet. And your nervous system is sitting there going, "Cool, cool, cool, so we're definitely dying. Got it."
What This Constant Input Does to You
Let's talk about what's really happening to you physically and mentally when you're constantly plugged into the news cycle and social media:
Your focus gets shredded.
One minute you're reading about a political crisis, the next you're watching a tragic video, then you're in the comments section arguing with strangers, then back to work emails, then another breaking news alert. Your brain literally cannot process all of this. It's like trying to have 47 conversations at once while also solving a Rubik's Cube.
Your nervous system stays in constant activation mode. Your body doesn't know you're "just scrolling." It thinks you're in danger and overwhelmed, repeatedly. So your cortisol stays elevated, your heart rate increases, and your muscles tense up. You might notice tension in your jaw, shoulders, and/or chest. Some people feel it as a pit in their stomach or a tightness in their throat.
Your ability to be present completely disappears. Ever notice how after a social media spiral, you feel disconnected from your actual life? Feel zoned out? That's because your nervous system has been living in a virtual reality of threats and crises instead of being grounded in the here and now.
The Doomscroll Loop: When “Staying Informed” Becomes Self-Torture
Let’s call it what it is:
You scroll → feel anxious → tell yourself you just need more info → scroll again → feel more anxious → repeat until your attention span is shorter than a TikTok.
This is your brain trying to control what can’t be controlled. It thinks, “If I know everything, I can prepare for anything.” I’m in charge of the obvious, but it doesn’t help. It just fries your circuits. You just end up exhausted, overwhelmed, and somehow more anxious than before.
Let's Normalize Something: You're Allowed to Protect Your Peace
Don't forget: you don't have to absorb every piece of terrible news or every crisis post on social media to be a good, informed person.
You're not "privileged" or "ignorant" or "burying your head in the sand" if you need to turn off the news and step away from social media for your mental health. You can care deeply about the world AND protect your nervous system. These things aren't mutually exclusive.
In fact, you're way more useful to yourself and others when you're regulated than when you're spiralling on your couch or in bed at 11 PM, frozen by anxiety.
How to Actually Cope (Without Completely Checking Out)
Okay, so what do we do? Here are some things that actually help:
1. Set Actual Boundaries with News and Social Media Consumption
Not "I'll try to scroll less." I mean real, specific boundaries:
2. Notice When You're in the Virtual Reality Loop
Borrowed this from my meditation teacher friends: when you catch yourself spiralling about global events, pause and ask: "Am I safe right now, in this moment?"
Not "is the world safe" (that's too big). Just: "Am I, personally, in danger right this second?"
Usually, the answer is no. And that's important information for your nervous system.
There are many great meditations out there that help to get your attention back in your body. Here’s one of mine called a Purposeful Pause that you’re welcome to check out.
3. Do Something With Your Hands (And Get Back in Your Body)
When anxiety lives in your head and your attention is completely scattered across 20 different news stories and social media posts, you need to bring yourself back to your body.
This sounds overly simple, but it works:
4. Channel Your Anxiety Into Actual Action
Anxiety loves to spin stories. Scrolling and consuming more content feeds that spin. Action interrupts it. Instead of refreshing the news or diving back into social media for the 47th time:
5. Build in Real-Life Connection
I can't stress this enough: human connection can be an antidote to collective anxiety. Call or text a friend who recharges your “battery”. Have coffee with someone. Join a book club. Go to a workout class. When we're isolated with our anxiety, it gets LOUD. When we're connected to real humans doing real life? Perspective returns.
6. Practice the "OTP" Mindset
My mindfulness teacher friends text each other "OTP" whenever something triggering happens, it stands for "Opportunity To Practice." News making you anxious? OTP. Can you notice the feeling without immediately reacting? Can you let your Wise Adult Self respond instead of your Panicked Part? Where can you redirect your attention to something else in your life in that moment? You don't have to be perfect at this. Just curious.
7. Give Yourself Permission to Not Know Everything
This one's hard for the overachievers (hi, hello, it's me). But you genuinely don't need to be an expert on every global crisis to be a good person. You're allowed to say: "I don't have the bandwidth to deep-dive into this right now." You're allowed to care about some issues more than others. You're allowed to protect your mental health.
The Bottom Line
If watching the news and scrolling social media is making you feel hopeless, paralyzed, scattered, or like you're constantly on the edge of panic, that's not you being weak. That's you being human in an overwhelming time.
Your job isn't to absorb every piece of suffering in the world or witness every crisis in real-time. Your job is to take care of yourself—your nervous system, your body, your mental health, your ability to focus—so you can show up as your best self for your family, your community, and the causes that matter to you.
Being informed matters. But so does your mental health. You get to decide what balance works for you.
And hey, if you've read this far while doomscrolling, maybe this is your sign to put the phone down, take a breath, and go do one small thing that makes you feel grounded.
Your nervous system will thank you.
Need more support managing anxiety or changing habits that seem to get the better of you? Please feel free to reach out...you don't have to figure this out alone.
Can we talk about something that's probably happening to you right now? You open your phone to check the weather, or buy something on Amazon, and somehow fifteen minutes later, you're deep in your social media feed, watching reels, watching news clips, reading comment threads, and spiraling about global events you can't control, wondering if you should move to a cabin off-the-grid somewhere.
Just me? Not from what I’m hearing in so many client sessions.
If you’ve been feeling wired, tired, anxious, or like your thumb has developed a mind of its own (“just one more scroll”), you’re not broken or too sensitive. You’re human. You’re having a totally normal nervous-system response to living in the 24/7 machine of modern media and social networks.
Let’s unpack why your brain feels like it’s under siege every time you open your phone, and, more importantly, what you can actually do about it.
Your Brain Thinks You’re Being Chased by a Bear (Except It’s Just the News and Instagram)
Here’s the deal: your beautiful well-meaning brain hasn’t evolved fast enough to tell the difference between actual danger and perceived danger. When you see a video of a war zone, a natural disaster, or political turmoil…even if it’s happening on the other side of the planet…your amygdala (that tiny alarm system in your brain) lights up like Time Square.
Your nervous system doesn't know the difference between "bad thing happening on screen" and "bad thing happening to ME right now." It just knows: THREAT DETECTED. ACTIVATE ALL SYSTEMS.
So your heart races. Your chest tightens. Your thoughts start spinning worst-case scenarios faster than Breaking News alerts. And suddenly you're Googling "how to prepare for societal collapse" at 2 AM. This isn’t you overreacting or being dramatic. It’s biology. This is your nervous system doing exactly what it was designed to do, protect you from danger. The problem? The danger isn't actually in your living room. But try telling that to your amygdala. But your amygdala doesn’t understand that the “danger” is a screen, not a bear
or a tiger.
The Negativity Bias: Why Bad News Hooks You
Evolution gave us what psychologists call a "negativity bias", basically, our brains are hardwired to look for and to pay more attention to threats than to positive information. Makes sense when you're a caveman trying not to get eaten. Less helpful when you're trying to maintain your sanity in 2025.
News outlets and social media platforms know this. They've built entire business models around it. "Local family has a nice Tuesday in Toronto" doesn't get clicks or engagement. "BREAKING: Everything Is Terrible and Getting Worse" absolutely does.
So every time you tune in or scroll through your feed, you're essentially giving your brain a highlight reel of every scary, sad, infuriating thing happening on the planet. And your nervous system is sitting there going, "Cool, cool, cool, so we're definitely dying. Got it."
What This Constant Input Does to You
Let's talk about what's really happening to you physically and mentally when you're constantly plugged into the news cycle and social media:
Your focus gets shredded.
One minute you're reading about a political crisis, the next you're watching a tragic video, then you're in the comments section arguing with strangers, then back to work emails, then another breaking news alert. Your brain literally cannot process all of this. It's like trying to have 47 conversations at once while also solving a Rubik's Cube.
Your nervous system stays in constant activation mode. Your body doesn't know you're "just scrolling." It thinks you're in danger and overwhelmed, repeatedly. So your cortisol stays elevated, your heart rate increases, and your muscles tense up. You might notice tension in your jaw, shoulders, and/or chest. Some people feel it as a pit in their stomach or a tightness in their throat.
Your ability to be present completely disappears. Ever notice how after a social media spiral, you feel disconnected from your actual life? Feel zoned out? That's because your nervous system has been living in a virtual reality of threats and crises instead of being grounded in the here and now.
The Doomscroll Loop: When “Staying Informed” Becomes Self-Torture
Let’s call it what it is:
You scroll → feel anxious → tell yourself you just need more info → scroll again → feel more anxious → repeat until your attention span is shorter than a TikTok.
This is your brain trying to control what can’t be controlled. It thinks, “If I know everything, I can prepare for anything.” I’m in charge of the obvious, but it doesn’t help. It just fries your circuits. You just end up exhausted, overwhelmed, and somehow more anxious than before.
Let's Normalize Something: You're Allowed to Protect Your Peace
Don't forget: you don't have to absorb every piece of terrible news or every crisis post on social media to be a good, informed person.
You're not "privileged" or "ignorant" or "burying your head in the sand" if you need to turn off the news and step away from social media for your mental health. You can care deeply about the world AND protect your nervous system. These things aren't mutually exclusive.
In fact, you're way more useful to yourself and others when you're regulated than when you're spiralling on your couch or in bed at 11 PM, frozen by anxiety.
How to Actually Cope (Without Completely Checking Out)
Okay, so what do we do? Here are some things that actually help:
1. Set Actual Boundaries with News and Social Media Consumption
Not "I'll try to scroll less." I mean real, specific boundaries:
- Check news once (or twice) a day at a designated time (not first thing in the morning or right before bed)
- Set a timer for 15-20 minutes max for news AND social media
- No doomscrolling in bed (seriously, your sleep will thank you)
- Turn off news notifications and non-essential app alerts
- Unfollow accounts that constantly share rage-inducing or anxiety-triggering content
- Consider using app timers or website blockers to enforce your boundaries
2. Notice When You're in the Virtual Reality Loop
Borrowed this from my meditation teacher friends: when you catch yourself spiralling about global events, pause and ask: "Am I safe right now, in this moment?"
Not "is the world safe" (that's too big). Just: "Am I, personally, in danger right this second?"
Usually, the answer is no. And that's important information for your nervous system.
There are many great meditations out there that help to get your attention back in your body. Here’s one of mine called a Purposeful Pause that you’re welcome to check out.
3. Do Something With Your Hands (And Get Back in Your Body)
When anxiety lives in your head and your attention is completely scattered across 20 different news stories and social media posts, you need to bring yourself back to your body.
This sounds overly simple, but it works:
- Make yourself tea with intention (notice the warmth, the smell, the taste)
- Do a task that requires focus (folding laundry, organizing a drawer, washing dishes). Pour your full attention into that task, notice your physical sensations.
- Literally feel your feet on the ground, press them down, notice the sensation
- Take five deep belly breaths and feel your ribs expand and contract
- Stretch your neck, roll your shoulders, and release that jaw tension with each exhale.
4. Channel Your Anxiety Into Actual Action
Anxiety loves to spin stories. Scrolling and consuming more content feeds that spin. Action interrupts it. Instead of refreshing the news or diving back into social media for the 47th time:
- Donate to a Canadian charity or cause you care about
- Volunteer locally in your community
- Contact your MP or local representatives
- Join a community group
5. Build in Real-Life Connection
I can't stress this enough: human connection can be an antidote to collective anxiety. Call or text a friend who recharges your “battery”. Have coffee with someone. Join a book club. Go to a workout class. When we're isolated with our anxiety, it gets LOUD. When we're connected to real humans doing real life? Perspective returns.
6. Practice the "OTP" Mindset
My mindfulness teacher friends text each other "OTP" whenever something triggering happens, it stands for "Opportunity To Practice." News making you anxious? OTP. Can you notice the feeling without immediately reacting? Can you let your Wise Adult Self respond instead of your Panicked Part? Where can you redirect your attention to something else in your life in that moment? You don't have to be perfect at this. Just curious.
7. Give Yourself Permission to Not Know Everything
This one's hard for the overachievers (hi, hello, it's me). But you genuinely don't need to be an expert on every global crisis to be a good person. You're allowed to say: "I don't have the bandwidth to deep-dive into this right now." You're allowed to care about some issues more than others. You're allowed to protect your mental health.
The Bottom Line
If watching the news and scrolling social media is making you feel hopeless, paralyzed, scattered, or like you're constantly on the edge of panic, that's not you being weak. That's you being human in an overwhelming time.
Your job isn't to absorb every piece of suffering in the world or witness every crisis in real-time. Your job is to take care of yourself—your nervous system, your body, your mental health, your ability to focus—so you can show up as your best self for your family, your community, and the causes that matter to you.
Being informed matters. But so does your mental health. You get to decide what balance works for you.
And hey, if you've read this far while doomscrolling, maybe this is your sign to put the phone down, take a breath, and go do one small thing that makes you feel grounded.
Your nervous system will thank you.
Need more support managing anxiety or changing habits that seem to get the better of you? Please feel free to reach out...you don't have to figure this out alone.