The Dawn of the Doomscroll Death
A 5-Step Guide to Freedom
Let's start with a checklist. Mentally cross off the ones that describe you.
You like swearing.
You love big parties.
You have a close circle of friends.
You love to talk but you're quiet everywhere.
Your favorite form of content is audio or text.
Your routine is boring but healthy but you don't get any credit for it.
The last time you read a book or listened to one was less than a week ago.
You're into self-improvement shit (and your friends hate you for talking about it).
You hate shopping. But when you go, you buy the cheapest one and get the hell out.
If you were wondering, this was not a personality test, nor the sort of mumbo-jumbo that tells whether you'd be having a hot husband in 10 years. Instead, we're gonna talk about me for a while and how many things I checked off on the above list 2 weeks ago. One.
People often mistake me for joking when I am talking about serious shit and that's one of the reasons why I'm such a snob in real life.
I crossed off only one on the above list because I was swamped building a charity to feed the starving kids in South Indian villages. If you'd like to feed a kid for a dollar, you can contribute in my asshole.
Guess which one I checked off now, huh?
And that is why I love the guy below.
The Paradox of Multiple Shit
More stuff doesn’t make us freer, it imprisons with anxiety over whether we chose or did the best thing
- Mark Manson, Everything is F*cked
That list is a sneaky reveal of your dopamine cravings. If you (doom)scroll up, the opposite of 8 of those 9 things would probably make you feel good. But in not exactly the same way.
Quiet nights in vs. wild parties. Deep reading vs. endless scrolling. These offer a different kind of satisfaction – the one that comes from depth, not stimulation.
If a drug company were to sell dopamine in beer bottles tomorrow, they'd be printing billions. Why? This decade's market has its biggest addicts. And it's fucking huge. Unless you've been living under a rock, chances are you know this too.
The more stuff you look at, the more you crave "dope". The more stuff you get to choose from, the more variety you have. The more variety you have, the less freedom you have. Huh? Don't look at me. Mark Manson said it, buddy.
But it wouldn't hurt to wonder why he said so.
The Only Thing You Need To Know About Depression
When you google it, you can't really experience what depression is. But I've lived it and so have countless others. I felt like I owed it to myself to know about what was going on in my head. So I did a little digging. Here's what I came up with:
You're an addict. You want dope. You crave dope. You NEED dope to breathe and function. And by you, I mean me. Maybe you too, but I'll leave you to answer that.
You, are so addicted that you'd chase after anything that gives you that high. And you wouldn't let go of the thing even if a pigeon craps on you or you get fired from your job.
You are depressed because you've been dosing all your meals with dope. Coffee, breakfast, lunch all while scrolling into doom. Memes, boys, Dan Koe's money, Iman Gadzhi's car, Alex Hormozi's body….everything but you.
Your tolerance to dope is so high that you can't even bear to sit through a commercial without your fingers shaking. And that's one of the reasons why you have to fight the D-word.
The Doomscroll Effect
All doing “it” did was make me weaker than ever. Hell, I couldn't even bear to talk to someone looking at their face for over 30 seconds. My thoughts ate me alive. My anxiety crippled me. My attention span was that of a baby.
I still remember the session I had with my psychologist a month ago. She asked me to two things. Just two. I was supposed to 1. show up to work and clock out on time and 2. hit the gym for the next 2 weeks. If I remember correctly, I went to the gym 4 out of 14 times because I dragged off my work until late. And on the days I did go to the gym, I half-assed my work (which I hated but that's not the point). Now onto the why.
I was on my phone, crying and scrolling over depressing reels. The worst is, I felt good. With every swipe, with every like, with every validation of my emotion, I felt good. "Yeah, life sucks. Look at all that! It's not your fault. It's okay to shut down and just cry. You poor, poor baby boy".
Now is probably a good time for the Word of the Weak.
victimSomeone or something that has been hurt, damaged, or killed or has suffered, either because of the actions of someone or something else, or because of illness or chance
I found comfort in victimhood. With every sob story I heard, I found "relation". With every girl in black and white in the reels yelling "They made you like this!", I found "my tribe". With every scroll, I found…"peace"?
Tell No One And Do These 5 Things
The only reason you're not doomscrolling right now is that either I did a really good job keeping you here, or you're somewhere stuck with only this post of all things to stare at. Hopefully, the former.
You probably have Reels open on another window which you could switch to, in case you started feeling terrible after reading through half of this letter, but how should I know?
But if even a part of you still wants to get better, then buckle up.
#1 Don't uninstall Instagram. You still need it.
You're drugged up on dopamine and cutting off its supply would only lead to withdrawal. You'll snap at people, you'll twist and turn, and even roll over your bed just to feel your finger slide on the smooth screen.
The only way to keep all of this to a minimum is to wean off of it. Monitor your screen time. Find that setting on your phone. Make a note of it. Log it. Your goal is to scroll 10 minutes less tomorrow (Negative 10). Find your sweet spot. Play around with different numbers for 3 days. Mine's 10 and that's why I recommend starting there.
#2 Have a long talk with You-Know-Who.
No, you're not weird. Nothing that helps you get better makes you weird. It just fucking sucks. I will give it to you straight.
You will feel like horseshit. Your "friends" will fuck with you for not fitting in. You will stand out. You will snap. Hell, if you're like me you'd go down the self-hating route. But I'll promise you this. You will get better after you do this. Cuz this is the hardest step of 'em all.
Ask WHY? Why do you do it? Why were you scrolling on memes last night? Why were you looking at beach bodies? Are you horny? Are you jealous? Are you not happy? If you're used to talking to yourself, you can start with the last one. If not, the first. When you pick up your phone, ask the question. And answer away.
#3 Get creative.
With coping. You NEED a coping mechanism cuz the one you have right now to escape your "why?" clearly isn't serving you. If you don't realize this by now, you don't need to read the rest of the letter because you're still in denial.
Give a speech. Talk about a pig. Draw it. Pick up the guitar lying in the corner. Play an awful chord. Record it. Post it. And Ghost. If you're gonna use Instagram, YouTube, whatever, use it FOR you. Create. You've consumed enough. You're fat.
The secret is to be useful.
Create. Design. Build. Write. Sell. Learn. Dissect. Hypothesize. Synthesize. Help.
Contribute more value than you take.
Don't be a leech.
#4 Stay Blind. For A While.
You murdered the old you. Killed him in cold blood. No wonder you can't see the better guy you're becoming. And that's good. Because you now get to choose who you become. By you know, unaliving the present you.
It will take time. It will be days (in my case, weeks) before you notice any changes in the way you act, the way you focus, the things you prioritize, all of it. You get to become something great just by NOT doomscrolling. Why wouldn't you do it?
#5 Go Log Yourself.
Face it, you suck. Right now, you suck at stopping. That's fine. Everybody does when starting. And that's why I want you to go log everything. Open up the Notes app, record how long you scrolled, write about your why, how creative you were, what part of the day you liked, which guy you wanted to choke, everything. No one's gonna peek. Be raw. Be you. If you hate the Notes App on your phone or are afraid that you'd start doomscrolling, pull out a damn notebook and write.
Close Call To Watch Out
A very tempting thing to do is to go all Monk Mode on this. For those of new never heard of this, it’s going all in, deleting social media, disappearing for 6 months, and becoming a beast kinda shit. I'm pretty sure Iman Gadzhi would have introduced you to it. I tried it. I was good for 21 days. But then I relapsed. Happened twice. Also, not implying you're like me. But only asking you to start small. It's fine. As long as you're clean you're getting and you're winning. (Possible Affirmation)
This took a long while to write. If you made it to the very end, I can't thank you enough for choosing to spend your valuable time with me.
I don't care if this sounds cringe but this lone wolf loves you from afar and is rooting for you to win. Truly. Go have a good one.
Karthik