Doom to Dawn: Reclaim Peace in a World That Won’t Stop Spinning
- Sue Siebens
- Apr 30
- 4 min read
Updated: May 4
A Cycle of Stress You Can’t Seem to Escape
You know the feeling...
You sit down to rest for “just five minutes,” phone in hand. Before you know it, you’ve been doom scrolling through endless news headlines, heartbreaking videos, and online arguments that leave you more anxious than informed.

Later that night—or even during the same session—you find yourself on Amazon, clicking “Buy Now” on things you don’t really need. A small thrill follows… then guilt. That’s doom spending.
Or maybe you’re up late again, watching back-to-back true crime or post-apocalyptic series. That’s doom watching.
Perhaps you’re obsessively reading financial forecasts and making endless lists about how to survive a collapse. That’s doom planning.
Sound familiar?
You’re not alone.
What Are These "Doom" Behaviors?
Let’s break them down:
Doom Scrolling – Endlessly scrolling through bad news or upsetting content, even though it increases anxiety.
Doom Spending – Shopping online as a way to soothe stress or fear, followed by guilt or regret.
Doom Watching – Binge-watching emotionally heavy shows, true crime, or apocalyptic dramas to escape or process fear.
Doom Planning – Obsessively preparing for worst-case scenarios (climate collapse, financial disaster) without resolution.
These are all emotional coping mechanisms. They give us a momentary feeling of control, but they’re usually reactions to deeper emotional discomfort we don’t know how to resolve.
“We doom scroll because our brain is trying to solve a problem that feels too big to fix,” says psychologist Pamela Rutledge, Ph.D. “But it often leaves us feeling more helpless.”— APA.org, 2023
It doesn’t help that we live in a time of constant, chaotic news cycles. From climate anxiety to political unrest to financial uncertainty, the barrage of negativity can leave us feeling helpless, overloaded, and trapped in a state of constant stress.
Watching or engaging with this kind of content nonstop is not neutral—it’s a hypervigilant response. Our nervous systems are trying to protect us by scanning for danger, but instead, we get stuck in a loop of emotional reactivity.

The Emotional Toll of "Doom" Habits
These habits may seem harmless at first, but over time, they erode your emotional and physical well-being.
Common side effects include:
Sleep disruption
Rising anxiety and emotional fatigue
Difficulty focusing
Guilt, shame, or financial strain
Feeling emotionally numb or disconnected
Lowered motivation and mood swings
When the world feels out of control, these behaviors can become rituals that keep us stuck in a loop of survival mode.
This Is a Widespread Struggle
A 2023 Pew Research Center report found that 48% of U.S. adults say their stress levels increased from scrolling through bad news.
VeryWellMind reported that 69% of Gen Z and Millennials admitted to stress shopping in the past month.
Sleep Foundation noted that screen time and news consumption before bed are top contributors to insomnia.
According to Credit Karma, 72% of Americans said they spent money to manage stress at least once in 2023.
These are not isolated habits. They are signs of emotional overwhelm in a hyperconnected world.
The Deeper Truth is that Your Body Is Trying to Help
When you feel anxious, uncertain, or unsafe, your body sounds an alarm through physical sensations:
Chest tightness
A lump in your throat
Shaky legs or hands
Buzzing or heat in your arms
But instead of resolving the emotional charge behind those sensations, we often reach for distractions.
That’s where the doom habits come in. They mask emotional discomfort but don’t heal it.

Emotional Resolution®, or EmRes®, is a gentle, natural method for resolving emotional triggers through the body. Rather than analyzing the past or pushing emotions aside, EmRes helps you resolve triggered emotions naturally and permanently. This process takes just a few minutes—and it works without needing to talk through the memory or trauma. You don’t have to know the history or cause of the original emotional injury causing the trigger to exist in the first place.
What Success Looks Like
After resolving an emotional trigger, people often experience:
Less emotional reactivity
Clearer thinking and better sleep
Reduced need to escape or distract
Improved mood and resilience
You no longer feel hijacked by emotion. You get to respond instead of react.
What You Avoid by Taking Action
By addressing the real emotions behind your doom habits with EmRes, you avoid:
Chronic stress and burnout
Ongoing financial strain
Emotional disconnection from others
The trap of helplessness or despair
Instead, you build emotional clarity and stability.

Doom Behaviors to Dawn of Emotional Balance
Doom scrolling, doom spending, doom watching, and doom planning are all attempts to feel better when the world feels overwhelming. But they don’t offer lasting relief.
Emotional Resolution (EmRes) can help you address the real root of these habits: unresolved emotional triggers.
With EmRes, you don’t just cope—you transform how your body responds to stress. And when your emotional world is calm and clear, your choices become calm and clear too.
Ready to try something new?
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