Scrolling Smarter: Three Tips for Better Mental Health and Screentime
By Chidimma Ozor Commer, PhD, LMSW
It’s important to remember that social media has its pros and cons. It can keep us connected, informed, and inspired—but it can also leave us anxious, drained, or comparing our real life to someone else’s highlight reel. Or said another way, it can have us comparing our insides to someone else’s outsides.
Whether you’re a teen navigating likes and followers, a young adult balancing your digital identity, or an adult doomscrolling through world news or realizing the latest trend you “should” be following as a parent, it’s safe to say social media impacts your mental health.
Therapy offers tools to help you regulate emotions, reduce comparison, and use social media in a way that supports your holistic wellbeing.
Read on for three therapeutic ways to protect your mental health online—helping you move from anxious scrolling to intentional, grounded connection.
1. Build Awareness of Your Digital Triggers
Problem: Anxiety often builds unnoticed—until you realize your chest feels tight after scrolling, or you’re comparing your typical day to someone else’s epic vacation.
Therapeutic Insight: Awareness is the first step to change in all scenarios. In therapy, mindfulness-based techniques like Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) can help you notice when social media triggers stress, envy, or self-doubt.
Five Tools for More Mindful Social Media Consumption
Mindful check-ins: Pause after scrolling for 5–10 minutes—what emotions are coming up for you?
Mood journaling: Track which platforms or accounts leave you anxious vs. inspired.
Depending on your mindful check-in, a therapeutic reframe could be to replace “I should be doing more” with “I’m already enough.”
Benefit: Awareness helps you recognize patterns early, reclaim agency, and make intentional choices about what you consume.
Reset Resource: Foundational Wellness includes five foundational wellness pillars that we believe in at Reset, which are REST, MOVEMENT, CONNECTION, BREATH, and NOURISHMENT, which is a holistic approach to how you consume food, media (traditional and social), and information.
2. Set Boundaries That Support Your Mental Health
Problem: Without limits, social media can bleed into every moment—stealing time, attention, and emotional energy and causing anxiety.
Therapeutic Insight: Boundaries aren’t about restriction; they’re about protection. In therapy, you can learn how to set digital limits that feel empowering, not punitive. Another thing to consider is to ask yourself, “Why do I want to be on social media right now? What do I hope to gain?
Four Methods for Boundary Setting with Social Media
Schedule your scrolls: Set times of day for checking social media. Using an app like ScreenZen can be helpful for reducing screen time and being intentional, thoughtful, and strategic about consuming anything that requires your phone or tablet (ie., a screen).
Curate your feed: Follow accounts that uplift, educate, or inspire you rather than accounts that trigger comparison, anger, frustration, or stress. And it’s important to think critically about why you are feeling the way you do after a scroll session. Is this the fear of missing out (FOMO)? Or is there something else going on?
Digital detox moments: Designate device-free meals, walks, or bedtime routines. If you’re a parent, know that your little people (child/ren) are watching you and see how you engage with your phone.
Benefit: Healthy boundaries restore balance and reduce overstimulation for people of all ages—from teens navigating peer pressure to adults managing constant work and media notifications.
3. Reconnect with Reality and Community
Problem: Social media can distort what’s “normal,” amplifying anxiety and disconnection from real life. Again, this is not black and white. There are some benefits of social media, that said, you’re likely reading this because you feel that something about how you’re interacting with social media is not quite right.
Therapeutic Insight: Therapy helps you rebuild authentic connection—with yourself and others—outside of the algorithm so that you know in your heart of hearts that you are NOT missing out and that you can scroll, if you want, and get off when you want.
Four Strategies to Start Scrolling Smarter
Value-based living: Identify what truly fulfills you (e.g., creativity, service, rest) and invest your time there.
Therapeutic journal prompt for you:
What are my top three values in life, and how am I honoring them through my actions?
Replace digital comparison with real engagement: Call a friend, join a hobby group, volunteer—choose real-world connection over digital validation. Consider doing things because you want to and not because you need or want to post about it.
Grounding exercises: Deep breathing, sensory awareness, or movement (another Reset Foundational Wellness pillar!) can help you return to the present moment when anxiety spikes.
Benefit: Strengthens emotional resilience and reminds you that your worth is not defined by metrics, followers, or likes.
Mindfulness with Social Media
Protecting your mental health online isn’t about quitting social media—it’s about using it with awareness, boundaries, and intention. Again, social media isn’t all bad or all good. You can navigate it with an intentional, thoughtful, and strategic approach.
Therapy can help you develop mindfulness, emotional regulation, and self-compassion to navigate digital spaces with clarity and calm.
Whether you’re a teen glued to TikTok, a parent scrolling before bed to decompress, or anyone feeling digitally overwhelmed, remember: You have the power to scroll smarter, breathe easier, and reconnect with what’s real.
Therapy to Alleviate Social Media-based Anxieties
You are not failing nor are you alone; social media only shows fragments of your friends’ or celebrities’ lives. Therapy provides tools to stop scrolling, ground you in reality, regain control, and prioritize your mental health.
With awareness, narrative reframing, boundaries, inner reconnection, and self-compassion therapy can help reduce digital FOMO.
If scrolling leaves you feeling anxious or inadequate, consider speaking with a therapist to explore the root of your digital FOMO and start reclaiming your mental space today.
Ready to start your healing journey? Our therapists specialize in providing anxiety-conscious care. Contact us today to begin your healing journey.
