Honest answers

Am I addicted to scrolling?

Updated 2026-07-16 · Grounded in: U.S. Surgeon General's Advisory: Social Media and Youth Mental Health (2023) · APA Health Advisory on Social Media Use in Adolescence (2023) · Meta-analysis of RCTs: reducing social media use decreases depression symptoms (2025) · Two-week 30-min/day social media reduction RCT (2023)

Here's the honest answer: 'scrolling addiction' is not a medical diagnosis, but the pattern you're worried about is real, well studied, and has a name in research - problematic social media use. The practical question isn't whether you fit a label; it's whether the feeds are taking things you'd rather keep: sleep, focus at work, evenings, patience with the people around you. Researchers look at nine signs - thinking about feeds when you're offline, needing more time for the same lift, restlessness when you can't check, failed attempts to cut down, skipped sleep and hobbies, trouble at work or study, hiding how much you're on, scrolling to escape bad feelings, and friction with people close to you. If two or more of those sound like your last year, the pattern is worth taking seriously - and if five or more do, it's worth taking seriously today. The good news is unusually good: this is one of the most fixable patterns there is, and fixing it does not mean quitting the internet.

The fastest way to know where you stand is a structured self-check rather than a 3am guess. Our free check-in walks the same nine territories in about three minutes, privately, and turns the result into a first step the same day.

Why it doesn't feel like a choice

Feeds are built by very good engineers to be hard to put down: variable rewards, endless scroll, alerts that pull you back. Feeling unable to stop isn't a weakness of yours - it's the product working as designed. That's also why willpower alone tends to lose here, and why the changes that work are mostly environmental: turning off non-human notifications, moving heavy apps off the first screen, charging the phone outside the bedroom.

What actually helps

The strongest evidence is for reduction, not abstinence. In randomised trials, people who capped social media at around thirty minutes a day - or simply cut their usual time by twenty to thirty minutes - reported better mood, less loneliness and better sleep within two to three weeks. A recent meta-analysis of these trials confirms the depression effect. The recipe that keeps working: choose a daily amount on purpose, protect sleep first, add friction between you and the reflex, and give the reclaimed minutes somewhere to go.

Two parts of the pattern deserve special care. If you catch yourself checking the phone while driving, that's the piece to fix before anything else - today. And if feeds regularly leave you feeling worse about your body or your looks, that's a documented effect of comparison-heavy feeds, not vanity - curating hard helps, and it's worth real support if food thoughts have started to feel heavy too.

Where to start

Take the free check-in - it's three minutes, private, and reads your answers the way the research scales were designed to be read. You'll see where your pattern sits in general terms, get the safety notes that apply to you specifically, and leave with one concrete first step rather than a scare.

Honest limits

A screening tool estimates how risky a pattern looks — it cannot diagnose anyone. Only a qualified clinician can do that, with a real conversation.
Scores describe the recent past you reported. They don't define you, and they change when the pattern changes.
An honest result needs honest answers, and it's normal for the first attempt to soften things. The tool works best as a private conversation with yourself.

A private way to check where you stand

Three minutes, the same validated screening questions clinicians use, no name and no account. You get a plain-words result and one first step — and crisis support stays free either way.

Start the free check-in

Common questions

Is scrolling addiction real?

The suffering is real and well documented; the label isn't official. Problematic social media use is a research construct, not a DSM-5 or ICD-11 diagnosis. What matters practically is whether the pattern is costing you sleep, work or relationships - and that, a structured self-check can show you.

How many hours a day is too much?

There's no medical cutoff. Hours matter less than displacement: what the scrolling replaces. Sleep is the canary - if the feed regularly decides when you sleep, the pattern is costing you regardless of the total.

Should I do a digital detox?

Short breaks can help you feel the difference, but studies of full detoxes show mixed results and a strong bounce-back. The better-evidenced move is a sustainable daily budget plus environment changes - boring, but it holds.

Why do I scroll when I don't even enjoy it?

Because the checking is a reflex, not a decision - a loop of cue, glance, brief relief. That's also the hopeful part: reflexes respond to friction. Log out, move the app, kill the alerts, and the reflex starts missing.

Is this connected to my mood?

Often, in both directions: low mood makes escape-scrolling more tempting, and heavy feeds can feed the low mood - trials show mood improving when use drops. If the low mood is the louder half, talking to a professional about it directly is a good move alongside any scrolling change.

Can I do this without deleting my accounts?

Yes - that's the standard, evidence-based path. Reduction with guardrails beats dramatic deletion for most people, because it doesn't set up a relapse-and-shame cycle. You stay online; you just stop being on call.

The Mansio is a private wellness, education, and behaviour-change support tool. It is not a medical device, not therapy, and not a substitute for professional medical or mental-health care. If you're in crisis, call your local emergency number — crisis help is always free and never requires an account.