Obsessed? Frightened? Wakeful? War in Ukraine sparks return of doomscrolling

As happened with Covid, the compulsive need to keep up with the Russian invasion is taking a toll on our mental health

The pace of the crisis in Ukraine has created a brain-tangling complexity for anyone trying to understand what is going on. Now doomscrolling is back in ways not seen since the beginning of the Covid pandemic.

Mental health experts are warning that public engagement comes with a cost in terms of anxiety that should not be ignored. Paul Salkovskis, professor of clinical psychology at the University of Oxford, who worked on measures to help people deal with Covid-related anxiety, said: Clearly there are some people who are already anxious, who will be significantly more anxious, as happened with Covid - we saw a big increase in some subtypes of anxiety in the clinic. There will be some of that with this situation, but I don't think it's going to be the dominant response."