It’s official: brain rot from doomscrolling has replaced tooth decay from candy as the top concern for parents. Worried adults are holding social media companies’ feet to the fire as US teens’ scrolling time exceeds five hours a day, on average, and evidence mounts that apps are behind the deterioration of youth mental health.

One recent study found that 18- to 24-year-olds who reduced their social media usage to an average of half an hour a day experienced lower rates of depression, anxiety, and insomnia. Many teens don’t need adults to tell them they have a problem: In 2024, 48% of teens ages 13 to 17 said social media has a negative effect on them, up from 32% in 2022, per Pew Research Center. Even many tech CEOs say they restrict their kids’ social media usage.

But...some researchers say there’s still not enough evidence to conclude that social media causes mental health issues, noting that young people who already have poor mental wellbeing could be more prone to scrolling excessively.

Big Tech faces the music

The purveyors of the platforms known to cause the teen glass-eyed stare were dealt some courtroom defeats recently:

• A California jury ordered Meta and Alphabet to pay $6 million in damages to a woman who suffered depression and anxiety while using their platforms as a teen. The jury found that the platforms were intentionally designed to hook young users.
• New Mexico recently won a case against Meta, which was fined $375 million for misleading users about the risks of its platform for children and failing to protect kids from child predators on its platforms.

Legal experts say the verdicts create precedents that could lead to a cascade of lawsuits that would bite into Big Tech’s profits.

No phone, no problem

On top of their legal troubles, social media companies are now seeing their products yanked out of young users’ hands in the US. Phones are now banned in schools in 27 states, as well as in several major districts, including New York City.

Meanwhile, some countries have decided they want kids to touch grass 24/7. Australia became the first country to ban social media usage for kids under 16 last year, with Austria and Denmark preparing similar measures. Dozens of other countries are considering their own bans.

Big picture: Losing their young audience would be as painful for tech companies as the feeling of an iPad kid finding himself locked out of his device. Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube, TikTok, and X made $11 billion selling ads that targeted kids and teens in 2022, according to an estimate by Harvard School of Public Health researchers.—SK

AI has caused a lot of anxiety in recent years, but can it maybe help treat it, too? Some mental health professionals have been holding space for that possibility, cautiously integrating AI into their work routines. Or, as they might put it, taking baby steps toward adoption, while being mindful about safe boundaries.

Patient care: Administrative work is an obvious place to start. A lot of paperwork—like updating records, transcription, keeping track of appointments, and billing insurance companies—can be aided or automated by AI, freeing up therapists to spend more time actually talking with patients.

Therapy speak

Whether they want to or not, therapists have also had to adapt to patients using AI chatbots. According to a recent KFF poll:

• About 1 in 6 adults has used AI tools for mental health information or advice.
• The rate is even higher among younger adults, Black and Hispanic adults, and people who are uninsured.

After all, since Covid, experts worry that there aren’t enough qualified therapists to keep up with demand, and chatbots are cheaper and available 24/7. But Freud droids can miss a lot, like nonverbal cues and subtle mood shifts, and can also encourage unhealthy—or sometimes even unsafe—thoughts or behaviors.

Per the Washington Post, there are at least a dozen lawsuits alleging wrongful death or serious harm against OpenAI, after ChatGPT users were hospitalized or died by suicide. To stay safe, many professionals recommend using AI tools in tandem with human support.

An important reminder: “Therapy is not a legally protected term,” Vaile Wright, the senior director of the office of health care innovation at the American Psychological Association, told The Washington Post. Make sure to properly vet the products and people you’re trusting with your mental health.—BC

EMDR—Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing—is a relatively new mainstream therapy option that was developed to help people deal with traumatic memories. Created in 1987, the core treatment is bilateral stimulation, which involves side-to-side eye movements combined with sounds and/or repeated physical touch, like tapping your shoulders. This replicates aspects of REM sleep: The therapy has been compared to the feeling of going to sleep angry at your partner and waking up and feeling better the next morning.

Some experts, however, are skeptical that the eye movements matter, arguing that positive reactions are a placebo effect. A University of Washington psychologist called EMDR’s explanations akin to “neurobabble.”—DL

Last month, the FDA said it would authorize an early-stage trial for a psychedelic compound to treat alcohol use disorder, marking a first for the US. The move is part of a broader initiative by the agency to speed up psychedelic drug research, after President Trump signed an executive order asking it (along with the DEA) to get a move on.

Companies developing psychedelic drug therapies popped off, advocates cheered, and everyone wondered how we got here from a full-fledged war on drugs that dominated much of the 20th century. One day, your trek to an eco-lodge in Peru where a shaman gives you juice that lets you feel colors could, in theory, be covered by insurance.

Some researchers have found evidence that psychedelics can benefit patients with treatment-resistant depression, substance use disorders, and PTSD, especially in veterans. But the medical benefits of drugs like LSD, ecstasy, and other so-called magic mushrooms are nearly impossible to study in the US, as most psychedelic compounds are currently listed as Schedule I drugs with no accepted medical use in the US.

Big picture: While neither the executive order nor the FDA announcement technically reclassifies these drugs or opens up legal pathways for US-based psychedelic retreats, it does offer hope to the growing but still wildly unregulated industry.—MM

Y’all.

As one red carpet interviewer joked at last year’s Academy Awards, “numb is in.” The comment came during a conversation with actress Rachel Sennott, one of many celebrities who have recently sung the praises of beta blockers, an adrenaline-blocking blood pressure medication that’s being prescribed off-label to help make stressful events more manageable.

The Kardashians arguably popularized the trend. Discourse around beta blockers, or more specifically, propranolol, went mainstream after a 2022 episode of The Kardashians in which Khloé said she sometimes took beta blockers that were prescribed to her mom for anxiety (disclaimer: they should only be taken as prescribed). Since then:

• Robert Downey Jr. said he took a beta blocker before presenting at the Golden Globes in 2024, and Dan Levy did the same to host the Emmys.
• The drug was discussed on an episode of Amy Poehler’s podcast, Good Hang, where influencer Paige DeSorbo pitched Poehler on its benefits.

Odds are, you or someone you know is taking them, too—propranolol prescriptions are up nearly 40% over the past decade, according to NHS England data obtained by The Observer. The biggest spikes came from girls and women ages 12 to 23.

This isn’t like the Limitless pill. Beta blockers only calm the physical symptoms of stress and anxiety, not the racing thoughts, so they aren’t considered a proper substitute for anti-anxiety or antidepressant medications, like SSRIs. And don’t plan on cliff jumping, either. Since the drug slows your heart rate, it can make you feel light-headed or tired, especially if you’re exercising.—ML

In the never-ending race to put a doctor on your arm, Garmin, Samsung, Fitbit, and Oura each purport to offer stress-tracking based on physiological signals, like heart rate variability and sleep. That all sounds great, but in practice, these features aren’t necessarily reliable, and all this health monitoring can actually make you feel more anxious.

A recent study on Garmin’s stress-tracking found that wearables can often cry wolf:

• A quarter of participants were told they were stressed or not stressed when they actually felt the opposite.
• Stress scores didn’t significantly increase for any participants when they did feel stressed.
• The study’s author noted that his own Garmin has mistaken heart-rate-raising activities, like exercise or excitedly talking to a friend, for stress.

To stress-tracking’s credit, some hardware junkies say their wearable devices have helped them regulate their nerves, but drawing conclusions from biometrics can also backfire. If you’re already an anxious person, for example, getting frequent notifications of stress, possible hypertension, or an irregular heartbeat could worsen your anxiety.—ML