--- title: Lonely, Depressed People Are More Likely to Binge-Watch TV description: The habit is a way to forget about negative feelings canonical: https://time.com/3689264/lonely-depressed-binge-watching/ author: Sarah Begley article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-01-30T13:44:29.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:59:59.952Z article:section: Health og:title: Lonely, Depressed People Are More Likely to Binge-Watch TV og:description: The habit is a way to forget about negative feelings og:url: https://time.com/3689264/lonely-depressed-binge-watching/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Lonely, Depressed People Are More Likely to Binge-Watch TV twitter:description: The habit is a way to forget about negative feelings twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Lonely, Depressed People Are More Likely to Binge-Watch TV > Sponsored content. 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Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ## Video: How to Stay Mentally Strong When You Think You're About to Crack [Watch (HLS stream): How to Stay Mentally Strong When You Think You're About to Crack](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/QLgnQEN9.m3u8) (0:39)  _Published 2016-01-27_ by [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Jan 30, 2015 1:44 PM UTC by [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Jan 30, 2015 1:44 PM UTC Turns out that a _Walking Dead_ marathon may not be a healthy way to bust stress at the end of a long week: a study from the University of Texas [has found that](http://deadline.com/2015/01/binge-watching-linked-to-depression-and-loneliness-1201362817/) people who struggle with loneliness and depression are more likely to binge-watch television than their peers. The activity provides an escape from their unpleasant feelings. Unsurprisingly, they also found that people with low levels of self-control were more likely to binge-watch, letting the next episode auto-roll even when they knew they should be spending their time more productively. The researchers said that binge-watching should no longer be seen as a “harmless addiction” and pointed out that the activity is related to obesity, fatigue and other health concerns. \[[_Deadline Hollywood_](http://deadline.com/2015/01/binge-watching-linked-to-depression-and-loneliness-1201362817/)\] ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] [ MUSIC ]. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3689264/lonely-depressed-binge-watching/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3689264/lonely-depressed-binge-watching/"},"headline":"Lonely, Depressed People Are More Likely to Binge-Watch TV","datePublished":"2015-01-30T13:44:29.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:59:59.952Z","description":"The habit is a way to forget about negative feelings","url":"https://time.com/3689264/lonely-depressed-binge-watching/","keywords":["Mental Health/Psychology","Depression","binge-watching"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sarah Begley","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/mental-healthpsychology/","name":"Mental Health/Psychology"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3689264/lonely-depressed-binge-watching/","name":"Lonely, Depressed People Are More Likely to Binge-Watch TV"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"How to Stay Mentally Strong When You Think You're About to Crack","description":"","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/QLgnQEN9/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2016-01-27T15:44:28.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/QLgnQEN9.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3689264/lonely-depressed-binge-watching/","duration":"PT39S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3689264/lonely-depressed-binge-watching/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```