Lily Allen has compared ditching social media to “withdrawing from drugs”.
The 40-year-old singer-and-actress is two weeks into her social media platforms ban and she initially felt “incredibly low” for the first time in months as Lily previously has battled “emotional turmoil” following her split from 50-year-old actor David Harbour in 2024.
The ‘Lost My Mind’ hitmaker described how she dealt with an “extremely heavy” wave of “sadness” and “loneliness” after initially avoiding social media, and Lily admits not getting that “dopamine fix” of “scrolling” for two weeks made her “initially really sad”.
Speaking on her and 41-year-old radio personality pal Miquita Oliver’s ‘Miss Me?’ podcast, Lily – who lives in New York with her two daughters, Ethel, 13, and Marnie, 12, who she has with her 47-year-old ex-husband Sam Cooper – said: “I think, like, the beginning of last week, I was feeling incredibly low, like lower than I felt in months. It was extremely heavy. This was like a different kind of sadness, heaviness, loneliness, whatever.
“And then I realised, maybe, this is because I’m not filling the gaps with scrolling. I’ve suddenly got this time for, like, reflection or, do you know what I mean?
“Because I don’t have that much to do here in New York during the day. I run, sort of like, various errands, and I get food ready for the girls when they get home from school, and I meet up with people for lunch, and I’m very active in my recovery. But in terms of work, there’s not much going on.
“And so I guess I would find myself sitting on Instagram and scrolling, or being narcissistic and posting and reading my responses to my – getting that dopamine fix.
“And I haven’t had it for nearly two weeks. And I think it made me initially really sad.
“I think I was having, like, withdrawal symptoms from it.
“It was horrible. I mean, I really did feel like I was withdrawing from drugs or something. It was crazy.
“But it took me a minute to think, ‘Oh, yeah, it’s probably that.”
Lily – who previously said she was attempting to be “less of a narcissist” in 2025 – took a mental health break from the ‘Miss Me?’ podcast earlier this year because she had been “spiralling” and suffering from panic attacks during the challenging few months.
And the ‘Smile’ hitmaker revealed in January 2025 that she checked into a treatment centre to work on herself for Ethel and Marnie’s sake.
Lily said on the podcast at the time: “I went into a treatment centre for a few weeks, which was great.
“I did lots of group therapy and some like individual therapy. I needed some time and space away from everything.
“And I did a lot of shadow work – lots of work about my inner child stuff.
“It wasn’t easy by any stretch. And it’s a journey, it’s a lifelong journey of healing. It’s not a quick fix.”