Rehab @ Obsessive Users from Social Media
This rehab is saving obsessive users from social media
When Dr Manoj Kumar Sharma set up an internet deaddiction centre in Bengaluru’s Nimhans psychiatric hospital four years ago, he barely saw a patient a week. “Today, we get at least five to six cases every day,” he says of the Services for Healthy Use of Technology (SHUT) clinic that runs a 21-day programme to wean people off devices and screens. It’s not cause for cheer for Sharma, but an indicator of the fact that Indians are increasingly tied to their screens — and that some of them are realizing that they need help with it.
To a large extent, it is young adults in the 16-20 age group who are “internet addicts”. “These are kids whose parents can afford to buy them gaming consoles and smartphones,” says Sharma, associate professor of clinical psychology.
The reasons for addiction are wide-ranging — from lack of playgrounds to being a single child with both parents at work. “Sometimes, the child hasn’t been exposed to going out and playing with other of his age. So they just become comfortable playing games by themselves,” says Varghese Mathew, clinical psychiatrist-in-training.
Sharma says one patient would take more than 500 selfies a day, an indicator of social anxiety. Looking good on social media is integral to being popular now, he says, and this can result in anxiety and obsessive behavior.
“All of us use the internet to WhatsApp or log on to social media almost every day. The way we assess if it’s a problem is when it impacts normal, everyday interactions,” Mathew explains. “Are you shirking work or bunking classes to stay online? Is there a compulsive behaviour to check your phone in a way that it affects your interactions with others?” To put it in more technical language, Sharma and team determine an addiction based on four Cs — craving, control, compulsion, and consequences.
After diagnoses comes treatment. An addiction to the internet is different from dependence on alcohol or drugs. “We use the internet every day. Everyone is part of WhatsApp groups, you rely on emails for work, basically, the phone is a ubiquitous part of our lives and so asking patients to not use it at all is not practical,” Mathew says.
The regular course of treatment is 21 days. “If it is a young adult, counselling involves the parents. We listen to what they have to say because, to a large extent, addictive behaviour is a symptom of something else,” Mathew says. “While most of them end up being outpatient cases, there are times when we ask the patient to be admitted,” says Sharma.
The clinic has treated more than 250 people in the last four years. “They are counselled about healthy use of the internet and are allowed controlled use of internet,” he says. Patients are encouraged to take hobby classes and develop other interests, build emotional connections in the real world and weaken those with the virtual one.
Whether it’s children or adults, what’s common to patients is their irrational dependency on the net. “It’s like the internet is filling a void in their life,” Sharma says.
Source | Times of India | 30th May 2018
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