Not just treatment, the country’s only behavioural addiction clinic at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) is also looking to offer prevention, early detection and protection against Internet addiction by joining hands with educational institutions. The idea is to educate the youth about the dangers of social media.
Yatan Balhara, who started the clinic said, “Social media addiction is the worst among those between 15 and 23 years. We have seen a teenager who would spend 19 hours a day surfing the Internet and a girl who would spent 16 hours on social media.
‘Holistic treatment’
“AIIMS is now going beyond just treatment. We are open to working with schools and universities that can invite us to create awareness among teachers, parents and students on how to identify addiction, when intervention is necessary and how to ensure that each child is offered holistic treatment that helps build healthy social media habits,’’ said Dr. Balhara. According to him, Internet addiction begins with parents encouraging the habit. “A crying child should not be given a cell phone to play with. You are exposing the child to an addictive agent and the chances of him/her getting hooked are extremely high. Exposure to computers, cell phones and other gadgets is good, but it has to be monitored. Children can not be expected to regulate themselves,” he explained.
The physician added that since children were constantly browsing through social media, they didn’t have time for other activities. Most parents, in fact, miss the initial signs.
‘Parents miss signs’
The behavioural addiction clinic is open from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m on Saturdays. A typical day here sees worried parents lined up, hoping to understand what “ails” their “otherwise good children”. “We don’t understand. There were no obvious signs. He is such a good child...” are the refrains one can expect to hear from parents who seem to be at a loss.
“It is only when the grades start to slip that parents wake up. The otherwise good children, who keep to themselves and their rooms, don’t stay out late at night, and have almost no friends dropping by, suddenly find themselves under the spotlight. Addicted to social media, the children have little time for anything else. This also explains the lack of normal teenage activity like staying out with friends, etc.”
“Parents come to us when the grades have dipped and the children have withdrawn. However, we need to ensure that they don’t reach that stage and that this ‘fall’ is arrested at the beginning. Also, children need to be made aware of the dangers of cyber crime,” he explained.
