Ahmedabad: A 15-year-old child has begun attending an online class in 2020.
After five months, he has developed a friend’s community and they play online multi-player games.
Teenage parents began to worry about when the values began to fall, he complained of fatigue, remained annoyed and had difficulty in concentration.
Detox is generally associated with body cleaning.
However, city-based psychologists and psychiatrists are increasingly turning to ‘Detox Digital’ for teenagers and even younger children, to deal with screen addiction.
Dr.
Deepti Bhatt, a psychiatrist with a government hospital for mental health (HMH), said that before a pandemic, they used to get around one case every month with parents complaining about the use of excessive digital devices.
“After the pandemic, we get an average of four cases per week, a twenty-fold increase,” he said.
Thus, HMH inaugurates the ‘Digital Health Center’ is primarily intended for digital detoxation for children and adults.
“Pandemics worsen our digital dependence and this has extensive implications, especially for toddlers who do not understand addiction,” said Dr.
Ajay Chauhan, HMH medical supervisor.
“In many children, it reduces social interaction, and in turn their ability to learn motor words and skills.” Dr.
Pradip Vaghasiya, MD from the city cast and psychiatrist, said that they had seen cases where people might be fixed on the screen up to 14 hours.
“At around 50-60% of patients, it leads to frustration and anger, in 40-50% of cases of lack of concentration, in 30-40% of cases of anxiety and palpitations.
We guide them to ‘decide to reconnect’ and ask them to explore The world outside the screen, “he said.
Experts emphasize weaning the phase of children and adolescents.
Priyanka Adalaja, a senior counselor in Jeevan Aastha, said the pandemic gave children bigger access to digital devices, something that made them fascinated and also introduced them to a completely new world.
“Thus, we have seen cases of pornographic addiction, gaming addiction, spend online using their parents’ cards, online romantic relationships or just being fascinated by social media,” he said.
“We told the caller that there was a big difference between the real and virtual world, and they should not sacrifice the former for the last.”
Care facilities at AHD start ‘Detox Digital’ for Teens
