Like binge-watching shows? Nimhans sees first case of 'Netflix addiction'

A 26-year-old unemployed man turned to Netflix to escape reality, spending nearly 7-hrs daily binge-watching shows for the past 6 months

Do you use streaming sites like Netflix? Do you regularly binge watch shows? If yes, then you might want to be careful of your habit as 'Netflix addiction' is actually a thing now and its first case has just come into light in Bengaluru.

The Service for Healthy Use of Technology (SHUT) clinic at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (Nimhans) in Bengaluru received the first case of Netflix addiction last week where a 26-year-old unemployed man turned to Netflix to escape reality, spending nearly seven hours daily binge-watching shows for the past six months, reports The Hindu.

Manoj Kumar Sharma, professor of clinical psychology, Nimhans, who heads the SHUT clinic, said that watching these shows made the man feel good. “Whenever his family pressurised him to earn a living, or when he saw his friends doing well, he would watch the shows on offer continuously. It was a method of escapism. He could forget about his problems, and he derived immense pleasure from it,” Dr Sharma told The Hindu.

Sitting idle in front of the screen for long hours led to eye, fatigue, and disturbed sleeping patterns. To treat the problem, the clinic has taken to therapy, relaxation exercises and is providing him career counselling sessions to help him with his issues.

User-oriented interface is a key feature of online streaming platforms such as Amazon Prime and Netflix, which have gained popularity as a source of on-demand entertainment. Subscribers are provided with all the content that the platform has, which they are free to access whenever and wherever they want. In the present case, this particular feature, which is probably the reason why these platforms got popular, led the man into his current condition.