Addicted to reels, student breaks hand to skip exams
Ahmedabad: How addictive can watching reels on mobile get? A
in Ahmedabad was so hooked on short video formats that she spent an average of 12 hours relishing them. With practically all her waking hours consumed by this addiction, she voluntarily fractured her right hand to avoid writing her nursing exams!
The violent self-harm was a rude wake-up call for the nursing student, who herself called the Tele MANAS (14416)
helpline, a central govt project, to report herself and seek help.
Tired of too many ads? go ad free now
The details of her reel addiction even shocked the seasoned counsellors.
The Tele MANAS experts said that overall screen time has significantly spiked since the Covid pandemic, with the 'new normal' hovering around 5-6 hours. The nursing student had a compulsion to check her phone constantly and primarily consumed short-format videos, along with checking social media, exploring music and videos, and surfing websites.
"The aspiring nurse confessed that she started watching short videos, popularly known as reels, about six months ago when she felt lonely and bored. Soon, she could not give up watching her phone even when she visited restaurants, cafes, or movie theatres. Ahead of her exams, she felt blank and decided to fracture her hand to avoid appearing for her exams, for which she was obviously unprepared," said a Tele MANAS counsellor.
After four months of counselling, the nursing student recently wrote her term exams. "Extensive therapy helped her bring down her total screen time to three hours. Her mother was counselled about loneliness being central to her phone addiction and was advised to give her daughter more time and attention," added the counsellor.
Dr Chirag Parmar, psychiatrist and coordinator for Tele MANAS at HMH, said that the helpline has received over 16,000 calls since its inception, with
emerging as a major secondary factor in mental health issues.
Tired of too many ads? go ad free now
"Digital addiction is present in over 70-80% of cases related to mood swings, feeling down, anxiety, or sleep disorders. Like most addictions, it starts small with a few minutes or half an hour of scrolling. But the law of diminishing returns kicks in, and to get the same level of dopamine kick, the person needs more screen time, starting an endless loop," he said, adding that one should try to remember the first two clips they saw after one such session to realise that there is no actual brain stimulus.
Dr Ajay Chauhan, medical superintendent of Government Hospital for Mental Health (HMH), said that of the 16,000 calls, two-thirds were dialled by men. The majority, 70% of callers, were in the age group of 18 to 40 years, which is termed the working population. "Each age group has its own unique set of mental health issues, and thus we need a different approach to tackle it. It ranges from anxiety at an early age due to intense competition for professional exams such as JEE or NEET among students to feelings of loneliness among the elderly," he said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Deccan Herald
32 minutes ago
- Deccan Herald
Karnataka reports 366 active Covid cases, death toll increases to 9
According to the state health department's Covid bulletin, both the men had Severe Acute Respiratory Infections (SARI), displaying symptoms of fever, breathlessness, and cough.
Mint
an hour ago
- Mint
COVID-19 update, 7 June 2025: India's active case count nears 6,000 with 391 new infections; Kerala, Delhi lead surge
Covid-19 Update, June 7: India's active cases of Covid-19 yet saw another increase over the past 24 hours, data from the Union Ministry of Health revealed on Saturday as the grip of the coronavirus continued to rise over the past few weeks. The number of active Covid-19 cases neared the 6,000 mark over the past 24 hours, data showed on Saturday. India's number of active Covid-19 cases has increased to 5,755 in the past day, the Covid dashboard of the health ministry revealed. India has reported 391 Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours, according to the data. This is a drop from the 498 cases that the country recorded on Friday. The number of Covid-19 patients who have been discharged over the past 24 hours were recorded at 760. This is a decrease from the 764 recoveries recorded on Friday. As many as four people died due to Covid-related issues over the past day, according to the data. The deaths were reported from Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra. In Maharashtra, a pregnant 45-year-old woman died in the hospital after she started having intrapartum seizures after which she became intubated. She later tested Covid-19 positive. Another 59-year-old man in Kerala with lung cancer passed away. The two other patients who died were over 60 years of age and had comorbidities. Kerala recorded most number of Covid-19 cases on Saturday at 127, while one person died in the state. This was followed by Gujarat and Delhi. Gujarat recorded 183 new coronavirus positive cases on Saturday, taking the active count in the state to 822, the health department said. However, no death was reported in the past 24 hours. All the cases which are emerging in Gujarat are of JN.1, LF.7, LF.7.9 and XFG variants of the Omicron family, which causes mild fever and cough, the health department said. Maharashtra on Saturday reported 86 new cases, taking the total count since January to 1,362. Of these new cases, 31 were detected in Pune city and two in its rural parts and 28 tested positive in Mumbai, an official statement said. Uttarakhand recorded four new coronavirus positive cases on Saturday. Seven people have tested positive for Covid-19 in Dehradun on Friday, with the health department tracking down those who came in contact with them. Odisha Education Minister Nityananda Gond said the government is cautious about Covid-19 and that teachers should be trained to prevent Covid-19 infection when exposure to the virus cannot be avoided.
India.com
an hour ago
- India.com
US scientists issue chilling warning, say new virus found in China one step away from spreading in..., HKU5-CoV-2 virus is found in...
Covid-19: Active cases surge to 3207, 29 deaths, 60% of cases in Kerala and Maharashtra COVID-19 has once again dominated the news headlines. A new virus has been detected in China following the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the Independent report, Scientists suggest that the variant, known as HKU5-CoV-2, is likely to affect a wider range of animals than the original COVID-19 virus, which led to millions of deaths worldwide. It is to be noted that the new variant may pose a greater risk of spreading between species. American researchers have raised concerns that HKU5-CoV-2, detected in China in February, might also have the ability to infect humans, potentially triggering a large-scale outbreak. A new study published in Nature Communications studied a lesser-known group of coronaviruses referred to as merbecoviruses, which includes HKU5 and MERS-CoV — the virus that causes the deadly Middle East Respiratory Syndrome. Researchers from Washington State University studied how this new virus interacts with human cells. They discovered that a small alteration in the virus's spike protein would probably help it hook onto human ACE2 receptors located in the throat, mouth, and nose. HKU5-CoV-2 can infect and replicate within human cells in both the respiratory tract and the digestive tract. At present, the virus is found in bats, but with a small mutation, it could start spreading among people. This virus is similar to MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome). The World Health Organization states that around 35% of those infected with Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) succumb to the disease. Since its emergence in 2012, approximately 27 countries have reported cases, resulting in 858 confirmed deaths. The infection is primarily transmitted from camels.
