An unemployed man is being treated for an addiction to Netflix at a ‘digital rehab’ clinic in India in a first of its kind case for the country.
Doctors in Bangalore said the 26-year-old began streaming films and TV shows to shut out reality by binge-watching shows for more than seven hours a day.
The severe addiction led to eye strains, exhaustion and an erratic sleeping pattern that wreaked havoc on the man’s health.
Netflix India features the usual US and European series as well as an array of Bollywood movies and Indian programmes.
The anonymous man is now under the care of doctors at a clinic at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuroscience in Bangalore.
Dr Manoj Kumar Sharma, professor of clinical psychology at the clinic, said: ‘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.
Doctors are using meditation and careers advice as well as traditional therapy to treat the man.
Netflix in particular is famed for its ability to grip viewers, who frequently ‘binge-watch’ shows for hours at a time.
Figures suggest the average subscriber streamed 50 minutes of Netflix a day last year alone.
Source: Daily Mail