According to this report, Indians spend 8 hours 29 minutes watching online video content, which is far more than the global trend of six hours and 45 minutes.
Things seem to have hit an extreme however, as India Today reported. The Service for Healthy Use of Technology (SHUT) clinic at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (Nimhans) in Bengaluru recently admitted the first person suffering from Netflix addiction in the country.
The patient was an unemployed 26-year-old male, who turned to watching 7 hours of Netflix a day as a means of forgetting his problems. Family pressure about his financial status and seeing his friends doing well in life exacerbated the problem.
Compulsively binge-watching shows on the streaming platform led to disturbed sleeping patterns, eye strain and fatigue.
To treat this obsessive escapism, doctors are addressing his psychological issues through therapy, prescribing relaxation exercises, and providing career counselling.
The condition is comparable to gaming addiction, which was declared a mental health disorder by the World Health Organisation sometime earlier.