BENGALURU: A 23-year-old man was brought to Nimhans in March this year with complaints of inability to control the urge to watch porn, web series and play online games. The youth had been indulging in these activities for 6 to 15 hours a day for nearly three years. The youth's admission that he was initiated into pornography to overcome his cannabis addiction, shocked the doctors.

Pornography gave the youth the same brain stimulation and a sense of wellbeing that cannabis gave. The young man, an engineering dropout who wanted to get back to studies, has sought help from psychiatrists and is currently under treatment.

"The case findings suggest an emerging trend of excessive to addictive use of pornography as a substitute for substance use," says Dr Manoj Kumar Sharma, additional professor, Services for Healthy Use of Technology clinic, Nimhans.

"The brain stimulation and a sense of wellbeing he used to get with cannabis addiction was the same when he switched to pornography. That's shocking. After getting a high with digital addiction, he showed complete deduction in cannabis," Dr Sharma adds.

Research now has to look into whether digital addiction is as bad as cannabis addiction, said Dr Manoj, who has co-authored, with his colleague Ashwini Tadpatrikar, an article on the young man's case in Open Journal of Psychiatry and Allied Sciences, April 2018.

Temperamentally, the man reported to be anxious and slow to warm up since childhood. "When enquired, it was revealed that his family faced financial troubles, and he was molested by an elder brother in his childhood. The feeling of loneliness in childhood and constant struggle to 'fit in' or belong created difficulties for him during childhood," says Dr Manoj.

The youth admitted he took to smoking and consuming alcohol in his higher secondary due to peer pressure and sensation-seeking urge. As he moved to college, he switched to cannabis and smoked up to seven joints a day. This affected his studies. "After a road accident, he experienced anxiety and panic symptoms. Later, he moved to porn, with occasional cannabis use. And he, then, reduced cannabis usage gradually. But the number of hours spent online and watching porn increased from a minimum of 5-6 hours to a maximum of 10-15 hours a day," said a doctor.



In Video: Nimhans: Porn, cannabis have same impact