Service for Healthy Use of Technology, or SHUT clinic, one of the premier technology de-addiction and counselling clinics in the country, is seeing mostly teenagers hooked to the internet and mobile texting

Seventeen-year-old Rajath (name changed) is a PUC 2 dropout. He would rather spend about 10 to 12 hours a day at the cyber café playing games on the internet than do anything else. His family is at their wits’ end to deal with his lack of interest in everyday life, his refusal to talk with them (except to boast that he’s not lost a single game till now), his lack of even something basic like sleep, and more worryingly, his tendency to steal to pay for his cyber café sojourns. His parents finally decided to seek help and came around to Bangalore’s now famous SHUT clinic.

But it’s not all rosy yet. After a few sessions of assessment, when he was asked to pick up a hobby, get back to college, he started refusing to change. “I am still making an effort to motivate him to come for sessions whenever he calls,” says Dr Manoj Kumar Sharma, professor, Department of Clinical Psychology NIMHANS, and counsellor at SHUT.

SHUT or Service for Healthy Use of Technology was a clinic set up by the country’s premier mental health institution National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS) in April 2014 to help people cope with the overpowering and sometimes destructive presence of technology in their life, mainly mobiles and the Internet.

“Internet gaming addiction among teenagers is the single biggest problem we have come across at the clinic. The next big thing is Facebook addiction, in particular, and social media addiction in general. Pornography and mobile texting follow next in terms of numbers,” says Dr Sharma. They define addiction using four Cs as markers — Craving (continuous desire to engage in it), Control (not able to reduce it), Compulsion (where one feels one just has to use information technology) and Consequences (experiencing effects - physical or psychological). But then, most people today would qualify for it? “I agree that today we do most of our work online. But are you able to involve in other activities too? That’s how we define it. Can you sit around and chat with your family without checking your phone for messages? Can you eat dinner and have a face-to-face conversation without checking Facebook? Once your immediate family or caregiver start complaining that you’re online too often, then you need some screening,” he states.

The clinic has faculty from Clinical Psychology, Psychiatry, Psychiatric Social Work & Epidemiology working together. SHUT sees at least two or three persons at its clinic each day (twice a week) and most of them are in the age group of 14 to 19 years, says Sharma.

“Most are boys from the middle and upper socioeconomic status, and indulge in online activities on their smartphone, on the home computer, or at cyber cafés. Many like Facebook for the ‘feel good’ experience it offers, where there are no expectations from relationships.” The clinic also receives about four emails per week from other states of India enquiring about the possibility of online help or telephone counselling. To date they have counselled about 22 technology addicts.

Once a person approaches the SHUT clinic for help (as of now its almost only teens brought in by parents, says Dr. Sharma), he or she is assessed and screened for the kind of problem, and clinical interviews are conducted. “They are then motivated to control their usage and make lifestyle changes,” says Dr. Sharma. The addict first needs to accept that he has a problem. Then goals are set for the use of technology — time limits, how often and when and where technology can be accessed. Hobbies or “healthy activities” are suggested to replace technology. A strong support network of friends and family who are in on the plan is always a big help.

In 2013, a study conducted was conducted for the Indian Council of Medical Research (Sharma, Benegal, Rao & Thennarasu 2013) where 2755 people were interviewed using a door-to-door survey in an urban locality in Bangalore. The respondents were in an age group of 18 to 65 years (across socioeconomic groups). The study revealed that there was an addictive use for 1.3 per cent for the internet; 4.1 per cent for mobile phones; 3.5 per cent for social networking sites; 4 per cent for shopping; and about 2 per cent for online pornography and 1.2 per cent (offline & online) had gambling addiction. Internet and Facebook addiction was more among singles, and seen lesser in joint families. Eye strain and psychological distress (decreased sleep, irritability, and restlessness) were found — 6.8 per cent among mobile phone addicts; 4.2 per cent among Internet users and 3 per cent among those active on social networking sites. Teenagers showed dysfunctions in areas of academics, social life, and were seen losing out on recreational activities. Parents showed a lack of awareness about teenagers’ online behavior. The study also found that people turned to technology to manage boredom, and get a sense of “well being”, or due to family conflict and as a way to use free time!

SHUT Clinic runs every Saturday between 2.30 and 4.30 p.m. The clinic also runs a support group (to help addicts tackle the problem together, and so that they don’t feel they are facing this problem alone) which meets on the last Saturday of every month from 3 p.m. to 4.30 p.m. at the SHUT clinic, NIMHANS Centre for Well Being, 1/B, 9th Main, Ist stage, Ist Phase, BTM layout. Call 26685948/ 9480829670 or mail nimhans.wellbeing@gmail.com/ shutclinic@gmail.com