rewrite this content and keep HTML tags
In the words of Vishnu (name changed to protect identity), this is how he was introduced to a game that later became an addiction.
He is referring to his interest in an online fantasy sports app.
Over the past few years, a lot of online fantasy sports apps have emerged, and they have grown their market base at an astonishing rate.
As their number of users grew, many of them became addicted – spending excessive amounts of time and money on these apps.
“Every day I see at least one person in my clinic who has become addicted to one of these online gaming sites and Has lost money.” -Online Money Games in Tamil Nadu. She is also in the World Health Organization’s International Network for Suicide Research and Prevention and is the founder of Sneha, a Chennai-based NGO working for suicide prevention.
‘I thought I could win but then I lost control of myself’
“After setting it up, I started participating in small competitions. A prize money of Rs 1-2 crore could be won with an entry of only Rs 49,” Vishnu recalls. “Initially I thought I could win Rs 1 crore,” he said.
But before he realized it, Vishnu’s desire to earn big money turned into an addiction.
Talking about his passion to achieve the first rank, Vishnu said, “In 2019, I started realizing how much of a mess I had fallen into. There were fights at home and I went into depression for a while I was thinking too much about the matches.” With a fully curated team. “For evening matches, I used to calculate players’ percentages and probabilities on Excel during the day.”
‘And then my addiction crossed all limits…’
As Vishnu recalled his worst addiction, “I used to open the app almost every second. IPL matches would start at 7:30 in the evening. So, during the day, I would focus on building the perfect IPL team. Apart from this, I also started investing money in other sports – volleyball, kabaddi, basketball.
To repay his loans, he took up several part-time jobs, such as driving bike-taxi, working double shifts, filling in for furloughed workers, etc.
Vishnu said, “I paid off the loans from one bank after another. At one time, I thought of committing suicide to get rid of everything. But then I thought, suicide is not a solution.”
(If you are suicidal or know someone in crisis, please reach out to them with kindnessCall these numbersof local emergency services, helplines and mental health NGOs)
‘How can I get rid of this addiction?’
While Vishnu is finding it difficult to get rid of his addiction, his time and money spending on the app has reduced.
“There are strategies and people have come out of this,” Dr Vijayakumar said. He suggested the following measures to overcome addiction to fantasy sports apps:
-
Behavior Modification: Simply switch from a smartphone to a simple feature phone that allows you to make calls only for emergency purposes, so that the temptation to indulge in these apps goes away.
-
Monitor phone usage: Monitor and control phone usage volume.
-
family support: The family becomes very hostile towards them, as they have lost all the money, which was meant for something else. So, get together with the family to make them understand that it is an addiction, that they cannot control their addiction and that they have gone through it. Therefore, the family has to help in the treatment of any addiction without criticizing it.
-
Engage in physical activity: Most addicts hardly do any physical activity. Therefore, make sure they do at least half an hour of physical activity every day. Because when you do physical activity, the same endorphins are released that give them a high. We ask them to play real games instead of virtual games.
-
Counseling: To make drug addicts realize the consequences of their addiction.
Many of Dr. Vijayakumar’s patients have recovered from their addiction and she has hope for the rest of them too.
“It’s not something you can’t get out of, but because it’s online, it’s also very easy to get back in. Relapse is very, very common and we should not give up hope because the person has relapsed again,” He said.
