‘Binge-watching your favourite show may make you go bananas’
Have you been binge-watching your favourite web series -- Sacred Games, Lust Stories, Ghoul, Boss Baby and others? Here’s why you should think twice before you plan to devour a new season of your favourite web series in one sitting. The first case of addiction to online web series has been recently been reported in India. A 26-year-old in Bengaluru is being treated at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS) for 'Netflix addiction.
Experts say, addiction to web shows (series) can be as dangerous as alcohol addiction and the country is likely to see many more such cases in the future.
Millions of people across the world are obsessed with bingewatching. Experts say it has now become the new opium of the masses. People are staying up late just to finish all the episodes of particular series and are found to be replacing sleep with binge-watching.
Media professional Manasvi Gandhi says she loves watching Boss Baby because the baby is so cute and she can completely immerse herself in the show without any worry, for hours on end. It is Gandhi's way of unwinding and she cannot bring herself to stop. So, how does she stop watching? "It's simple, I get bored after a while and want to move on to other things," says Gandhi.
But that is not true for every one. The average bingewatcher is besotted with their show that they must go the whole hog in one marathon session. This then leads to the formation of an ‘addiction pattern.’ People are shutting themselves from reality and escape into the web series.
Staying awake at odd hours can cause mental disorders like insomnia, depression and anxiety in its wake, warn experts.
A psychiatrist says he gets two to four patients daily, who complain about mood swings and anxiety, brought on by having watched videos through the night. “Patients coming for counselling say they are addicted to entertainment applications, due to which they get limited hours of sleep, causing them to feel depressed and anxious as they cannot catch up with work,” said Dr Suresh Shetty, a psychiatrist.
Unlike conventional television formats, streaming services, in which a show’s entire season can be viewed on any device at one go, raise viewers’ vulnerability to bingewatching. People tend to stimulate the reward centre of the brain when they get to know what is happening next in their favourite show, say psychiatrists. This releases chemicals that trigger a mix of satiety and pleasure.
Dr Sagar Mundada, a psychiatrist, said that research has shown that binge-watchers are most vulnerable to mental health issues. “Neurochemically, it increases the level of adrenaline and cortisol that actually amplifies the stress level. It is also being called post-binge-watching depression,” added Dr Mundada.
Health experts say there is no one particular reason for binge-watching. “Self-education appears to be the only solution for this problem, but even that is like hoping too much from these people. What is necessary is to create awareness first and to make people realise that bingewatching can turn into an addictive disorder,” advise experts.
The new phenomenon of ‘binge-watching’ has emerged now. It sucks in the viewer, and he/she is compelled to watch the whole series. This then leads to the formation of an ‘addiction pattern