BENGALURU: With gadget addiction becoming serious, mental health professionals said the condition might be considered to be included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Health Disorders. The manual is published and updated by the American Psychiatry Association every 10 years, usually. The latest edition was released in March 2022. It mentions symptoms and descriptions of different mental health disorders. It is used as a guide by some professionals to understand and diagnose certain ailments in depth.
Ashwini Tadpatrikar, a PhD scholar from National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (Nimhans) explained that in the post-pandemic scenario, the screen time among all age groups has increased exponentially. Severe internet addiction rose from 0.3 per cent to 1-2 per cent. The average screen time of people has also increased from 1-2 hours to 4-5 hours daily, she said.
Ashwini explained that they usually follow the 5C rule - craving, control, compulsion, consequences and coping mechanisms to understand if a person is actually addicted or not. Since technology cannot be eliminated from a person’s life, the professionals try to guide people to maintain a balanced life and don’t recommend they should completely abstain from it.