“Why do parents always wait, till their child gets completely addicted?”
One evening I was preparing my dinner, I heard a hard bang on my door. My neighbor was at the door, standing in panic. I got afraid of what the matter was. She just said her daughter has fainted and not responding. We just rushed her to a nearby hospital. Doctor after an hour finished performing many different types of tests on her, said her brain is badly damaged and she needs to be seen by neurologists.
The little girl who is lying unconscious on the hospital bed; I have seen her grow in front of my eyes. Very sweet adorable child of just 12 years. How come she got this? But this had to happen someday, I knew. I had seen her several times playing games on her mother’s mobile phone for hours. I had warned her mother of the bad consequences of using mobile phones for so long. But being her only child she didn’t want to stop her, hurt her. “What will hurt your child, by not stopping them from doing wrong and dangerous things?” Just a week before the incident; I and her mother were chatting, and I remember her mother was so worried and was saying, that her daughter has changed behaviors. She doesn’t eat food properly and on time. She has stopped playing with her other friends in the apartment. She has been sleeping only for a few hours. I thought she was busy with her studies and was taking it too hard. But her mother said all this was because she was not ready to leave her mobile phone. I was like what?? What are you saying? And in a week this happened.
The neurologist had come for the girl in the hospital. The doctor performed another set of tests for her brain, like CT, MRI, and others. After a day we got her reports. She was awake now; on medication for her brain to relax. The doctor just called her parents and said her long-lasting hours of playing games on the mobile phone, less food; less sleep has caused all this. It’s going to take long for her treatment as she is very young to be given high medication. I spoke to the doctor separately and we decided on how to proceed further with treatment.
Before knowing what was planned and how she recovered; let me take you to the world of addictions. As soon as one hears the word “addiction”, they only connect it to drugs. But these days it’s not just drugs. There are different types of addictions. Like gaming addiction, gadgets addiction, watching adult videos, overeating, stealing money, addiction to repeated behavior are few of them which are mostly found in adolescences. But what is an addiction, how does one get addicted? Anything which is done repeatedly and for a longer time, without being stopped leads to addiction. Most common in the current period are gaming and mobile addiction. Gaming addiction is playing games continuously for hours and mobile addiction is getting glued to your mobile phones. Checking your mobile in every minute, keeping it all the time, while eating, sleeping, and to the extent of taking it to the washroom. One is so addicted that being away for a while is difficult.
So back to the girl who was in the treatment for her addiction. Her brain was damaged. She had a chronic relapse in her brain; she no longer had the capabilities to do things on her own. She was completely dependent on her survival. She was been given the best and most powerful medicines of age-appropriate and I helped her with counseling too. She had to be brought back to the world where she belongs to; no addiction zone. After a few months of treatment and counseling the girl is now feeling much better.
So, parents; it is your duty to check on your children, while you provide them with gadgets and mobiles. What are they doing with it? Restrict the time limits and no playing of games for more than 40 minutes in the whole day. It’s always better to stop them, not getting them addicted to the initial stage itself.
Sejal Davey
