Camerapersons: Shivkumar Maurya, Ribhu Chatterjee
"A friend, who used to put money into this, had referred it to me. A few days later, he told me, "I can't play this anymore as I have suffered a big loss." But I thought I could earn good money because I had good knowledge of cricket."
In the words of Vishnu (name changed to conceal the identity), this was how he got introduced to a game that grew into an addiction.
He is referring to his fixation to an online fantasy sports app.
In the past few years, a lot of online fantasy sports apps have sprung up, and they have grown their market base at an astonishing rate.
As their users grew in numbers, a lot of them also became addicted – spending inordinate amounts of time and money on these apps.
"Every day in my clinic, I see at least one person who has become addicted to any one of these online gaming sites, and having lost money," tells Dr Lakshmi Vijayakumar, a psychiatrist and member of the committee that recommended a ban on real-money online games in Tamil Nadu. She is also on the World Health Organisation’s International Network for Suicide Research and Prevention and the founder of SNEHA, a Chennai-based NGO working for the prevention of suicides.
‘I Thought I Could Win But Then I Lost Control Over Myself’
"After installing it, I began participating in small contests. The prize money of Rs 1-2 crore can be won with an entry of just Rs 49," recalled Vishnu. "At the start, I thought I could win Rs 1 crore," he said.
But before he could realise it, Vishnu's desire to earn huge sums of money turned into an addiction.
"In 2019, I began to realise the mess I had gotten into. There were fights at home, and I went into depression for sometime. I kept overthinking about matches," Vishnu said as he opened up about his obsession to score the first rank with a perfectly curated team. "For the match in the evening, I used to calculate the percentages and probabilities of players on Excel in the day."
"It is like an alcoholic who first takes alcohol to get a high and then if he doesn't take alcohol, he gets tremors, so he takes alcohol. Like that, you have a withdrawal reaction, so you start playing it to get the same high. Your quantum of playing, the amount, all increases trying to get the same high which you don't get after some time. Your brain tells you that you have to do it. It becomes like an obsessive thing which you need to do, if you don't do it, you are not able to think of other things."Lakshmi Vijayakumar, psychiatrist
'And Then My Addiction Crossed All Limits…'
As Vishnu recalled the worst of his addiction, he said, "I opened up the app almost every second. The IPL matches started at 7:30 in the evening. So, during the day, apart from focusing on making the right IPL team, I also began putting money in other sports – volleyball, kabaddi, basketball."
"I took loans to put more money into it. I took several personal loans, and I exhausted all my family's funds that were saved for other purposes. I put in all the money in the app's account and spent it. I spent approximately one crore rupees in this app. They have a recovery rate of 40-60 percent, this much I have recovered, and I have incurred a loss of about 40-50 lakh rupees."Vishnu
To repay his loans, he took up several part-time jobs like riding a bike-taxi, doing double shifts, filling in for workers who are on leave, etc.
"I repaid the loans of one bank after another. At one point, I thought of dying by suicide to get rid of everything. But then I thought, suicide is not a solution," Vishnu said.
(If you feel suicidal or know someone in distress, please reach out to them with kindness and call these numbers of local emergency services, helplines, and mental health NGOs)
‘How Do I Get Over This Addiction?’
While Vishnu finds it difficult to get rid of his addiction, the amount of time and money he spends on the app has reduced.
"There are strategies and people have come out of it," said Dr Vijayakumar. She further suggested the following measures to overcome the addiction to fantasy sports apps:
Behavioural Modification: Just switch over from a smartphone to a simple feature phone which only allows you to make a call for emergency purposes, so that the temptation of indulging in these apps is removed.
Monitor Phone Usage: Monitor and control the amount of phone usage.
Family Support: The family becomes very hostile towards them, because they have lost all the money, which was meant for something else. So, work with the family to make them understand that it was an addiction, that they couldn't control their addiction and they've gone through it. So in treating an addiction, the family has to help without criticising.
Indulge In Physical Activity: Most of the addicts hardly do any physical activity. So, make sure that they have at least half an hour of physical activity every day. Because when you do the physical activity, the same endorphins are released which gives them the high. We ask them to go play real, actual games rather than virtual games.
Counselling: Making the addicts realise what the consequences of their addiction have been.
Several of Dr Vijayakumar's patients have recovered from their addiction and she holds out hope for the rest of them too.
"It is not something that you can’t get out of, but because it is online, it is also so easy to slip back. Relapses are very, very common and we shouldn't give up hope because the person has relapsed again," she said.
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