Six hours a day, 2 years: How an innocent tap on YouTube turned a six-year … – The Indian Express

Like any playful eight-year-old, Anamika Anand (name changed) smiles to herself as she completes her craft class. And while she gets into a huddle with friends, you would not know that she has just come back from the dark abyss, a world where she immersed herself in horror videos on YouTube for six long hours every day, for two years! And while the fear of the unknown scared her to bits, strangely she got drawn to it rather insidiously. Then she stopped talking to her family, began talking to herself and her dolls in a scene straight out of the Chucky series of films, where possessed dolls unleash the evil within. That’s when her parents — Anamika’s father runs a business of readymade garments in Haryana and her mother is a home tutor — rushed her to Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh. Yet there was a time when little Anamika loved school and being sporty, was part of the handball team. After school, she would run to her dance classes with her two older siblings and pick up new accessories for her dolls on her way back. Then the Covid lockdown happened in 2020 —
Read More