The recent suicide attempt by three friends in Garh Padhana village of Nawanshahr district, in which two died and one survived after the three consumed a poisonous substance following suspected heavy losses in an online game, has brought to the fore the growing menace of online gaming in Punjab.An excessive use of mobile phone has emerged as a significant psychological and public health concern — particularly children aged between 12 and 24 years. Experts warn that excessive gaming can lead to financial, emotional and psychological distress.Dr JPS Bhatia, an addiction psychiatrist from Amritsar, who established Punjab’s first internet de-addiction centre, said the problem was increasing rapidly. “Algorithms are designed around novelty, constantly feeding users something new. Each new experience triggers a dopamine release, and once a child gets a thrill from a game, it becomes difficult for them to break free from the cycle. With new features and modifications being introduced continuously, the engagement only deepens,” he said.“If you win the game online, you get hooked. Even if you lose, it says that you will win the next time. That is how youngsters and teenagers get increasingly engaged in these games,” Dr Bhatia. He warned the parents against their harsh or purely controlling approaches. According to him, youngsters visiting de-addiction and counselling centres have a range of problems, but ‘excessive mobile phone use’ frequently emerges as a common underlying factor.“Mobile addiction can be more dangerous than drugs,” he said, stressing the need for early intervention, counselling and greater awareness among parents and schools.Experts point out that the youngsters, who experienced loneliness, emotional emptiness or a lack of support, are particularly vulnerable to excessive gaming and internet use. Children from troubled or broken families are also at a greater risk.In February this year, the Gurdaspur administration launched internet de-addiction classes for school and college students, aimed at reducing youngsters’ dependence on social media and internet. Gurdaspur Deputy Commissioner Aditya Uppal said the initiative was launched under the broader campaign Yudh Nasheya Virudh and as internet and online gaming addiction was increasingly emerging as another form of addiction among youngsters, they started holding classes.Under the programme, counselling sessions are held in which doctors interact with students and try to understand the issues affecting them. The initiative also includes financial literacy sessions,” the DC said.The shift toward online digital interactions during the pandemic had deeply entrenched screen-based dependencies. Today, local communities, schools and medical facilities across the state are actively responding to the behavioral, financial, and safety risks associated with excessive gaming.Even NRIs have taken note of this growing problem in a Nakodar village and has helped set up free weekend classes for children aged 6 to 18. The idea is not simply to take phones away from them, but to teach them how to use technology mindfully and also to give them something meaningful to turn to instead.As the NRIs have pitched in to eliminate this menace in the village, some change is already visible. Suman Bala, a housewife, says her eight-year-old daughter had once found it difficult to stay away from the phone even for a minute. “She would download games and immediately start playing. She had also become very irritable. For about two months, I can see an improvement. She uses the phone but very little now,” she says.Ravinder Singh Kang, a government school teacher, who is holding sessions under this initiative, said the urgency behind this move by the NRIs became even clearer after he recently learned of an incident where a child allegedly attacked another after losing an online game in Jalandhar.He compared the progression of addiction to being trapped in a shrinking cave, where the individual gradually feels increasingly isolated and suffocated. Labelling youngsters as useless or not worthy, he said, can further worsen their emotional state.The concern is not only confined to only Punjab. A teenager in Lucknow had also allegedly died by suicide last year due to online gaming, highlighting the wider nature of the problem.