Ladies and gentlemen, on mental health, may I please welcome Professor of Psychiatry from the National Drug Dependence Treatment Centre, AIIMS. Ladies and gentlemen, sir runs the Dual Diagnosis Clinic and the Behavioural Addictions Clinic. He is also Secretary of the World Association on Dual Disorders, a Global Master Trainer on Drug Demand Reduction for the Colombo Plan and UNODC, and a member of various national and international committees, including the WHO Expert Group on Addictive Behaviours. Sir has published more than 300 research papers. Sir, we welcome you.

Thank you so much. Good afternoon. I begin by thanking the organizers for this opportunity to be here and to share my thoughts on this theme with you. I have been asked to talk about digital mental health.

Primarily, in the next few minutes, I will talk about the context of digital space and how mental well-being and digital wellness are connected, and why it is important to talk about it. I will briefly talk about some of the work that we do at AIIMS, New Delhi, and at the end I will present the work done by the expert group in terms of newer indicators or indices developed in this context.

When it comes to digital well-being or mental well-being in digital spaces, we must remember that when anybody, including any one of us, ventures into digital space, there are multiple factors at play. These factors determine how our psyche or psychology reacts or responds to our presence in that digital space. There are multiple such mediators. I have listed a few relevant ones.

One important factor is expectancy. When you venture into digital space, what do you expect from it? This impacts psychological well-being. For example, think of using a social media platform and posting a message. Your expectancy may simply be to convey your thoughts or feelings. But it can go beyond that—you may want to know how others respond, whether the response is positive, whether they like or forward it. Depending on your expectancy, the outcome changes significantly. Positive reactions make you feel good; negative reactions can trouble you.

The experience we have in digital space shapes our mental well-being. If we like the experience, it makes us feel good about ourselves. If people react negatively, it affects us adversely. This interaction is not passive. Digital platforms are actively managed. They are designed with elements that increase engagement, make them more interesting, interactive, and at times addictive. There is an economic transaction behind engagement, and people may end up spending excessive time, which affects them negatively.

This is also a two-way interaction. Digital space impacts our psychology, but we also help platforms learn how we engage. When you use an app, game, or social media platform, you provide information about your preferences. This data is captured and used to make platforms more engaging.

The impact on digital well-being occurs through multiple pathways. There is a direct pathway—excessive use, neglect of important activities, and inability to disengage. There are also indirect pathways. For example, physical health issues such as neck pain, back pain, eye strain, and computer vision syndrome can arise first and later lead to psychological issues. Financial problems from excessive spending on gaming, gambling, or online activities may begin as financial stress and later become psychological distress. For students, educational problems can be an indirect pathway.

At our institute, we work with people who come to our clinic—the Behavioural Addictions Clinic—and also engage with communities, schools, and colleges. We conduct research across different populations, including school students, medical students, and engineering students, to document how digital engagement impacts mental health.

We study broad domains like internet use and specific activities such as gaming addiction, social media use, and OTT platforms, and how these affect youth well-being.

People who come to our clinic generally present with three broad sets of problems. First are negative emotional states—anxiety, stress, distress, and depressive symptoms due to problematic technology use. Second are diagnosable mental disorders such as depressive and anxiety disorders. Third are addictions—social media addiction, gaming addiction, and other internet-related addictions, which are now formally recognized in diagnostic systems.

In community settings, especially among students and youth, problems are broader and not always clinical disorders. These include concerns about online reactions, cyberbullying, cyberstalking, fear of missing out, academic decline, absenteeism, falling grades, and even dropping out of college due to excessive digital engagement.

Before discussing mitigation, we must acknowledge that digital engagement is not always problematic. It can be beneficial. Unlike substance addiction, where the message is “say no to drugs,” the message cannot be “say no to the internet.” The challenge is finding balance—using digital spaces productively without suffering negative consequences.

At our institute, we work with multiple partners. We have conducted awareness programs in schools in collaboration with Delhi Police. We work with international organizations like WHO to develop guidelines on preventing behavioural addictions. We conduct online teaching and training, develop self-assessment tools for gaming addiction, create online courses that have been evaluated for effectiveness, and run an online portal called BEHAVIOR, a regional resource for Southeast Asia providing information on safe and healthy digital use.

I will briefly outline the framework for digital mental health developed by the expert group. It follows a structure similar to other frameworks discussed today. One domain is digital well-being and addiction potential, with multiple subthemes and cross-country comparisons. Other domains include content-based mental health issues, child protection—including cyberbullying, cyberstalking, and online abuse—and ethical considerations related to mental well-being in digital spaces.

To conclude, it is essential that we address mental health and well-being in the digital context. The bottom line is ensuring safety in digital spaces and finding ways to navigate them in a healthy and productive manner without experiencing negative consequences.

Thank you.

Participants at the Indices for Viksit Bharat