{"id":10883,"date":"2024-08-07T11:09:08","date_gmt":"2024-08-07T11:09:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=10883"},"modified":"2024-08-07T11:27:32","modified_gmt":"2024-08-07T11:27:32","slug":"the-gamer-and-the-psychiatrist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=10883","title":{"rendered":"The Gamer and the Psychiatrist"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Did Dr. Alok Kanojia’s livestreamed conversations with a troubled video game champion cross an ethical line?<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

A few minutes into his first livestreamed conversation with Byron Bernstein, Dr. Alok Kanojia got his caveats out of the way. This was not a therapy session; this was just conversation. Colleagues had warned him, he explained, that blurring the line could get him sued.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a psychiatrist,\u201d he said, \u201cbut I can\u2019t treat your depression over the internet.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, gotcha,\u201d Mr. Bernstein said.<\/p>\n

Dr. Kanojia\u2019s fleece jacket bore the logo of Harvard Medical School, where he had done his medical residency. But he had also been a gamer who had followed Mr. Bernstein\u2019s record-shattering career. He beamed at the younger man with undisguised admiration.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo tell me,\u201d he said, clasping his hands together. \u201cWhat are talking about today, buddy?\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Bernstein, known in the gaming world as Reckful, tweaked the volume on his Twitch feed \u2014 thousands of viewers were waiting \u2014 and the two men plunged in.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
\n
\n

The next hour and 53 minutes<\/a> were intense even by the standards of Twitch, the livestreaming platform where video gamers often field questions about every aspect of their lives. As reactions flooded in, Mr. Bernstein opened up about his older brother\u2019s death by suicide. He spoke about his own suicide attempt, his terrible experience with lithium, the nights he fell asleep wishing he would not wake up.<\/p>\n

It was a riveting thing to watch: a fragile, brilliant young man opposite a probing, empathic doctor. The two men clearly liked each other, and Mr. Bernstein said he was improving. They had six conversations, with live audiences that climbed into the hundreds of thousands. Then, a few months later, the dialogue ended, tragically, with Mr. Bernstein\u2019s death by suicide at 31.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\n

We are having trouble retrieving the article content.<\/p>\n

Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into<\/a>\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe<\/a>\u00a0for all of The Times.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n

Thank you for your patience while we verify access.<\/p>\n

Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Did Dr. Alok Kanojia’s livestreamed conversations with a troubled video game champion cross an ethical line?A few minutes into his first livestreamed conversation with Byron Bernstein, Dr. Alok Kanojia got his caveats out of the way. This was not a therapy session; this was just conversation. Colleagues had warned him, he explained, that blurring the line could get him sued.\u201cI\u2019m a psychiatrist,\u201d he said, \u201cbut I can\u2019t treat your depression over the internet.\u201d\u201cYeah, gotcha,\u201d Mr. Bernstein said.Dr. Kanojia\u2019s fleece jacket bore the logo of Harvard Medical School, where he had done his medical residency. But he had also been a gamer who had followed Mr. Bernstein\u2019s record-shattering career. He beamed at the younger man with undisguised admiration.\u201cSo tell me,\u201d he said, clasping his hands together. \u201cWhat are talking about today, buddy?\u201dMr. Bernstein, known in the gaming world as Reckful, tweaked the volume on his Twitch feed \u2014 thousands of viewers were waiting \u2014 and the two men plunged in.The next hour and 53 minutes were intense even by the standards of Twitch, the livestreaming platform where video gamers often field questions about every aspect of their lives. As reactions flooded in, Mr. Bernstein opened up about his older brother\u2019s death by suicide. He spoke about his own suicide attempt, his terrible experience with lithium, the nights he fell asleep wishing he would not wake up.It was a riveting thing to watch: a fragile, brilliant young man opposite a probing, empathic doctor. The two men clearly liked each other, and Mr. Bernstein said he was improving. They had six conversations, with live audiences that climbed into the hundreds of thousands. Then, a few months later, the dialogue ended, tragically, with Mr. Bernstein\u2019s death by suicide at 31.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10885,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10883"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10883\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10886,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10883\/revisions\/10886"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}