Alok Kanojia

Kanojia became addicted to video games during his time at the University of Texas at Austin, leading to missed classes and bad grades. At the age of 21, he moved to India to become a monk.[3]

Kanojia began studying alternative therapies including yoga, meditation, and Reiki in 2003 with particular attention to the Ayurvedic principle that mental health is inextricably linked to physical health. He got his addiction under control and graduated in 2007 with a biology major.[2]

Kanojia began a placement at Tufts University School of Medicine in 2010, receiving his medical degree in 2014, following which he started a residency at Harvard Medical School's Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH)/McLean Adult Psychiatry Residency Program.[3]

After graduation, Kanojia discovered that he had many friends who were also addicted to video games. He began helping them, but he soon realized that he did not have the time to provide support to everyone. This prompted Kanojia and his wife Kruti to create a startup, Healthy Gamer, through which they could provide resources to help people overcome their addiction.[3] He has stated that he believes gaming addiction is not typically treated productively by therapists and hopes to provide better support.[4][5]

Kanojia started hosting group discussion sessions to talk about gaming and mental health and, finding that these were valuable to participants, began streaming on Twitch.[6] He hosts live interviews mainly with other popular Twitch streamers where they discuss mental health issues. Guests of the show have included Reckful, Asmongold, Mizkif, xQc, Alinity and Pokimane. Kanojia also includes viewers who apply to be interviewed publicly on his livestreams.[2][7] Before participating in his livestreams, every guest signs a consent form.[8] Some psychologists have raised concerns that, despite disclaimers stating that Kanojia's streams are not therapy, they can still be perceived as such.[6] Kanojia's streams have been among the most popular mental health channels on Twitch due to his high-profile guests.[9]

Healthy Gamer, which received support through an incubator at Boston University,[10] trains coaches who provide non-medical advice and support to the gaming community.[2] The coaches go through 10 weeks of free training and are paid to host individual and group sessions for paying customers, through which they explore attendees' goals and motivations and may provide guidance on meditation.[2] The guides are not licensed medical professionals, and Kanojia encourages participants to continue with other support from trained psychiatrists or therapists.[5]

Starting in late 2019, Kanojia conducted several public interviews with online celebrity Byron Bernstein, also known by the nickname Reckful, who discussed his issues with depression, bipolar disorder and his brother's suicide during the livestream.[6][11] Bernstein stated that his interviews with Kanojia made him feel better[11] and helped him "hear my thoughts affirmed about what is important to my life".[12] He also stated that Kanojia did not call those interviews therapy "for legal reasons" and, as a result, decided that he should also not label them as such. Bernstein used the word "therapy" in the title of one of his videos with Kanojia.[12]

In July 2020, Bernstein died by suicide.[13] After Bernstein's death, Kanojia published an hour-long video where he talked about grief, depression and Bernstein's death. During the livestream, he advised viewers to seek professional mental health counsel if they were feeling symptoms of depression.[11][13] He also stated in the video that his livestreams were not a replacement for therapy.[14] Some psychologists and YouTubers criticized Kanojia for providing therapy.[15][16] Research psychologist and Twitch streamer Rachel Kowert claimed that Kanojia's online show is "clearly therapy" and expressed concerns for the health of the guests of his interviews.[6]

• Healthy Gamer