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Photograph by Fernando Moleres / Panos
Residents take part in a group psychotherapy session.
In 2008, China became the first nation to declare Internet addiction a clinical disorder. Recently, the Spanish photographer Fernando Moleres spent three days documenting patients at an Internet-addiction treatment center outside of Beijing.
Residents are required to spend a minimum of three months at the center, and treatment consists of exercise drills, therapy sessions, reading, and games. Moleres told me that, above everything, the center seeks to promote the socialization of its residents, to counter the sense of isolation associated with this type of condition. What struck him most, he said, was how readily patients seem to adapt to life at the center.
