BBC:
Mr Brown, now 24, dropped out of college and spent the following years at home - gaming, in chat rooms and reading about politics.
He became almost entirely immersed in an online world of "echo chambers" where he felt the pull of extremism and cybercrime.
Mr Brown, from Ashton, Cornwall, says he became increasingly "eccentric" and eventually lost touch with reality.
"I can count the number of times I went out in a seven-year period on both of my hands," he says.
...
He finally decided to seek help and ended up taking part in the Real Ideas Organisation's (RIO) Game Changer programme, which aims to encourage young people to develop skills and overcome any issues they face before getting them into work, education or training.
7 years. Not bad. Can anyone beat that?
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 10 2018, @07:02PM
Fortunately mentality in my country is such that these are not a good subjects to talk. As well as salaries.
There is a cultural difference between countries, and really, it may change not after airplane travel around half of the world, but when crossing a neighbor country's border. Let me go with an example I experienced: With people in one country you can talk freely about projects done in a free time and it is normal, everyone does something, then you go home and boom - if the project does not provide instant money you suddenly are an unproductive lazy arse.