'Birdwatching saved me from my gaming addiction'

When things were at their worst Edward Bartlett was playing computer games twenty hours a day, sometimes only pausing to eat and sleep.

"I was addicted to video games," the 28-year-old said.

"I lived with friends, but for two years I never really saw them in real life them. We talked through a gaming microphone."

Now the University of Sheffield zoology student has swapped his gaming headset for a pair of binoculars as he's embraced a new passion - birdwatching.

Bartlett, who'd previously struggled with mental health difficulties, including depression, said gaming had initially provided an "escape" from his studies but had slowly overtaken his life.

"When you're playing games you're not thinking about reality and how things might be going in real life, so that's what sucked me in," he explained.

"It was the first thing I did when I woke up and I played all day until I was too exhausted to carry on.

"I didn't even realise I was addicted, but the moment the screen went away, there's this rush, sort of, feelings like, I really wish I'd get back to that game and then I'd think about things that I needed to do, like uni work and it would feel so overwhelming, like a crushing weight.

"[So] I'd play a game, and it would calm me down, because I wouldn't be thinking about it anymore, which didn't solve the problem at all".

Bartlett, from Kent, said anti-depressants and counselling helped with particularly difficult bouts of anxiety and depression, but it was a chance experience on a recent holiday to Wales that helped turn things around.

"I ended up in hospital and had an enforced period off the screens and then, on this holiday, I started to notice things around me and suddenly I was surrounded by nature," he said.

"It really sort of opened my eyes to how peaceful and different things can be."

In a bid to further his new found interest he was keen to join the university's bird watching society, but originally felt "too shy" to attend.

Eventually, after he plucked up the courage he "ended up having a lovely conversation with one of the members about the peregrines at the university".

Bartlett isn't the only young person to be drawn towards the pastime. According to the RSPB almost three-quarters of a million Gen Z-ers now regularly enjoy birdwatching, making it the second fastest growing hobby behind jewellery making.

That growing interest is borne out at the University of Sheffield too, where they have gone from 10 casual members in 2025 to more than 50 this year.

On Friday's many of the members can be found excitedly gazing up to the top of St George's Church in Sheffield, which is home to breeding peregrine falcons.