“Addiction is like the disease of the mind” - Pokimane talks about addiction after reading a fan’s controversial message in Twitch chat

Twitch star Imane "Pokimane" spent a few hours talking about the ongoing controversy on the livestreaming platform surrounding big-name streamers accepting sponsored gambling deals.

While she was interacting with her fans and talking about gambling and its impact on mental health, a viewer made a very controversial statement, forcing Imane to address the issue.

She took this opportunity to converse about addiction and mentioned:

"Addiction is like the disease of the mind, and it can affect anyone no matter how good or bad of a person were beforehand."

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Pokimane provides her opinion on addiction and states her viewpoint

The Legacy Award winner spent the first half of her stream chatting about the controversy surrounding certain well-known streamers accepting huge amounts of money to host sponsored gambling streams.

As the topic of conversation moved from one thing to the next, the subject of addiction started to surface. Soon enough, a viewer by the name "zjpkid_" made a very controversial comment on the subject matter, saying:

"Dude, if you can't handle yourself and commit su*cide over gambling, you deserve death."

The Twitch sensation was stunned after reading the viewer's comments and began addressing it by mentioning the lack of awareness surrounding various types of addictions prevalent in society.

She insisted that people need to be educated on the matter of addiction:

"I feel like the lack of addiction education is so blatantly apparent when we start discussing things like this."

Timestamp: 00:46:37

Her address continued further:

"Do you understand how addiction affects someone and that being addicted to drugs can be very similar to being addicted to gambling or being addicted to anything else?"

Following this, the OfflineTV (OTV) co-founder pointed directly at the viewer's negative comments and said:

"And that does not mean that the person is a bad person or that they deserve to die."

Pokimane added by mentioning that addiction is a mental illness, and it does not spare anyone depending on their moral compass. Her profound statement came to an end when she said:

"And it's something as a society we need to work to eradicate and minimize and take care of people that are in that situation. Not say, 'Oh, you got unlucky! You got addicted. Go die!' What?"

Once her argument came to a close, the Moroccan-Canadian streamer joked by saying that her fans should vote for her if she somehow becomes a politician in the future.

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Fans react to Pokiane's opinion

Fans on Reddit posted zjpkid_'s chat log to show the type of messages they posted on the streamer’s Twitch chat. Redditors were shocked to see the fan's Twitch messages and pondered how old they might've been.

Some fans joked by saying that viewers like zjpkid_ are stereotypical xQc viewers.

Fans applauded Pokimane by pointing out that she had the best opinions regarding gambling and addiction.

Earlier this month, when xQc joined Pokimane on their much-awaited podcast, the former revealed that he was addicted to gambling. In his own words, he stated, "I gamble every day." xQc also mentioned that he had lost $1.85 million the previous month.