How can you tell if you suffer from nomophobia?
Are you one of those who does not separate from the mobile or to shower? Do you feel incomplete when you leave home without your mobile? Maybe you suffer some kind of mismatch that makes you dependent on your mobile phone . Although this seems crazy, it is something very common in our society. The mobile has become one more extension of our body . We sleep with him on the wing, we take him everywhere, even to the bathroom. Is it out of necessity or is it dependency? It is true that our lifestyle has changed and that we always need to be connected. But this in the long run can lead to a great dependence on the mobile phone. We are talking about nomophobia , that dependence or fear of being without a mobile.It is something very common today, more than we think. But how can you tell if you suffer from nomophobia? If you want to know, stay and read this article. We are going to understand what nomophobia is, what its effects consist of and what we can do to avoid it.
What is nomophobia?: How can you tell if you suffer from nomophobia?
You have probably never heard of this word that even sounds a bit wrong. What he comes to say is no-mobile-phobia, or in its origin no-mobile phone-phobia . That is to say, fear of being without a mobile phone , not only incommunicado, but rather of leaving home without a mobile phone. It is a kind of dependence on our mobile phone . It seems that without him we cannot leave the house. We would rather go out naked than without a mobile phone. Although we do not think about it, there are many people who are afraid of walking just a few meters away from home without their mobile. It is an irrational fear . There is no justification for this type of phobia. Why could our ancestors live without a mobile and we could not?It is possible that we have generated dependence on the mobile. Of everything that having a mobile phone provides us.
This fear does not occur only when we leave home without our smartphone or mobile phone. It can also be generated when we lose it , either on the street or in our house. Like it also occurs when we run out of battery and turn off the phone. It is a feeling of dependency that produces fear of being without a mobile . It is also generated when the phone does not find coverage or has a low amount of data or connection. We feel equally cut off . It is a feeling of isolation that generates anxiety and fear in us . Something similar to the feeling of being totally lost in an unknown territory for us.
How can we know if we suffer from nomophobia?
Surely after knowing what nomophobia is, you have worried a bit. It is understandable that at first you think that you suffer from nomophobia. Anyone today would think that he suffers from this disorder. We live glued to the mobile . But we have to distinguish between whether the idea of being without a mobile phone really terrifies us or is it simply that we need it on specific occasions. For example, it is understandable to be afraid of being without a mobile phone when we are in an unknown place for us and far from our comfort zone or known. What is not understandable is that we panic going out to buy bread or throw away the garbage without a mobile phone. We have to learn to identify the sensations and occasions in which we are really afraid of being without a mobile. For this, it will be necessary to know the main symptoms of nomophobia.
Symptoms of nomophobia
The first thing we have to keep in mind is that nomophobia is an addiction. It is not an extremely dangerous addiction like drug or alcohol addiction. But it also affects our health and not only our eyesight due to the blue light from the screens , but also our mental health .
Continuous review of our smartphone
The first symptom that can alert us to this disease is the uncontrolled use of the mobile phone. That we turn to him constantly. It is the fact that despite being in sound we are constantly consulting it . Trying to understand if there are new notifications that we have not heard. A constant use without justified need. This step is followed by consulting our social networks every 2 minutes. It does not have to be exactly every two minutes, but in a very repetitive way in a small interval of time. It is the dependence on the continuous review of social networks . We realize that we are addicted to social networks when the mobile phone and the review of these robs us of time from other vital activities such as sleep.
We need to have a plug nearby constantly
We are terrified of being without battery in the mobile phone. If we are afraid to spend more than two or three hours in a place where there are no plugs to connect our mobile phone, then we have a problem. We are on the verge of nomophobia . We are panicky that our mobile will turn off and we have nowhere to charge it. This symptom is one of the most common and one of the first to help us detect nomophobia. The same goes for the fact that we run out of coverage . If we cannot hold out for a long time in a place where there is no coverage, we may suffer from nomophobia .
Effects of nomophobia: How can you tell if you suffer from nomophobia?
Despite the fact that nowadays nomophobia is not considered a pathology or a disease , it can cause serious disorders to our health. There are people who even suffer depression as a result of suffering from this mobile addiction. Nomophobia has a number of negative consequencesin our lifestyle. By hooking ourselves to the mobile we move away from everything that surrounds us. It affects our sleep disorder, but also our daily habits. For example, we alter our meals and schedules. We stop enjoying what surrounds us to focus on what the mobile provides us. We are even likely to end up in fights with our loved ones. But trying to get rid of the phone can also affect our lifestyle. We put aside social networks and learn to be disconnected, something very difficult nowadays.