Nomophobia, a contraction of the expression “no mobile phone” and “phobia”, is the fear of being without your mobile phone: it translates, in fact, to a cell phone addiction. It can cause anxiety and anguish, or even prevent projects from being carried out, such as going out to listen to a concert, for example, if the fear of finding yourself without a network is too strong. It can be correlated with certain personality traits, and is treated with specialized psychotherapies.

Definition of nomophobia

Nomophobia, a recent phenomenon closely linked to the rise of new technologies, is an inordinate anxiety at the idea of ​​being without your cell phone. This disorder is not, for the moment, listed by the DSM-V (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders). It is however considered, by researchers in psychiatry, as a disease of the modern world, engendered by virtual communication. It was accentuated with the generalization of smartphones.

Causes of nomophobia

Its cause ? The interaction of people with mobile information, which makes some people addicted to mobile phones. Nomophobia can be linked to several personality traits. Thus, the probability of being reached increases in an individual with a strong need for rewards. Conversely, very sociable people have a lower risk of developing this addiction.

Diagnosis of nomophobia: a feeling of suffering

• Nomophobic individuals tend to over-check their texts, or social media.
• They have difficulty getting involved in daily tasks, fearing the loss of connection and access to information.
• In nomophobic people, discovering their cell phone discharged, or the fear of losing it, can go as far as triggering anxiety attacks.
• There is trouble if the patient feels pain, and the subject, having lost his freedom from the product, knows he is incapable of regulating himself.

The disease can be identified, for example, by a general practitioner, who can refer the patient for care and diagnosis to a psychiatrist, psychologist or psychotherapist.

People most affected by nomophobia

Main concerned? Adolescents and young adults, but also dynamic executives. The first, because this addiction to the cellphone manifests the underlying fear of being isolated from the group, in particular by the distance from social networks, or that of being private for a time of video games. For the latter, it is rather the anxiety of performance that keeps them constantly reachable, mainly for their work.

Risk factors linked to the use of new technologies

“The mechanism underlying this cell phone addiction is a psychological mechanism specific to each individual, highly dependent on the cell phone’s function in their life: connection to social networks, video games, group membership, performance anxiety”, summarizes Doctor Neveux, psychiatrist-psychotherapist in Paris. New technologies and their democratization have created new behaviors, which were by no means predictable … 

Anxiety or even anguish

Nomophobia has the negative consequence of increasing anxiety, even anxiety attacks which can result in chest tightness, lumpy sensations in the throat and stomach, nausea and vomiting, abdominal pain, etc.

Other symptoms

• Behavioral symptoms can also develop. The most frequent is the avoidance of situations where the nomophobic person could be deprived of his cell phone. An individual suffering from such dependence thus risks reducing his range of possibilities. For example, he will refuse to go to places where he could find himself cut off from the network.
• This cell phone addiction is sometimes, especially in young subjects, correlated with personality disorders, or with disorders such as obsessive-compulsive disorders or social interaction anxiety.

“We must adapt the therapy to the genesis of the phobia”, says Dr. Neveux. He stresses that certain psychotherapies have been scientifically proven in the treatment of many phobias, and are able to treat these phenomena of cell phone dependence.

• CBTs, cognitive behavioral therapies, allow you to change your ways of acting, so you have to interact differently, in a more measured way, with your mobile phone.
• IPT, interpersonal therapies, will be adapted to recreate links, to help people in whom cell phone addiction generates isolation.

Treating the symptoms of anxiety generated by nomophobia may involve taking anxiolytics, which should be limited in time.

Plants, particularly valerian, are an alternative to anxiolytics in the treatment of anxiety, as well as relaxation. Seeking advice from your doctor or pharmacist remains essential: herbal medicine contains active ingredients.

But it is the psychotherapeutic care that appears to be the most suitable treatment for curing these phobias. Attacking, also, the causes of addiction, often it is not limited simply to alleviating the symptoms.

The prevention of nomophobia may require knowledge of the personality traits of people at risk. The attraction for new situations, a strong imagination, are factors that can lead to nomophobia.

Extroverted people, and more so those prone to depression, are also at risk, as are very impulsive people, who are more prone to social media addiction.

Preventing nomophobia also comes first and foremost through education, the moderate use of screens from an early age, and learning limits.