Are you suffering from nomophobia?

Mobile phone absence causes anxiety and fear amongst majority of users

Jeremy Proome

June 21, 2012

The fear of being without a mobile phone, known as nomophobia, has now become one of the leading phobias.

Nomophobia still sits behind glossophobia, which is the fear of public speaking, although the mobile-based fear has seen a substantial rise with the ever-evolving era of cell phone technology.

A study found that nearly 85 per cent of these users tend to be anxious when they “lose their phone, run out of battery or credit, or have no network coverage”.

Warning signs of nomophobia can include:

An inability to ever turn your phone off
Obsessively checking for missed calls, emails and texts
Constantly topping up your battery life
Being unable to pop to the bathroom without taking your phone in with you.

Young people are said to be primary sufferers of the fear, and nomophobia is said to be accredited to the rise of motor accident possibility, with 58 percent of young drivers admitting to sending, reading or writing a text message while driving.