Nomophobia is the fear of being without or losing our phone. Nomophobia is a very recent type of phobia caused by the growing population of phone users worldwide unlike many other phobias was gotten from two English words; NOMobilePHOBIA in full.
Causes of nomophobia
One of the major causes of is addiction and also having had
a bad experience of being left without a phone where it was most needed. Other
causes of nomophobia just basically fall under that category.
How do I know if I have nomophobia? Nomophobia is not too hard to figure out. However, while losing
one’s phone can be heartbreaking or phone battery dying out just when your
crush is about replying your text, nomophobia is quite different from such
feelings. During a nomophobia test, here are a few questions asked to the patients so they have a view of what
nomophobia is;
*Do you feel uneasy after being offline for a while?
*Are you absent minded when you are on your phone?
*Do you prefer talking online even to people in the same
room as you?
*Do you feel like heaven has fallen when you misplace your
phone?
*Do you have several power banks you often use?
I'm sure by now you should also have a clue weather or not you have nomophobia.
Symptoms of nomophobia
So if you think you may be having nomophobia now, nomophobia
can cause a victim various mental and physical symptoms and these symptoms range
depending on how severe the case is. A few among these symptoms of nomophobia
are as follows;
- anxiety and increased heart rate when you’re without your
phone.
- you reach for your phone first thing in the morning and
last thing before you sleep not even for alarm purposes.
- over protection of your phone and battery level. You would
rather give $1000 than spare a friend your dying battery bar.
- use of phone anywhere, anyhow, no matter how inappropriate
it is.
- you just wondered if a phone is ever inappropriate to use.
- anxiety over not being online for a while.
How to cure nomophobia
Does nomophobia have a cure? Yes, nomophobia can be cured! An
effective way of curing nomophobia is by first understanding the dangers we put
ourselves by letting ourselves be bested by nomophobia. A few amoung the
consequences of nomophobia include the following;
i. You’re wasting time
A lot of times we think we can multitask, how well has that
worked out for you? We also grow the habit of procrastination “I’ll go prepare
dinner in 5 minutes”. 30 minutes later we’re still saying the same phrase.
ii. You are not sleeping well
Nomophobia can cause sleepless nights. The excessive blue
light emitted from our phones as been shown to alter time spent in deep sleep
and this persists even on days that we are unable to use our phones before
bedtime.
iii. Your health is at risk
Bad sleeping habits can cause illnesses ranging from cold
and catarrh to obesity, diabetes and even cancer, beware!
iv. Nomophobia causes anxiety now and then and the
more frequent these anxieties, the more you’re likely having higher blood
pressure.
Finally, having known the dangers,
here are a few self devoted ways to cure nomophobia;
i. Turn off your phone before bedtime
Reading a book can do the trick
and ensure the phone is completely off and not on silence as the blinking light
or vibrations are distractions on their own.
ii. Establish a No-Phone period
Dedicate a few hours of the days
to put your phone aside and do something productive. Sounds easy? Well that’s
because it is and you are doing yourself a lot of good too.
iii. Have more real conversations
Talk to people around you and give
exceptional attention to everything they say while simultaneously making good
remarks.
iv. Enjoy nature
Take a walk, take a hike or cycle
round town, enjoy the view and commit it to memory alone. Do not take pictures
with your phone, just enjoy what you see.
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