Nomo phobia is prevalent in modern work culture

Growing presence of electronic devices enabled people to rely on these system.  When they are away from such mechanism, their work is affected as well as it amount pressure on their delicate mind. One is observed as Nomo phobia, a type of irrational fear of being out of mobile phone contact. Nomo phobia is greatly affecting youngsters.

Mobile devices like smart phones are status symbol as well as requirement of people in modern era. This dependency on mobile phones makes people more conscious if they are away from it or losing mobile connections. These stress and anxious feeling may induce numerous psychological problems in users. With smartphones, users can perform array of tasks such as calling and texting people, checking and sending email messages, planning appointments, surfing the Internet, shopping, access to social networking sites, gathering information on the Internet, gaming, and entertainment. Plethora of psychological reports demonstrated that smartphones may lead to compulsive checking habits, and increased anguish. In other words, smartphones can be addictive. Major problem worsened by smartphones is nomophobia. Nomophobia, or no mobile phone phobia, is fundamentally the irrational fear of being far from mobile device.

Nomophobia factually entails away from mobile phone contact. If a user is travelling in an area where there is no mobile network, balance of mobile phone is exhausted, or low battery, he/she may be nervous, which harmfully affects cognitive function of the person such as inability to focus on target or difficulty in making decision.

Person gripped in nomo phobia show following symptoms:

People who are addicted to mobile phones and if they are away from these device, they may display symptoms like fear, anxiety, stress and panic attacks due to feeling of leaving without moving. Other side effects of this phobia include tremors, sweating, dizziness, difficulty in breathing, nausea, chest pain, rapid heart rate.

Major causes of developing nomo phobia:

Nomo phobia can result from addiction of smart phones for performing daily activities.

Users who have low self-esteem and problems in social relationships are at high risk for developing nomo phobia in youngsters. According news reports, key drivers of nomo phobia are monotony, isolation, and timidity.

In Indian scenario, mobile users are increasing at rapid rate and this augmented the nomo phobic population in India.

Warning signal for nomo phobia are:

There are some warning signs of nomo phobia that we all must know. These are:

-      An inability to ever turn your phone off.

-      Compulsively checking for missed calls, emails and texts.

-      Continually topping up battery life.

Treatment options for nomo phobia:

If users of mobile phone show symptoms of nomo phobia, they must immediately visit a doctor to diagnose the problem and to take prompt action. According to experts, to handle this irrational fear, users need to switch off the phone, especially while driving. Though nomo phobia is not pigeonholed in major mental disorders but it is penetrating in global society progressively. Therefore psychologists, researchers and clinicians must focus on this issue and work out to combat phobia in users especially young folks.

Presently, it is advised to take group therapy and psycho educational modeling for treatment of nomo phobia. While conducting group therapy, psycho therapist instruct clients to leave their mobile devices out of their reach and are not allowed to touch them for the whole therapy session. Clients are asked to do variety of exercises to lessen anxious feeling associated with mobile phones. In Psychoeducational modelling, educators, counsellors, and mental health facilitators embrace a practice in which they expound mentality and informing their clients to adopt healthy habits to reduce addictive behaviours.

It has been reported that singles are more prone to nomo phobia. This group frequently check mobile to get updates, send messages or fix appointment.

We can also locate victims of nomo phobia when they schedule for dating and mobile network is not available. These users display anxiety over stressed and sometimes feeling of embarrassment.

In ending the discussion, it is well observed that nomo phobia is an emerging issue of technological dependency and adversely hitting young generation.  Nomo phobia is the negative outcome of novel technical progression that facilitate virtual communication. When users do not have access of smart phone, they become nervous or transform in agony. Due to limited research horizon, proven treatment techniques are yet to be explored by mental health facilitators, educationist or clinicians. Psychologists recommend amalgamation of psychotherapy and some pharmacological interventions to tackle this phobia. On the whole, problematic use of smart phone is pervasive and related with negative psychological characteristics.