What happens when you lose your phone, battery dies or no signal?

Nomophobia was the term coined five years ago as a recognised phobia for someone who loses their mobile phone signal, has a dead battery or loses the phone itself. It is thought almost half of us panic if our mobile phones are not in sight or within easy reach.

How can an item which practically didn’t exist for most of us 20-25 years ago have such an impact on our lives today? Accidently leaving the house without it can send you into a panic and if you are unable to return to retrieve it, you spend the whole day fretting and feel ‘bare’ without it. If your teenager does not answer it when they are out and you call, you automatically begin to panic yet as teenagers ourselves, we did not have this technology and most of us survived unscathed!

One of the reasons we are becoming more and more attached to our cell phones is because of the amount of data we now store in it. We no longer write down people’s phone numbers so if we lose our phone or it is stolen, it is virtually impossible to reconnect with people unless they are on another social media platform or such. We exchange business and personal emails, keep up to date with our friends’ lives via facebook or instagram, store useful and personal information on apps and basically run our lives from the diary incorporated in it.

Go into any bar or public area such as a train station or sit on a public bus and you can guarantee that all heads will be down and eyes fixed on either a mobile phone or tablet. Go to a church or conference and there is always one person who forgets to turn their phone to silence interrupting the flow. People are more interested in looking at what their friends are eating on Facebook than what they are actually physically eating themselves.  As technology advances our brains become more dormant as these gadgets think for us.

If you think your mobile phone is controlling your life and you sense a rising panic if it is not within touching distance then hypnosis can help. Just like any other phobia, the physiological symptoms you experience will be the same. You may experience a rising panic in your throat and a sense of dread in the pit of your stomach. You may feel shaky and breathless as the panic takes control. Wild, erratic thoughts may enter your head such as your loved ones could be dying right there and now and you are helpless to help them as they cannot contact you.

The hypnotherapist can guide you into a state of complete relaxation where his calming voice can allow you to take measure of your thoughts and feelings. He will bypass the conscious mind and address the unconscious mind reminding you of the many times in the past when you were without a mobile phone and nothing negative happened. If you use your mobile phone mainly for work activities he will help you to realise that it is impossible to be on duty 24/7 and that you can and should switch off from all work related business where possible. If you are a young person who relies on social media to be kept updated constantly, he will help you to see that the majority of the news you crave is inconsequential and won’t matter as you can pick it up again at any time without actually losing any important information.

Hypnosis will enable you to feel in control again and alleviate the physical symptoms related to the phobia you are experiencing. By calming your mind, your body will follow. The therapist may encourage you to go for periods of time without your mobile phone or other technology to introduce some peace and tranquillity into your life. You may even find yourself talking face to face with your friends and family again and looking up once in a while and enjoying the beauty of nature.

“Don’t become a slave to technology – manage your phone, don’t let it manage you”  -  Richard Branson.