The term nomophobia stands for No Mobile Phone Phobia and describes the fear of not having the mobile phone with you and therefore not being able to use it.

This is how you can tell if you have nomophobia

Nomophobia describes the fear of being unavailable and unable to respond to social contacts. This fear then manifests itself in nervous or panicky behavior when the mobile phone can no longer be used. Many older studies have found links between nomophobia and loneliness, depression and impulse control.

Nomophobia: The New Generation Anxiety Disorder

A study was carried out this year at the PFH Private Hochschule Göttingen in Göttingen, in which 807 volunteers took part. The average age of the participants was 25 years, which makes the results of the study even more startling:

Almost half (49.4%) of the participants showed a moderate level of nomophobia, while 4.1% even experienced severe anxiety.

The study was conducted using an international questionnaire on nomophobia, which asked subjects about various aspects of “cell phone withdrawal”.

What can I do about my nomophobia?

Because nomophobia is an anxiety disorder and not an addictive behavior, you need to work towards improving your nomophobia slowly.

Here are a few suggestions you can do to make the anxiety easier to bear:

• Reduce cell phone usage: This does not mean that you stop using your cell phone from one day to the next. But you can set specific response and usage times to still be reachable but minimize your screen time
• Leaving the house without a cell phone: That way, you can focus on what’s going on around you and not feel obligated to keep checking your phone
• Manage notifications: With managed notifications, you don’t always check your phone and automatically have lower phone usage
• Turn off your phone every once in a while: This will have the same effect as leaving the house without the phone. A switched off cell phone allows you to pursue your other interests!
• Find a new hobby: Maybe you could try a new sport or learn a new instrument – as long as your cell phone is not part of the new hobby
• see a doctor: As soon as you realize that the mobile phone and the constant availability is a constant issue that occupies you massively, talk to your doctor about it. He can help you and discuss further measures.