SelfWork: You Get the Gist... What In the World is Nomophobia (hint.. you may just have it)
The SelfWork Podcast
Margaret Robinson Rutherford PhD
4.8 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 29 September 2020
⏱️ 5 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today's "You Get the Gist" is about nomophobia. And you have to listen to find out what it is. (There's a test for it in the show notes below...) I admit it. I have it. Not a severe case, but I'm as guilty as the next guy. So what follows is what it is and as always, what you can do about it. So now, you get the gist.
Important Links:
Here’s a test to see if you have it, created by Iowa State University.
American Academy of Sleep Medicine article on sleep and nomophobia.
Psychology Today great article by Susan Weinschenk on our brain chemistry and how it responds to our phones.
My new book entitled Perfectly Hidden Depression has arrived and you can order here! Its message is specifically for those with a struggle with strong perfectionism which acts to mask underlying emotional pain. But the many self-help techniques described can be used by everyone who chooses to begin to address emotions long hidden away that are clouding and sabotaging your current life.
And there’s a new way to send me a message! You can record by clicking below and ask your question or make a comment. You’ll have 90 seconds to do so and that time goes quickly. By recording, you’re giving SelfWork (and me) permission to use your voice on the podcast. I’ll look forward to hearing from you!
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, this is Self-Works and I'm Dr. Margaret Rutherford, and we're in for another you get the gist. |
| 0:12.0 | This time it's about something called Nomaphobia. |
| 0:15.9 | What in the world is it and do you have it? |
| 0:18.2 | You probably do. Okay, sometimes I hate to admit something, but this time I must. I have nomophobia. |
| 0:29.0 | And I bet many of you listening to as well and you didn't know it had a name. What is it? It's a fear |
| 0:34.4 | of being out of mobile phone contact. Now I'm not put myself in the severe |
| 0:38.6 | category practically cementing my phone to my body, but I sure don't like being away from it when I can't find it, oh goodness. |
| 0:45.7 | When I read this article about Nomephobia, I immediately thought of a TV commercial that |
| 0:49.9 | watches someone wake up and the first thing they reach for is not their partner or their |
| 0:54.0 | pillow or their dog, but their phone. |
| 0:56.8 | Iowa State University researchers offer a more complete definition and here it is. |
| 1:01.8 | It refers to fear of not being able to use a smartphone. It refers to the fear of not being able to communicate, |
| 1:07.0 | losing the connectedness that smartphones allow, not being able to access information through smartphones and giving up the convenience |
| 1:14.4 | that smartphones provide. |
| 1:16.9 | And actually they've even devised a test at Iowa State to determine if you haven't or not, |
| 1:21.9 | and I've got a link to that test in the show notes. But who has it? |
| 1:27.2 | A new study found that nomophobia is extremely common among college students and is associated with poor sleep health. That makes sense. |
| 1:35.1 | In fact, 89% of them had at least some fear of being without their little tiny device. |
| 1:41.1 | So now you have a name for that feeling of anxiety that begins to creep up on you, or maybe even |
| 1:45.7 | has you tearing up your house like me, looking desperately for your cell phone. |
| 1:50.9 | But it's not just college students. I have to admit several years ago my son had come home for a visit and I was in the back seat of my husband's car as we went out to eat. |
| 2:00.0 | Rob, my son, looked back at me and chided, Mom, get off your phone, in a loving kind of way, but it was funny, sort of. |
... |
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