Nomophobia

How many times have you glanced at your phone within the past hour? And what about within the last 10 minutes?

On average, people in the UK spend four hours daily on their phones.

According to a 2019 report by Ofcom, the average Brit checks their phone every 12 minutes.

You may not think of yourself as having an addiction, perhaps you prefer to call it a compulsion, a dependence or a craving.what matters is that you have at least the stirrings of a concern about it.

Smartphone addiction is recognized as a behavioural addiction and can result in various negative effects such as sleep deprivation, decreased concentration, anxiety, and impaired relationships. It can also lead to physical issues like GABA dysfunction and loss of grey matter in the brain, which are closely linked to substance use disorders.

Dopamine levels spike not only during the actual reward but also in anticipation of something pleasurable, such as hearing a notification on our phones. This anticipation is what drives us to constantly check our devices, as dopamine regulates both the expectation of a reward and the evaluation of the outcome.

Dopamine is quickly broken down in your brain, leaving you craving more and more, and as soon as possible. So, once the effects of dopamine wear off, your brain will do whatever it can to regain that feeling as quickly as possible. After we finish scrolling, we experience a comedown or dopamine dip. This is because the brain operates through a self-regulating process called homeostasis, which means that for every high, there is a low.

With repeated use, our brains adapt by reducing dopamine transmission by shrinking dopamine receptors. When we indulge in pleasurable activities, homeostasis causes our brain to compensate by bringing us lower and lower. Each time the activity becomes less enjoyable, and we eventually become reliant on those stimuli to function.

Notifications from our phones can have a similar effect on our brains as drugs and alcohol, causing the release of dopamine. Neuroscientists have found that a cue leading to a reward 50% of the time is the most anxiety-inducing. Our devices are designed to be difficult to resist, with every aspect carefully developed to keep us engaged. The technology creates an intermittent, variable, and unpredictable schedule of rewards that meet this 50% reward level that triggers strong arousal. In addition to dopamine, frequent phone use and checking can also lead to a stress response, releasing cortisol and potentially causing anxiety and chronic disease.

We seem to have lost the ability to enjoy our own company and are always distracting ourselves with technology. Whenever we feel anxious, lonely, or mildly uncomfortable, we check our phone —“There’s something here that’ll help me feel better!” This type of habit loop is known as experiential avoidance.

Symptoms of phone addiction may manifest as feeling anxious or stressed when unable to locate your phone, feeling the need to constantly check your device, experiencing negative emotions after using social media, obsessing over likes and comments, fearing missing out, staying up late or waking up early to use your phone, and struggling to focus without checking your device.

There is no specific amount of time or frequency that indicates a phone addiction. 

If you don’t know how time you spend on your phone each day, you can get an idea with screen-time tracking functions. Instructions on how to do this with an iPhone are here and Android here.

The most addictive smartphone functions all share a common theme: they tap into the human desire to connect to other people. For many of us, the pandemic exacerbated dependence on social media and other digital vices.

Digital detoxes are popular, but like a crash diet they are unlikely to boost your well-being or improve the way you consume online information. In fact, those who attempt a detox without making sure they increase time spent in connection with others may notice low mood and feelings of isolation or loneliness.

Also like the difficulties experienced by fad dieters, heavily restricting our online behaviour is unsustainable. So, the key is to choose a specific behaviour you would like to change, then make a realistic plan of what you would like to achieve.

So how can hypnosis help?

Actually scrolling social media is a state of hypnosis.

But it’s unconscious and designed to be addictive, activating the reward and deprivations of dopamine. Behavioural hypnosis allows you to reconfigure your responses in a more useful way. So, rather than being controlled by your unconscious, dopamine driven addiction, you control when and how you use your phone or other devices.

The unconscious & uncomfortable need to scroll can be altered to one of a dopamine reward for not scrolling, thus reducing the craving and giving you back choice and control.

The sense of anxiety and FOMO (fear of missing out) can be attenuated and changed into one of comfort in your relaxed state of control.

If you are considering or trying a digital detox then hypnosis prevents relapses and the constant yoyoing between excessive phone use and attempting to detox.

In hypnosis you get to set meaningful goals and tap into your unconscious drivers of need and emotion, allowing you to take back control and achieve them.