A week ago an intoxicated woman drove her car into a house in the Old East Village area of London, Ontario. She hit a gas meter on the house she drove into setting off a set of reactions that as of today’s date has resulted in at least three houses being demolished, and many others evacuated.
A friend mentioned that driving while using a cellphone is as dangerous as impaired driving.
I went in search of more information and discovered a condition I hadn’t heard about. “Nomophobia” which means “no mobile phone phobia” which equals smartphone addiction.
Are you way too attached to your phone?
Do you:
- check it first thing in the morning and last thing at night?
- read your messages and emails while driving or walking?
- panic if you forget to take it with you?
- get annoyed if you are in a dead zone with no signal?
- eel lost if the battery dies and you aren’t close to a charger?
A study from the University of Iowa established the criteria to determine how dependent a person is on their device. They came up with a 20 question survey to determine the level of smartphone addiction.
Smartphone addiction can be equal to addiction to drugs or alcohol
Professor James Roberts’ of Baylor University headed a study that stated that people addicted to their phones can show similar symptoms to people who are addicted to drugs or alcohol. Withdrawal for example if they are away from their phones for a period of time. Some people may waste so much time at work on games or social sites that they can be in danger of losing their jobs.
Texting while driving is dangerous
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in the United States says that compares reading or sending a text while for five seconds while driving at 55 mph to driving the whole length of a football field with your eyes closed. That’s pretty scary.
Are you addicted to your phone?
If you get a score of over 21 on the quiz, you might want to consider using hypnosis to break this habit. Book a free consultation with me so we can discuss how hypnosis can get your eyes off the phone and onto everything around you. It could be the 30 minutes that changes your life. And, in the case of texting while driving or walking, it could be the 30 minutes that saves your life.