KARACHI: If you always hold your mobile phone beside you, have an illusion that your phone is ringing or have an irrational fear that you won’t be able to use your mobile phone or that you can’t live without the phone. Beware, you might be suffering from nomophobia, or mobile phone addiction.

This was stated by Dr Ayesha Sarwat, associate professor of psychiatry at the Dow Medical College, during her presentation at a conference which concluded on Saturday at a local hotel.

Organised by Karwan-i-Hayat Psychiatric Care and Rehabilitation Centre, the event was the first international conference on psychosocial and psychiatric rehabilitation where experts discussed a diverse range of subjects related to mental health.

Giving a presentation on Phubbing, its effects on wellbeing and relationships, Dr Sarwat defined nomophobia — a combination of the words no, mobile and phobia — as a fear of being without your mobile phone.

The addiction of mobile phone, she pointed out, could cause neck and shoulder pain, tendinitis, insomnia and depression and phantom vibration syndrome.

Citing a study on mobile phone addiction in which 409 university students were surveyed, she said researchers found out smartphone addiction was the most common reason for phubbing, the act of snubbing someone in a social setting by looking at your phone instead of paying attention to them.

“Glancing at your phone in the middle of a conversation, checking your phone when the conversation stalls, keeping your phone close by even during one-on-one time with someone or interrupting a real-life conversation to answer your phone are all acts of phubbing,” she explained.

Citing a US study, she said that it showed how much dependent Americans were on their mobile phones.

“It brought to light disturbing facts. For instance, adults spend 4.7 hours per day on their smartphones. Sixty-eight per cent people sleep with their smartphone next to their bed. Seventy per cent to 80pc of drivers use their smartphone while driving,” she said.

Highlighting its effects on relationships, she said phubbing could interrupt one’s ability to engage with people, seriously disrupt in-person relationships, decrease marital happiness and make face-to-face communications less satisfying.

“Social media can make feelings of depression worse, and the more you use social media, the more likely you are to feel depression or anxiety,” she said, adding that positive interactions benefitted mental health and sense of connection and belonging.

Depression is higher in women

Prof Nasim Chaudhry, the chief executive officer of Pakistan Institute of Living and Learning, spoke about how depression was affecting maternal health.

“Depression is two times higher in women than men. In Pakistan, the rate of depression in women is amongst the highest in the world,” he said, adding that depression in mothers was associated with factors including immature births and low birth weight, malnutrition and stunting, behavioural problems in children as well as childhood depression.

Speaking about self-harm and suicide prevention, Prof Imran B. Chaudhry, chairman of department of psychiatry at the Ziauddin University, said that though Pakistan had high suicide rates, suicidal behaviour was an understudied and under researched subject in Pakistan.

Pakistan, he said, was one of the few countries in which attempted suicide was still a punishable offence.

“Self-harm also carries a substantial economic burden, and has been associated with large treatment costs in Pakistan,” he said, adding that predictors of suicides in Pakistan included psychiatric disorders, being unmarried, unemployment, stressful events in life and poor problem-solving skills.”

Problem-solving therapy, according to him, has been identified in a recent National Institute for Health and Care Excellence in England and Wales guideline as a promising intervention to prevent repeated self-harm.

In his presentation on media and mental health, Dr Sohail Ahmed of Karachi Medical & Dental College highlighted both positive and negative effects of the media, including selfie addiction and internet gaming disorder.

He suggested that there should be guidelines for the media.

“All of us can contribute to it but preferably elected representative body of Psychiatrists should take up this task. Approach can be made directly to channels administration/owners. The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority can also be approached,” he said.

Published in Dawn, July 2nd, 2018