Are Mobile Phones Making us Crazy?

Have you ever imagined that your mobile phone was vibrating only to look at it and see that there were no incoming calls or messages? Do you sometimes feel like you can’t go more than a minute without checking your email or your Facebook page from your mobile wireless connection? In other words, doesn’t it sometimes feel like your cell phone is making you just a little bit crazy?Sure, mental illness has been around for a lot longer than mobile phones have. But maybe mobile phones are making us a little bit nuttier than we used to be. If you’ve ever felt the phantom vibration of your phone when it wasn’t actually ringing or started to get the anxious feeling that you’re a bit ADD when it comes to your cell phone then you know what I’m talking about.

The mobile phone has become such a common thing in our lives that it’s practically an extra appendage on the modern human body. We’ve become accustomed to its presence and to the way of life that we have now that we can access the phone almost any time that we want to. But is this a good thing? Or could it be possible that the daily use of our mobile phones is causing us to go a little bit crazy? Or at least exacerbating that bit of craziness that’s inside all of us?

Here is a look at some of the mental health problems that I think we might be experiencing on a more frequent basis now that we’re using mobile phones every day:

1. Hallucinations

There has definitely been more than one occasion on which I was certain that I felt my phone vibrating or ringing and then found out that there was no reason that I should have thought this happened. I think we’ve gotten so tuned in to making sure to listen for our phones that we sometimes create hallucinations for ourselves that make it seem as though someone is calling us when there is no one on the other end of the line. Sure, this isn’t quite in the realm of hearing voices or feeling bugs crawl on you but these are minor hallucinations nonetheless aren’t they? I certainly don’t remember ever experiencing them when I only had a landline!

2. Attention Deficit Disorder

Does your mobile phone ever make you feel like you can’t sit still and focus? Cell phones allow us to multi-task but often this means that our attention bounces from one thing to another, often in a way that seems out of our control. We talk and drive, we walk and talk, we talk while we’re working. And when we do have the opportunity to just sit still for a moment – on a break at work or waiting in a line – how many of us immediately reach for the mobile phone to get some of that pent up energy out by checking our mobile email or flipping through our text messages? This may not meet all of the criteria of truly having an attention deficit disorder but I definitely think mobile phones contribute to our inability to just pay attention to one thing. To be fair, there are studies which contrast this belief and actually say that mobile phones can have a positive effect on people with ADD but I don’t know if I’m buying that.

3. Cell phone addiction

Since we do have the mobile phone at our disposal all of the time, it’s become really easy to get addicted to it. That’s where the term “crackberry” came from and although that’s been made into a joke, it’s kind of a serious condition to think that we are becoming addicted to the technology that we literally have at our fingertips. Think that your mobile phone use is nowhere in the realm of an addiction? Try not using your cell phone for just one week, one solid week, and then see how you’re feeling about that situation.

4. Increased levels of stress

Stress is a serious problem that affects most of us to at least some degree. I believe that the mobile phone can lead to increased levels of stress if we don’t moderate its use in our lives. People who are always accessible via cell phone may find that stressful situations reach them much more often than they used to – the boss can always get in touch with you, needy relatives can send a dozen text messages a day – and since your phone is always with you, you notice these things even if you elect not to respond to them and they temporarily heighten your levels of stress. And that doesn’t even take into consideration the stress caused by confusing mobile phone contracts, high cell phone bills and dealing with the customer service representatives at your cell phone company. Stress leads to all different types of physical and mental health problems which can also be worsened by mobile phones if they are a contributing factor to the stress.

5. Feelings of inadequacy

One of the problems with mobile phones is that they go out of style quickly. New phones are being released on a regular basis and we’re pressured by society and by our own urges to get those phones which are most advanced. After all, who doesn’t want the convenience of a Wi-Fi-enabled touchscreen smartphone? Unfortunately, this “keeping up with the Joneses” mentality can lead to feelings of inadequacy when you aren’t in a position to continually update the handset technology that you have at your fingertips.

6. Anxiety / Paranoia

There are many forms of anxiety caused by mobile phones ranging from small concerns that the phone will be broken during certain activities to big worries about the health problems caused by mobile phones. In spite of numerous studies that indicate that mobile phones are not linked with cancer, many people still have a paranoid fear that they are going to contract brain cancer simply through using their mobile phones. Worries about brain tumors and low sperm counts also persist. Most people use their mobile phone anyway and then worry about it. This anxiety can make you feel crazy if it happens on a too frequent basis.

7. Problems related to sleep deprivation

Are you one of those people who leaves your cell phone on next to your bed all night? Even if you have it on vibrate, the sounds could wake you up at least slightly if you receive calls or messages during the night. This can interrupt your sleep cycle. Over a long period of time, this type of sleep deprivation can cause some serious physical and mental health issues. This has been found to particularly be a problem for teenage cell phone users.

8. Memory problems

It is believed that mobile phones have made it possible for us to stop using our brains to remember many of the things that we used to have to keep inside of our heads. How many people’s phone numbers do you know by heart these days? The more that our mobile phones become capable of doing, the less we have to work our brains. This has the potential to lead to memory problems down the line because of that whole “use it or lose it” thing.

Maybe cell phones aren’t making us crazy but they sure aren’t helping with the mental conditions that do exist in our society!