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| [Barcelona psychologist, Vega González Bueso] |
[This
article of mine was first published in
Catalonia Today, 20 November 2008. I decided to republish it here
because of a similar case with a friend of my 12 year-old son.]
A
recent survey in England found that teenagers’ favourite activity
during school lunchtimes was not playing a sport or even talking with
friends, but sending text messages on their mobile phones.
Young
people in Catalonia are no less vulnerable to the attraction of
mobile phones.
Vega
González Bueso,a psychologist and assistant medical director at
Barcelona's Atenció i Investigació en Socioaddiccions (AIS), (or
Organisation for the Research and Treatment of Social Addictions)
says that AIS is dealing with a growing number of cases related to
this behavioural compulsion.
“The
first patient with a mobile phone addiction was treated at AIS in
2003,” she says.
“The trouble is that mobile addiction is
socially accepted and this makes it more difficult to detect the
problem.
Generally,
requests for treatment come from a relative who has, for example seen
a very high telephone bill, and they then force the person in
question into starting treatment.”
While
high phone bills are a problem, mobile phone addiction can take a
psychological toll, leading to isolation from the user’s social
environment.
Ironically,
a piece of technology that is supposed to make us more closely
connected can instead create mistrust or feelings of separation
between an addict and friends.
In one
case described by Vega González, 18-year-old Susanna began to use
her phone more and more, to the point where she became unable to
suppress an impulse to send messages and talk at all hours.
She
began failing all her subjects in school and her mobile bill climbed
to €800 a month.
“Susanna sold some family jewellery to earn
money to top-up the credit on her mobile,” Vega González said.
”She even communicated with people she did not know and
ended up losing lots of friends because she was relating less and
less to her environment.”
Vega González said the high bills
tipped off her family,prompting them to seek help.
After a
year of therapy, Susanna is better, but “went through terrible
moments when at the beginning she was forbidden to use the cell
phone,” she said.
Treatment at AIS includes the family or
partner, whose involvement is seen as an important in solving the
problem.
One aim is to train the affected person to develop
greater social skills so they can relate to people more without the
use of a mobile phone.
Infatuation with mobiles is found more
among males than females, according to AIS, but those at risk of
addiction tend to share similar problems of low self-esteem,
communication difficulties, insecurity and emotional
instability.
Vega González says an inability to control phone
use despite knowing the negative consequences of the behaviour is
usually a clear sign of a significant problem.
”If they stop
doing important activities such as study or work because of this
addictive behaviour or have continuous thoughts about their phone
when he or she does not have access to it, this is the time to seek
treatment,” she said.
