If you're terrified of spiders, you're probably an arachnophobe. If you're afraid of clowns, you might be dealing with coulrophobia. But if you own a smartphone, then you may already be a nomophobe.
While most phobias deal with a fear or an aversion to something, nomophobia is the fear of lacking access to a mobile phone.
It's short for nomobile phobia, a term coined by the UK Post Office after their 2008 study, according to the Daily Mail.
The group's research found over half of mobile phone users in Britain became anxious when they lost their phone, ran out of power and had no network coverage. The phenomenon also caught the attention of researchers at Iowa State University, who created a 20-item test for anyone in need of a self-diagnosis.
Their survey found the phobia is based on four pillars: not being able to communicate, losing connectedness, not being able to access information and giving up convenience.
And there are signs nomophobia is growing fast in other parts of the world. In South Korea, a study of 1,000 smartphone-owning children found 25 per cent of the group were already considered addicts, the BBC reports.
And that's just a fraction of Asia's 2.5 billion smartphone users.
So if you're reading this on your mobile phone and are having a hard time putting your device down, watch the video above and take some comfort that you're not alone.
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