The Effect of Self-Compassion Practices on Nomophobia Symptoms in Young Adults; A Randomized Controlled Trial

The term nomophobia, which can also be defined as a symptom, has emerged with the excessive use of smartphones. Nomophobia is the anxiety and fear that people feel when they are away from their phones for any reason. Nomophobia is defined as the "fear of being deprived of phone or internet access." According to DSM5, "situational phobias are excessive, irrational fears accompanied by anxiety and distress towards a specific object or situation." Considering the anxiety, stress, and worry it creates on individuals, Bragazzi and Del Puente (2014) stated that nomophobia should be added to the DSM-5 due to the dimensions of the anxiety, stress, and worry it creates on individuals and the speed at which it spreads. They explained the symptoms of nomophobia as follows; spending most of the day with a smartphone, constantly checking the battery, in case of being away from the smartphone, thoughts such as the battery or credit running out and not being able to find the phone create anxiety in individuals, staying away from places and spaces where it is not possible to use a smartphone, constantly checking whether notifications or messages have arrived, keeping the smartphone on and nearby even while sleeping, communicating using digital tools because face-to-face conversation creates anxiety, incurring extraordinary expenses for a smartphone or getting into excessive debt.

In addition to making life easier, nomophobia, which occurs with excessive and uncontrolled use of smartphones, can cause some problems. Increasing individuality and the resulting weakening of face-to-face communication bring about addictive applications, depression, headache, visual impairments, sleep problems, musculoskeletal problems, and physiological and psychological problems.

To cope with and manage the symptoms of an addictive condition such as nomophobia, it is envisaged that young adults should be supported with self-compassion practices.

Self-compassion exists from the essence of awareness when we encounter painful and distressing situations. Self-compassion tells individuals to be kind to themselves when they encounter pain and distress. When people encounter an adverse life event, they blame themselves, criticize themselves, react to themselves, and make harmful decisions. A happy and peaceful life emerges thanks to self-compassion, a sense of security, and health. If individuals can accept and tolerate many positive and negative life events and be kind and tolerant towards themselves, they can stop limiting and ignoring their feelings and thoughts. In this way, they can avoid over-identifying by realizing that the experiences experienced are experiences that many people can experience. Individuals with high levels of self-compassion have low levels of depression, anxiety, stress, perfectionism, rumination, and suppressing thoughts. In addition, since they do not judge themselves, their happiness, optimism, enjoyment of life, and motivation are high. In line with this information, self-compassion practices can be supportive during this period when young adults encounter a problem such as nomophobia and have to manage many physiological symptoms. This study aimed to determine the effect of self-compassion practices on nomophobia symptoms in young adults.