Smartphone Addiction is a Mental Condition: Researchers

Smartphone addiction is a psychiatric disorder, warn health experts.

Internet enabled mobile phones and digital devices help save time, energy and resources. The worldwide use of mobile phones is likely to reach 4.55 billion people forecasts a recent report by  eMarketer. By the end of this year, around 50 percent of mobile phone users will adopt smart phones, suggests the survey.

Digital addicts constantly check messages and become very anxious whenever the devices are kept away from them. This behavior impacts various facets of their life, work productivity and performance in studies.

"Internet addiction as a disorder is not even listed in our latest psychiatric manual, it's only listed in the appendix as a disorder that requires further study," Tan Hwee Sim, a consultant psychiatrist at the Resilienz Mind clinic in Singapore, told AFP, reports the New Vision.

Many psychologists believe digital obsession and addiction to remain glued to cell phones can be a psychiatric condition and increases the risk of chronic health conditions like neck pain that is also termed as "text neck" or 'iNeck". The uncontrolled urge to play online games and watch videos frequently leads to physical consequences like injuries and accidents. Smartphone users are looking down with bent heads while texting even when they are crossing the road or waiting in a queue.

Majority of the users turn to social media to cope up with stress, depression and anxiety in everyday life.

 "Singaporeans spend an average of 38 minutes per session on Facebook, almost twice as long as Americans," reads a study by Experian, a global information services company.

Large number of internet and smart phone addicts are from Asian countries like South Korea, China and Taiwan. The 2013 government survey in South Korea found 20 percent of teenagers suffered from Smartphone addiction. There are about 300 internet addiction centers In China and over 24 million youngsters with severe obsession for digital devices.

The alarming results of the survey in Singapore emphasize on the need for an awareness program to educate both children and parents about the health hazards of Smartphone devices. The 'cyber wellness' education program targeted at pre-schoolers and parents is to be launched by the end of this year.

"We want to give (the parents) a warning to not give these gadgets so early -- and learn to withhold them," said Chong Ee Jay, assistant manager at Touch Community Services, which is launching the drive, reports the New Vision.