Trauma Coping & Smartphone Usage: Cultivate a healthy relationship with yourself through your extra-dependent relationship with your phone

By Lili Romann, J&L contributor

We are getting to the point where phone “addictions” are normalized: Dependence on our smartphones is rampant across generations. While there is controversy regarding how severe or detrimental phone use habits are to our physical and psychological well being, there is no escaping the reality that our phones are integral to our everyday lives – and they are not going away any time soon. Given that inevitability, it is critical that we identify mindful and healthy ways to manage our relationships with our devices.
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If you read our blog post on toxic positivity, or are one of the many doomscrollers and news junkies among us, you are likely aware of how using the phone to cope or numb our senses can cause us to lose track of time, relationships, and the world around us. Additionally, the near constant exposure to disturbing, and at times even traumatic, content can contribute to feeling overwhelmed and weighed down. At J&L Psychology Group, we often approach our treatment services with a concentration on trauma to help individuals develop healthier coping strategies. ​

Trauma can be defined as an unexpected, significant life event that overwhelms an individual’s ability to cope. Traumatic events are disturbing, dangerous, or frightening, and they impair both the mind and body with stress. What’s imperative to understand about the nature of trauma is that it affects every individual differently – as it is based on unique experiences, thoughts and feelings, attachment styles, and upbringing. Trauma can stem from grief, witnessing violence, childhood abuse and neglect, physical, emotional, or sexual abuse, accidents or natural disasters, experience of cultural, intergenerational, and historical trauma, and beyond (The National Council, 2022). Recent research shows us that 70% of U.S. adults reported experiencing some kind of traumatic event at least once in their lives (The National Council, 2022). While there has been debate over definitions of trauma and how they apply to the pandemic, research demonstrates that the outcome of this prolonged global event is in line with current definitions of trauma. For instance, Bridgland and colleagues (2021) reported that the COVID-19 pandemic could be understood as an event capable of eliciting PTSD-like responses and thus define the pandemic as a traumatic stressor. The authors also highlight that traumatic stressors can exacerbate other mental health problems (i.e. depression, psychosocial functioning, anxiety). 

Not everyone who experiences trauma develops post-traumatic stress disorder, but those who do often experience persistent intense reactions to reminders of a traumatic event, disturbed sleep, altered mood, a sense of imminent threat, and hypervigilance (Shalev et al., 2017), and may be at greater risk for overreliance on smartphone use for coping with their distress because it provides a distraction from emotional discomfort. Prolonged or persistent use of a device to manage feelings becomes counterproductive. 

Escaping into the smartphone is a way to avoid what is happening inside the body and mind. A common but unhelpful approach to managing trauma symptoms is often through the use of what psychologists and mental health professionals call “avoidance coping.” This refers to any form of responding to painful or uncomfortable emotional distress through methods that reduce conscious awareness or experience of those emotions. Our phones serve as the perfect avoidance machine. It’s with you on-the-go, 24/7. To combat this harmful but seemingly easy avoidance coping mechanism, we must be both careful and intentional in how we use these devices. Being proactive about our phone use requires that we better understand the critical deficits of phone overuse. 

Symptoms of both trauma and PTSD are associated with addictive behaviors such as problematic smartphone use (PSU). Work by Contractor and colleagues (2019) define PSU as the overuse of smartphones despite known negative consequences of this behavior, such as increased stress and functional impairment. Problematic smartphone use is not a defined mental disorder, nor does it have specific diagnostic criteria, but it’s important to note that it shares characteristics with other addictive behaviors of habitual overuse (Kwon et al., 2013; van Deursen, 1998), such as the compulsive behaviors of continuing to turn your phone on or scrolling on social media for extended periods of time. 

Further, PSU parallels known models of addiction in the shared withdrawal that follows the cessation of use (Kwon et al., 2013). For example, Clayton, Lesher, and Almond (2015) found that people experience elevated heart rates when turning off their phones. There is endless access to “pleasurable experiences” that serve as reinforcers, which are classified as anything that increases the likelihood of PSU behavior every time we turn on our phones (Kwon et al., 2013; Song, Larose, Eastin, & Lin, 2004). Individuals engaging in PSU also face difficulties in real-life social engagement (Kuss & Griffiths, 2011), also called “face to face” or FtF communication, as well as sleep difficulties, and depression and anxiety (Demirci et al., 2015; Elhai et al., 2017). Cell phone use has even been highly associated with behavioral problems in individuals as young as seven (Divan et al. 2012). 

All of these findings beg the question: Are the effects of smartphones and technology on society worse than we realize? How can we enjoy our technology and daily lives simultaneously in a mindful way, supporting both our physical and mental health? Below are some brainstormed tips on ways you can disconnect from technology and reconnect with yourself. 

1. Set yourself up for success: Find ways to use your smartphone that contribute to positive emotions and healthy social connection.
   1. Reach out to a friend over text, phone, or video call instead of consuming the social media posts of strangers to whom you may negatively compare yourself
   2. Make a note to yourself that you can access any time with positive affirmations, mantras, and reminders that help you stay mindful
2. Use your phone therapeutically: Check out apps and templates online (check out some examples here) to help you monitor your emotions and thoughts to enhance your mindfulness instead of sucking you out of your daily life. 
3. Limit harmful overuse by creating barriers to mindless scrolling and content consumptions.
4. Prioritize sleep over blue light exposure: Despite what you might think, turning your phone off is actually easier than watching another video of a cat on TikTok. The sooner you turn it off, the better your sleep quality will be. You deserve rest.  
5. Create a photo album of photos that relax you: When you are managing distressing emotions, having concrete reminders of positive memories or experiences can bring some temporary relief; this is a proactive way to use your smartphone. For example, add photos of your dog or cat, your romantic partner, close friends or family members, or even that Five Guys burger you want to pick up on the way home. It’s important to let your brain escape the madness for a bit and help yourself level down a notch or two. 
6. Learn to tune into your inner “screen satiety” level: Just like hunger, if we are not mindfully aware of our bodily sensations we can become disconnected from our natural ability to observe when we are satiated and satisfied. When you feel you don’t need the screen anymore, put it down. There’s no need to overdo it. Engage with the world. 

There’s plenty to be learned about the severe effects our mental and physical selves may face from smartphone overuse. We can start by paying attention to avoidance behaviors, unproductive coping strategies, and signs of burnout. When we are mindful about our habits we can replace those that result in unwanted outcomes, such as anxiety or depressed mood, with rituals that restore a sense of calm and connection with the world. Time spent staring at a screen is not always time well spent – and while it’s easier said than done, we should be treating ourselves kindly and pay that extra attention. It will certainly pay off in the long run. 


References
Bridgland, V. M., Moeck, E. K., Green, D. M., Swain, T. L., Nayda, D. M., Matson, L. A., 
Hutchison, N. P., & Takarangi, M. K. (2021). Why the COVID-19 pandemic is a traumatic stressor. PLOS ONE, 16(1). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0240146

Clayton R. B., Leshner G., Almond A. (2015). The extended iSelf: The impact of iPhone 
separation on cognition, emotion, and physiology. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 20, 119–135. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcc4.12109

Contractor, A. A., Weiss, N. H., & Elhai, J. D. (2018). Examination of the relation between PTSD symptoms, smartphone feature uses, and problematic smartphone use. Social Science Computer Review, 37(3), 385–403. https://doi.org/10.1177/0894439318770745

Demirci K., Akgönül M., Akpinar A. (2015). Relationship of smartphone use severity with sleep quality, depression, and anxiety in university students. Journal of Behavioral Addictions, 4, 85–92. https://doi.org/10.1556/2006.4.2015.010

Divan, H. A., Kheifets, L., Obel, C., & Olsen, J. (2012). Cell phone use and behavioural 
problems in young children. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 66(6), 524–529. https://doi.org/10.1136/jech.2010.115402

Elhai J. D., Hall B. J., Levine J. C., Dvorak R. D. (2017). Types of smartphone usage and relations with problematic smartphone behaviors: The role of content consumption vs. social smartphone use. Cyberpsychology: Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberspace, 11(2). https://doi.org/10.5817/CP2017-2-3

How to manage trauma - National Council for Mental Wellbeing. (2022).
https://www.thenationalcouncil.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Trauma-infographic.pdf

J&L Psychology: Trauma. J&L Psychology. (n.d.). 
https://www.jandlpsychology.com/trauma.html
Kwon M., Lee J. Y., Won W. Y., Park J. W., Min J. A.…Kim D. J. (2013). Development and validation of a smartphone addiction scale (SAS). PloS One, 8, e56936. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.005693

Kuss D. J., Griffiths M. D. (2011). Online social networking and addiction—A review of the psychological literature. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 8, 3528–3552. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph8093528

Shalev, A., Liberzon, I., & Marmar, C. (2017). Post-traumatic stress disorder. New England Journal of Medicine, 376(25), 2459–2469. https://doi.org/10.1056/nejmra1612499

Song I., Larose R., Eastin M. S., Lin C. A. (2004). Internet gratifications and Internet addiction: On the uses and abuses of new media. CyberPsychology & Behavior, 7, 384–394. https://doi.org/10.1089/cpb.2004.7.384
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van Deursen A. J., Bolle C. L., Hegner S. M., Kommers P. A. (2015). Modeling habitual and addictive smartphone behavior: The role of smartphone usage types, emotional intelligence, social stress, self-regulation, age, and gender. Computers in Human Behavior, 45, 411–420. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2014.12.039