Today l met a lady who is addicted to Facebook and twitter and didnt realise she was until something dramatic happened this morning. She can not bear to not know what is going on with her friends and her contacts. She goes on to her computor for 2 hours before she goes to work at 8.30...she is on her i phone on the bus and the train....cannot bare to not be connected to "someone" all the time. When she gets home in the evening, she has the computor on to be connected to Facebook...phone for twitter and also she has the T.V on watching the soaps.

The reason she came to see me was because early this morning, she had her phone stolen and had a huge panic attack on Waterloo station..screaming and crying and totally out of controll. She was on her hands and knees throwing everything out of her bag and briefcase..all over the floor..trying to find her iphone... crying,screaming and having problems breathing. A policeman and railway staff eventually called an ambulance and took her to the hospital. All this because she had lost or had her phone stolen and couldn't contact anyone in " her world" and felt totally lost. The emergency staff treated her but she felt they were laughing at her all the time and couldnt take her seriously. Eventually she was sent home , but not before a nurse said to her, "I think you need to see a counsellor and or your doctor, you appear to have an addition to your phone and definitly need help".

Until this happened my client hadn't realised how she had become so attached to "being in constant with everyone all the time". She knew that if she misplaced her phone at home she had to find it to feel safe again but thought this was normal. Her friends tease her sometimes about her addition to "being in touch" with people but she never took it seriously until this morning!

I noticed the whole time she was talking to me, she was shaking and wrapping a tissue round and round in her fingers.

She had rung her doctors surgery and was given several private counsellor numbers....( not NHS as she felt she need to see some-one NOW and not have to wait to get an appointment in a few weeks time..sad but true.) She had only lost her phone for 5 hours and she was terrified how she was going to last until tomorrow when she could get a replacement.

Once my client had calmed down and drunk her tea, l helped her to start to see why she felt she had to be constently "connected" to people via phone/computor etc. In this particular case some of the reasons are because she feels if she doesn't know what her friends are doing..she may miss out on something they plan and dont include her. Of course it goes a lot deeper and will take a while to solve but if she wants to cure herself she can.

I think there are a lot of people out there that feel the same way. I know that some times when l forget my phone when l go shopping, l can feel two different feelings. One...l can suddenly feel very free and liberated by being out of contact from the "world". Two..sudden panic! What happens if someone in my family needs me because they are hurt or ill..what happens if a client new or old needs to contact me and l dont answer my phone... they will think l dont care or new client will be lost to me! Silly really when l have an answer phone but there it is....how could any one cope without me!Ha!

So if you are reading this...see if you can leave your phone at home or just start by turning your phone off for a few hours and...see how you feel.