Young mum with a crippling PHOBIA of being without her phone refuses to leave the house unless it’s at least 60% charged
The birth of toddler son sparked an extreme fear of being out of touch
A YOUNG mum’s life has been made hell because of her fear of being without her MOBILE PHONE.
The strange phobia – known as nomophobia – is so severe that Sarah Jayne Widdowson refuses to leave the house unless her battery is at least 60 percent charged.
She even keeps her phone in her bra – in case her bag gets stolen.
The 27-year-old says her fear is so extreme that if her Samsung S7 smartphone runs out of battery – and even if there’s no reception – she has an anxiety attack.
Her heart begins to race and her palms become sweaty and shaky.
Sara said: "The more phones improve, the harder it gets because there is so much more to do without.
"Now, you can email, call, text, use apps and even send out your GPS signal if you need help. If you're without your phone, you're cutting off all those forms of contact.
"My phobia has got worse since I had my son Corey, now two. I'm constantly imagining worst case scenarios and worrying something bad will happen and nobody will be able to reach me."
Stay-at-home mum Sara, who is engaged to partner Adrian Clarke, 35, believes the trigger for her anxieties lies in a traumatic incident from her childhood.
She continued: "One day, I was followed home by a man in a van. The police got involved, and nobody was ever caught, but it shook me up.
"This was in the days before mobile phones, but if I'd had one, I could have called for help."
The Worcester mum was also bullied at school over her weight and her family being on benefits and was even physically abused.
On one occasion, her uniform was torn and on another, flour and egg were rubbed into her hair, matting it together.
She recalled: "I'd go home bleeding after being beaten up.
"I think life would have been easier if I'd had a phone, just so I had a way of contacting my mum Dawn or my nan Dorothy to say I needed help."
Sara reached a turning point when she got her first ever mobile phone as a teenager.
She felt less isolated as she faced the daily barrage of cruel teasing because she could reach her loved ones at all times.
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But she grew increasingly dependent on her mobile, eventually developing a phobia of being without it.
Her doctor suggested her anxieties could be linked to the emotional scars left by her childhood bullying.
As a result she ensures her battery registers at least 60 per cent at all times and keeps her charger with her.
She keeps a spare charger in her car and has even left several at the houses of friends and families to reassure her that she will always be able to charge her phone.
She also has a back up phone – an old Nokia – in case of emergency.
She prefers her Samsung over an iPhone, as she believes the battery life is longer.
Poor reception is another major worry.
She said: "We've just moved and the signal here isn't as good as my old house.
"That worries me. If I'm expecting a phone call, I absolutely have to be somewhere with good reception.
"I hate it when people tell me they've been trying to get hold of me but couldn't. It makes me really anxious.
"If my entire network went down, I don't think I'd leave the house. I know it sounds dramatic, but I wouldn't be able to relax and enjoy myself if I knew I was totally unreachable."
Sara’s main worry is that something would happen to her or a family member and she wouldn't be able to seek help.
Although her phone has only died on a few occasions when there's been an urgent situation – once when she fell in the street, and once when she missed a train her mum was expecting her to get – she lives in near constant fear of it happening again.
"I take my phone everywhere, even to the loo," she said. "I keep it in my bra rather than a bag because I worry my bag could get stolen.
"A lot of my family and friends don't know about my phobia, but they joke about how I can't be without my phone.
"I can't see myself getting better, either.
"As a society, we're so dependent on phones.
"Realistically, we don't actually need them, but they're everything to people now, and I don't think that will change."