I’m terrible without my phone. I feverishly imagine an exer-expanding pile of texts from people trying to reach me – work, my Mum, my friends. Plus, I get serious FOMO when I can’t get on Twitter.

I know that’s all ridiculous. But it’s nothing compared to the separation anxiety that people reportedly experience.

A team at Iowa State University has just released a study looking at the genuine fear of being without your mobile phone. It’s known as nomophobia – that’s no-mobile-phone-phobia cleverly condensed. It’s not an addiction, but a situational phobia. 

Caglar Yildirim, lead author of the study and Ph.D. student in human communication said, “I was really shocked by the number of times people would say ‘I’d feel negative’ if I don’t have my phone today with me.”

With an associate professor, Ana-Paula Correia, a survey was developed that asks things like whether you’re worried about running out of battery power or scared of being stranded without your phone.

From the results, the pair identified four dimensions of the phobia: that people can’t communicate, feel they’ve lost their "online identity", can’t access information and feel unable to accomplish simple tasks without their phone.

Obviously smartphones are incredible in many different ways – can you actually remember what it was like to try and meet up with your friends without one? Iowa State University acknowledges that, saying that your relationship with your phone is only a problem “when it interferes with your daily routine”. It’s when you need it.

Um, so does that mean we’re all nomophobes now?