Trapped in the net: Are we all addicted to our smartphones?

There's even a word for the irrational fear of being without your smartphone: nomophobia.

Recent research suggests that Australians spend more than 46 hours a week looking at screens, and on average check their smartphones about 85 times a day.

But how can you tell if you're addicted to your phone?

"Simple. One question," says clinical psychologist Matthew Berry.

"If I said to you, 'Go a month without it,' would it trigger disappointment - 'Oh, that would suck' - or would it trigger distress, anxiety or worry?

"If you were to become distressed, then usually it's because you're using it as a coping mechanism and you're far more at risk of being addicted."

Dr Berry has spent years studying 21st-century addictions, from sex to stimulants, online gambling and social media, and he believes we are in the grip of a wider range of compulsive behaviours.

Humans by nature are prone to distraction.

"The internet gives us this unlimited resource of dopamine," Dr Berry, who presented his findings at the recent Australian Psychological Conference in Melbourne, said.

"Unlimited porn, unlimited videos, unlimited clips of people talking on YouTube, unlimited pictures of houses. It's limitless."

When Melbourne rheumatologist Eric Morand noticed he was taking his smartphone into the bathroom he decided it was time to ditch it.

"I became aware of the pervasive reach of my smartphone into my life," the Monash University professor said.

"You know, writing one more email in my bed, emailing from the bathroom, emailing while I was making a coffee. I started to think 'Hey, I am supposed to be the consumer but this thing is consuming me.' "

So, what's driving such behaviour?

Like other addictions, a digital addiction can stop a person from dealing with regular daily activities such as work, sleep and eating. Typically, it arises out of feelings of discontentment, stress and pressure, and is fuelled by other underlying mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression.

"Unfortunately, what is occurring is that people are trying to regulate that anxiety and depression by drowning it out with their phone ... with Instagram, shopping, porn ... rather than actually attending to the cause of why they are anxious and depressed," Dr Berry said.

Professor Morand tried to make his phone less intrusive by switching off apps.

"But even when I turned off all the notifications it was still there and I couldn't resist it," he said. "I noticed when I was reading a book I actually reached for my phone 20 times in an hour."

He dumped his smartphone, got a minimalist phone, and hasn't looked back.

Minimalist phones are intentionally designed to be used as little as possible, harking back to a simpler time when phones were used purely as a tool for making calls and the occasional text.

So how long is a healthy amount of time to spend surfing the internet each day?

"My view is there's no standard healthy amount: it's why we are going onto the site," Dr Berry said.

"If you're going onto the site to constantly regulate your feelings, then that's unhealthy, because you're not attending to what's making you unhappy, stressed or anxious. If you feel like you are spending too much time on your smartphone ask yourself: 'Am I actually achieving things in the real world?' 'Is this helping me grow as a person?' "

There's a big difference, for example, between building a car and amassing an empire on Minecraft, Dr Berry said.

"One is going to give you something to show for it; the other one doesn't," he said. "I may be getting 4500 likes on my last post, but the reality is I can have 100,000 followers or I can have four really close friends. If you're investing in getting the followers then that's not going to make you happier. It's not going to meet your needs for human connection."

The key to overcoming a serious digital addiction that is causing psychological harm is to seek help for the underlying mental health issues that are causing the behaviour.

Often the first step is going to see your GP, who will refer you to a professional.

"By the time a person wishes to seek help for one of these conditions there is almost always a secondary anxiety or mood disorder occurring for which they would be eligible for a mental health care plan," Dr Berry said. "But there is very little expert support out there as it's an incredibly new field."

For Professor Morand, life is better now.

"I sleep better, I think more clearly and I'm more productive at work," he said. "I am the only person on the train not looking at my smartphone. Instead, I look out the window at the world around me. I read my book.

"Rather than picking up the phone to message people, I call them and I can honestly say it has completely enriched my human interactions."