Sunday, Feb 19, 2017

Dubai: Texting while driving is now being recognised by mental health specialists as an addiction that requires counselling and conditioning.

Health experts looking at this as an underlying psychological problem feel that the distraction that occurs due to answering phone calls, looking at notifications on the phone and texting impairs cognitive behaviour that may lead to fatal accidents.

Dr Mary John, clinical psychologist, Dubai, told Gulf News that this new millennium addiction was worse than drink driving: “Texting requires both your hands off wheel and is extremely dangerous. I would say any kind of phone engagement, while a driver’s focus in required on the road, impacts the reflexes. Especially when a person is having an emotional moment, there is extreme distraction which causes momentary blindness and impairs judgement. To that extent even when drivers talk on hands-free, it is dangerous and must be absolutely avoided.”

Dr John added that people who usually indulged in texting while driving belonged to a clear impulsive personality type who thought nothing of taking this kind of risk that endangered their lives. “People should realise that apart from risking their own lives they are putting many others on the road at risk. Such people do not realise that they break lane discipline, slow down and sometimes jump red lights and provide further provocation for road rage.”

Dr Padma Raju Varry, consultant psychiatrist at the NMC Speciality Hospital in Abu Dhabi, said people who feel the absolute need to look at every notification and cannot resist the urge to answer it right then have a great fear of missing out on things. “Usually we see patients in our clinics with mild addiction to such behaviour, but when a patient reports feeling restless and agitated because he cannot text back and has the urge to slow down or get distracted to text, he is displaying obsessive behaviour. Mostly people are not obsessed, but yes, we are now recognising this need to be linked to the phone to the extent where drivers risk their lives, as an addiction such as smoking, drinking and it requires the same kind of counselling and conditioning.”

Dr Varry felt that the need stemmed from this fear that many people had of being neglected in social media groups. “When a message pops up on an individual’s phone screen, he wants to give an immediate response because that makes him feel included in his peer group and deeply appreciated when he gets a response. This becomes a need that provokes him to be unmindful of his own priority which is to be alert on the road and keep his hands on the wheel.”

Dr John feels many people think as nothing had happened to them while texting and driving in the past, they can continue doing this. “There is no point learning painfully after a major accident. It is important that people realise this as an electronic addiction and seek help,” she advises.

Tips to be mindful while driving

1.Keep your phone on mute

2.Make it a point to look at your phone only when you have reached your destination.

3.If you are expecting a message or call finish that before venturing out. If a message you are expecting can wait, send a counter message to the person telling him that you are driving and will be able to see it only after you reach your destination.

4.If there is absolute need to text in case of working mothers receiving message of their child at school or a sick loved one, the driver needs to take the car into a parking filter, and text or make the call before resuming to drive.

By Suchitra Bajpai ?Chaudhary Senior Reporter

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