Do you constantly hear your phone buzz? You maybe affected by Phantom Vibration!

24-year-old Viraj has been facing a strange problem for over a month. He’s been hearing his cell phone vibrate every few minutes. But when he went to check his phone, usually kept in his room or in his pocket, he found eight out of 10 times, there had actually been no calls or messages even though he was sure he heard the phone buzz. The problem disturbed him so much that ultimately he visited a psychiatrist on the advice of his close friend. The doctor found that Viraj relied on his smartphone for almost all activities — from ordering food, online shopping to paying bills, from attending official work to playing games..., he was hooked to his smartphone almost all the time, so much so that he had perception disturbance.

Phantom Vibration – a false alarm

“This is a classic case of ‘Phantom (Ghostly) Vibration,’ where the brain tricks the smartphone user by creating a false pattern. It’s called imagery and such issues are on the rise due to over use and excessive dependence on smart phones. Sometimes, such phantom vibrations can also be an outcome of response to extreme stress. For instance, if someone is used to frequent calls from one’s office or is anticipating some kind of serious news from family members, they can get false alarm in the brain that their phone is ringing or vibrating,” says, Hyderabad-based Dr Koganti Charan Teja, neuropsychiatrist at KIMS and associate professor at VRK Medical College.

“However, such neurological issues and abnormal sensations may not always be due to smartphone addiction and stress. But Vitamin B12 deficiency can also trigger a tingling sensation in the ears, which is different from phantom vibration,” adds the neuropsychiatrist.

Even though Phantom Vibration has not yet been diagnosed as a pathological disorder and further research is on, it has been linked to on-screen addiction, which is a disorder.

Commenting on this psychological phenomenon, Dr N N Raju, professor of Psychiatry at Gayatri Medical College, Visakhapatnam and former president of Indian Psychiatric Society avers, “This is not hallucination but illusion caused by the brain tricking into making the user think that someone has called. But once the user sees the phone and finds that there have been no calls in reality, they understand the mistake, unlike in hallucination, where the patient believes that what they have seen, heard or felt is real.”

“Some experiences are stored in the brain and some others are not, depending on what the brain considers serious. When some activities are repeatedly pursued, like checking the phone and overusing it or when one is extremely stressed and is anticipating someone at their place or some news, then the filtering mechanism of the brain goes awry and the brain gives false signal as if the phone is vibrating or someone has really pressed the doorbell,” explains Dr Raju.