The paper is based on an ongoing study of problem use of the mobile phone (extensive use, abuse, excessive habituation, dependency and addiction) among young people. Self-reports, observations in psychotherapy and focus groups' results are evaluated and the relevant literature is analysed. The question is: are there patterns of mobile phone overuse which can be categorized as behavioural addictions or which can be regarded as pathological or detrimental to the mental health of the users? 

There is a vast array of problem use in this area which shows motivation of tension release, stimulus seeking, escape from reality, compulsion, counterphobic manoeuvres, self-defeating games, etc., but these uses rarely reach or exceed the limits of psychopathology, and can be deemed pathological in a narrow context only. In a wider context even these behavioural manifestations seem to be functional. Phoning includes a number of interpersonal, communicational mechanisms of reality control and plugs persons into emotional exchanges, relational information and experiments of influencing others in a symmetrical and open way. Phoning (using mobile phones) – even in excessive forms – can contribute to identity construction or to solving developmental tasks. Besides tentative typologies of misuse or abuse, the psychodynamics and social psychology of positive use are also delineated in the paper in respect of adolescent mental health.