The high price of using a mobile phone abroad forces many of us to suppress our normal personality and curb our natural instinct to communicate while we're on holiday, making us anxious and irritable.

UK mobile phone users typically fall into one of four categories: the Text Addict, the Text'N'Talker, the 24/7 Chatterbox and the Emergency Caller. But, as soon as we're on holiday, many of us are forced out of our natural category in order to cut the cost of our mobile phone habit. Especially for younger people, but by no means exclusively, this means an enforced change from the way that we normally communicate. This can be very stressful and could lead to nervous behaviour not unlike withdrawal symptoms.

Donna Dawson, a psychologist specialising in personality, behaviour and relationships, agrees that the enforced change of something that most people take for granted is stressful: "In particular, people under 30 are the most likely to react very badly to the stress of having to change their communication habits; this is because mobile phones are something with which they have grown up and become used to as an essential part of their lives."

"The fact that it is merely the 'extra cost' that is behind the need to change the habits of a lifetime, does rub salt into the wound. This could quite easily cause mood-swings, sulks, snappiness and tension while abroad - especially on family holidays, where one generation doesn't necessarily understand the other," she added.

According to a survey commissioned by SIM4travel, Text'N'Talkers comprise the largest group (36%), followed by the Text Addicts (25%), the 24/7 Chatterboxes (20%) and the Emergency Callers (19%). Once people go abroad, however, the proportion Text'N'Talkers falls by three-quarters to just 9%. The proportion of 24/7 Chatterboxes also more than halves, also to 9%, but interestingly, the proportion of Text Addicts remains stable at 25%. Conversely, the number of Emergency Callers almost triples, to 54%.

And when it comes to the calls or texts that we do answer/make or send from holiday, the type of phone user that we are plays a significant part: 69% of people who are natural 24/7 Chatterboxes are doomed to fight their natural impulses by trying to limit the number of calls they make or answer when on holiday. Only 13% of natural Text'N'Talkers feel able to carry on as normal.

There are also gender differences men are more likely than women to try to limit the amount of calls they answer or make - 61% versus 42%. Women are almost twice as likely to only use text messaging to stay in touch: 47% versus 25%.

Suk Grewal, marketing director of SIM4travel, said: "What I think has happened is that mobile phones are now such a part of our everyday lives, including our holidays, that we've all had at least one rotten experience with a terrible bill. The prospect of feeling like that again makes us change our calling habits when we're abroad - and, like all change, that makes us feel anxious and act out of character as a result."

Whatever category mobile users fall into, one thing that they are not is aware of easy ways to keep the costs down. Almost half of people who take their mobile abroad - 48% - are unaware that they can buy either an international SIM card or a local SIM card to use while abroad, which would reduce their mobile bill.