Phone phobia sucks

[missgatsby]

My phone phobia has gotten so terrible recently. I can't cancel appointments. I can barely make appointments. I stopped calling friends and family. I ignore calls when they come in. I haven't talked to anyone long distance in over two weeks. :( I wish it wasn't such a big anxiety for me. It wasn't always like this.

[missgatsby]

It's hard for me to pinpoint exactly what it stems from! My sister has the same thing. I guess one unusual thing about me is that I take a long time to process questions, so when someone asks me something on the phone, I don't really have the chance to consider it, and it makes me nervous and anxious. I'm also a little self conscious about my voice.

Making calls in itself is just hard for me because I have trouble approaching people in general.

[missgatsby]

Interesting! I didn't even realize I did this until I met one of my friends, who would ask me questions about myself, and then panic because I wasn't answering. I remember explaining once that I'd get back to him in a couple of hours, ha.

[MyNameIsTerry]

:hugs::hugs::hugs:

When I was heading into my relapse and working I starting having problems with the phone, meetings, training sessions, etc. I started switching my phone off and leaving the headset in and pretending to log in and all sorts. Sometimes someone would call one of the others on the team asking if I was there and I would pretend there was something wrong with my phone.

I think for me it was because my panic at the time was making me want to escape the office and being on the phone would mean I couldn't get away.

Then when I went off sick I found I would struggle a bit with email but that was because I was having a lot of stress over the sickness policy and starting a new med. I found phones tricky for a while still and the same for opening any letters. If the phone wrang my anxiety would increase as it was often work badgering me about something.

For me it was more because of the escalation of my GAD.

I remember one of the charity co-ordinators at the walk-in groups I went to having similiar issues. She had debts piling up because she would put the letters in a pile somewhere to get away from them and couldn't face opening them. Answering the phone or calling anyone was a similiar problem. She was very self conscious and struggled with people and getting into the charity group really helped her because she was socialising in a safe environment.

[missgatsby]

Thanks for the reply. I've definitely had times when I would ignore my phone and then say that it wasn't working, or that I didn't have it with me. It must be especially tough to do something like that in a work environment.

I'm sure that involving myself in a group or forcing myself to call a friend once in awhile would help... but sometimes it's just awkward and I struggle to find things to talk about. That is another issue with the phone. We must rely only on vocal contact... enjoying silence together just doesn't work like it does in person.

I was reading an account of a girl who would force herself to call restaurants and stores and ask what time they closed, just to get used to the experience. I should probably try a similar strategy, but it's hard to take that step.

[mark84]

Thanks for the reply. I've definitely had times when I would ignore my phone and then say that it wasn't working, or that I didn't have it with me. It must be especially tough to do something like that in a work environment.

I'm sure that involving myself in a group or forcing myself to call a friend once in awhile would help... but sometimes it's just awkward and I struggle to find things to talk about. That is another issue with the phone. We must rely only on vocal contact... enjoying silence together just doesn't work like it does in person.

I was reading an account of a girl who would force herself to call restaurants and stores and ask what time they closed, just to get used to the experience. I should probably try a similar strategy, but it's hard to take that step.

I think that ideas a really great one, just make a 20 second call to your local supermarket or something and see, you could even ring up one of those automated lines to start with 'press or say1 to hear what time tonight's showing of movie XYZ is on at' etc.
I think phones are funny things, everyone reacts slower on a phone, the reason is because you cant see the other person so you can't read what they're saying as easy- there's no cues from body language or facial expression; the modern world likes phones though so it's important to try and make a few little calls to try and get used to it, then maybe call a good friend or something when you have something to tell them? Eventually it'll start feeling more natural I'm sure.

[MyNameIsTerry]

I came across this thread doing some searching for something else and thought it may have some useful replies for you:

http://www.nomorepanic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=153987

[emily67]

i can totally relate to the phone phobia thing

with me, i've actually unplugged the phone- so it will never ring, and i'll never have to deal with it.

i start shaking even if i hold it in my hands, and somtimes it gets to the stage where things are spilt or knocked off the table- because of it

but i don't have to deal with it now. i don't even have a mobile for the same reasons