Does anyone have a phone phobia?

[nappyaddict]

Do you know where it stems from?

I am trying to get DS' statement and school place sorted out and I hate ringing them so much I have got my mum to do most of them

I also trained to be a home start volunteer. Despite really wanting to do it I cannot make myself ring the organiser to see if I have got a family yet.

I hate complaining in restuarants, I hate taking things back to the shop, I hate ringing up to find stuff out even about stuff I really want to do. I don't even like ringing my friends very much.

I am a freak.

I;m like this too, not with calls to friends, but with anything official I come out in a sweat.
I don't even know why but I hate it.

I haven't had my landline plugged in for years and very few people (and no one official) has my mobile number.

i hate making calls at work - or picking up other telephones - people probably think i'm lazy cow

Our entire family are hopeless at answering the phone and make so few calls that our bill is very low.
We all detest the phone. Mobiles do not work here and we rarely hear the land line.

I feel like a crap mother who doesn't care. My child's future depends on ringing these people and still I can't do it. It has made me so ashamed of myself I've been in tears over it.

I like phoning places in the UK but here abroad I hate it because I can't always say exactly what I want although I speak the language fairly well.

I know how you feel though, when I have to phone somewhere important I have to work myself up to it and take deep breaths before I dial the number. Pathetic really.

Please try not to get all upset over it, nappyaddict. It can be a difficult task to do especially if you are not mentally prepared to speak to the other person eg surprise calls or having to speak to someone official.

Would someone else be willing to make the phone calls for you?

I get like this, I need to write myself a list or sometimes even a script to make official phone calls and it then takes me several hours to work up to doing it.

I'm useless, and let it all build up to far bigger deal than it needs to be.

DP seems oblivious to my issues, he's forever asking me to sort something official out, so I steel myself and make the call, then afterwards he says 'so did you find out x, y, z' and I'm all because I can barely ask the bare minimum. Then I get all resentful because he could easily do it himself and cut out the middleman. However I sometimes think he does it deliberately to 'challenge' my phobia.

Yes I'm that bad

Yes, that helps me too - I always have a sheet of paper next to me and write my numbers at the top incase I have to give them my number and then I can write down what information I want to tell them or ask about and note down whatever they tell me.

When I used to smoke I had to have one just before I dialed, now I take a cup of coffee!

If I get depressed, I just cannot deal with the phone at all. Won't answer it, fear what someone might say (not rational I know, but it is one of the symptoms that alerts me to knowing that Something Is Not Quite Right.....)

I don't really have advice, except perhaps ask yourself what is the worst thing that could happen/someone could say, etc. Sometimes gets me past that point of not wanting to face doing anything....

Swans My mum has been making them for me but I can just tell from the few times I have had to speak with them they think I am so childish for getting my mum to do it all the time.

We have delegated the phone calls - dh deals with the things that mess with my head eg complaints dept of PC World... or sorting out insurance. He stands stiffly as if he is talking to the Queen.

I do ranty phonecalls to the council but tend to stutter with rage/ their incompetence.

Ds does the 'how dare you upset my mother' stuff (to the said council).

And isn't it disappointing rushing to the phone only to hear a prerecorded debt junkmail call.

Nappy - no one will think you are childish for getting your mum to make the calls. It is so assumed that we are all willing to be at the beck and call of communication these days but sometimes it really is difficult to do. I see it as being a Big Thing if I manage an important phone call but can panic about it.

Thank goodness for emails but I worry too about my hellish grammar and spelling.

I absolutely hate phones, but it's to do with the mobile technology thing, am not phobic. Speaking face to face is so much nicer.

Sounds like you're afraid of not getting your message across. Try writing a script before each call. I have done this especially when I first had to make calls in the language of the country I now live in, and wasn't proficient. It helped.

I've grown to hate the phone due to so many unsolicited sales calls. I've registered for all the 'do not call' lists that apply to vendors, but now get calls from charities I've given to in the past. Also, calls from companies I've got some investments in, calling to inform me of a shareholder meeting or a proxy sent in the post.

I use the phone as a necessity, but don't like it much. A ringing phone is almost always an intrusion - would much rather have emails where I can read at my leisure, respond when convenient, and delete when appropriate.