Please don’t call me…

Phone anxiety

And I won’t call you…

Yup, that’s right.

I am not being rude, or maybe I am, but I can explain. I have a reason. It probably isn’t logical to you, but it’s real for me.

The problem is, is that I HATE talking on the phone. Truly, truly, I hate it. It brings out all sorts of horrible feelings of anxiety in me.

Unless I really have to talk to you, I will avoid it like the plague. It’s  not personal. This even extends to LSH and my own family and friends.

I don’t know why I don’t like talking on the phone. I prefer to be able to speak face to face (although sometimes even anxiety makes that challenging but I can and do manage that, and it’s far less stressful than talking on the phone)

It’s weird, because I appear to be a very sociable person. But having to call someone, or answer a call and chat sends me into realms of anxiety that I have not ever been able to explain, or handle. I have become better over the years, and obviously, as an adult, in the real world, I have to talk to people on the phone, but the advent of technology that means I can avoid it, if I can, I will.

I will gladly chat away to you over SMS (or even What’sApp if I really have to) or via e-mail.

So the next time you call me, and I ping you a message asking you to sms me or send me a mail, and you think “she’s weird, why?” if you have read this blog post, you will know why. I might call you, but I will do my best to get off the call as fast as possible. I would much rather you sent me a mail, or we met for a coffee instead.

So, don’t call me, and I won’t call you. Or I will if I have to, but I would really prefer not to…

Posted in Mental Health and tagged Anxiety, anxiety triggers, coping with anxiety, mental-health, stress.

9 Comments

  1. I can really relate to this – I hate speaking on the phone too. I think for me it’s that I can’t see them and can’t gauge reactions maybe? Whatever it is it just makes me feel awkward. Thank goodness for text messaging!

  2. I HATE talking on the phone as well. I limit it to close family and even then I’m not that keen. I never phone friends for a chat – would prefer just to email/message them and meet up whenever.

  3. Oh I totally get where you are coming from. I hate talking on the phone. It makes me edgy and sound weird. Texting or face to face I’m fine but on the phone…. Every time it rings, I think twice about answering it!

    • My kids make me Skype my Dad because they love seeing him on the phone/iPad so I’ve gotten used to it, it’s a bit easier than phoning!

  4. I’m with you on this topic. I don’t have a mobile phone, because it’s pointless as I would never use it. If the phone rings at home, if my husband is at home he answers, otherwise I just let it ring. At least that means I don’t have to deal with the dreaded PPI calls or those stupid scammers who call to say you have a problem with your PC.

    • Oh don’t get me started on spam callers either! I use my mobile for texting and messaging and e-mail, but my data package has minimal minutes on it because I just don’t use them! I wish you could get sms only phones, that would make me very happy! 🙂

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