I Must Confess: I have a bit of a phone phobia!
I hate making phone calls and will avoid them if at all possible.
The Origins of Phone Phobia
I guess my phone anxieties developed in childhood after my parents separated. In the hands of my Mum (who had severe mental health issues), the phone became an instrument of torture.
Many was the time I was told: “ring your Dad and tell him (insert hateful horrible embarrassing thing here!)”.
Mum also hated it if the phone rang before she woke for the day – which was rarely before 10am! I will never forget the time when I was 18 and my driving instructor phoned about 7.30 one morning as he was sick, and had to postpone my lesson. He was doing the right thing, but according to my mother HE WOKE HER UP and therefore was an evil beep-beep-beepity-beep-beep. She raged at me for days over that little epsiode, and all the while I was thinking What the??!!!
Then of course there were the many times Mum would scream abuse at me over the phone over some real or imagined slight …
Fast forward a few decades and the phone still triggers a bit of a mild anxiety state for me. Of course I’ve learned to cope with it over the years – it’s pretty hard to hold down a job or run a business without a phone!
Living with Phone Phobia
I do avoid making phone calls, it’s true, so that is definitely one of my coping strategies. My friends and family members know that I will very rarely pick up a phone and call just for a chat. It’s just not my way.
When I do have to make a phone call (for work for example), often I will write myself a script first so I know what I want to say! This helps me feel a lot more confident. (Needless to say, I’d have to be absolutely desperate before I’d consider a job in telemarketing!)
And I thank God for text messaging, emails, Facebook and the like 🙂
The Phone Phobia Gene?!
The funny thing is, I have tried really hard to overcome/hide my phobia – yet both of my kids seem to have inherited it, one more so than the other! What’s that about?!
I have spoken to a psychologist about my fear of the phone and although there’s room for improvement, I figure I’m pretty high-functioning for somebody with phone anxiety so am not too worried about it.
How about you – do you have a love or hate relationship with the phone?!