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Thread: Phone anxiety?

  1. #1
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    Phone anxiety?

    I'm about to make a call to an insurance company and I find myself terribly anxious about the phone call. I remember feeling this way before about calling people on the phone.

    Does anyone else feel this way?

  2. #2
    Maybe YesNo's Avatar
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    I sometimes procrastinate doing very simple things because I think there will be complications once I start. Calling an insurance company would be something like that. However, if you do it at the beginning of the day and get it out of the way you can relax the rest of the day.

    I don't do this, but I might start: anytime I realize I am procrastinating over something it will go to the top of my written to-do list to be completed in the morning tomorrow. I know the "tomorrow" sounds like a continued procrastination, but I feel more refreshed them.

  3. #3
    Registered User tailor STATELY's Avatar
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    Yes... phone anxiety (and others) here. Much rather email or text.
    tailor

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  4. #4
    Dance Magic Dance OrphanPip's Avatar
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    My husband does this, whenever there's any sort of phone conversation required or any possibility of conflict he makes me do the calling. It's especially trying for me because, unlike my husband, I don't speak Malay (apart from enough to get me through ordering at a restaurant) and often have to struggle through a language barrier.

    I used to be anxious about phone calls sometimes as well, but then I worked a job fielding customer complaints for a national pizza chain and it kind of made me jaded. Boy do people get irrationally pissed off when they get the wrong toppings on their pizzas.

    I often get nervous when speaking to people one on one in social situations as well, though I'm quite comfortable with speaking in front of groups.
    Last edited by OrphanPip; 03-09-2017 at 05:23 AM.
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  5. #5
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    I don't like answering the phone. I like to be prepared to talk, to know what I am going to say. On top of that our phone has a very loud ring, it makes me jump several inches into the air, so even before answering the phone I am a bag of jitters, heart thumping, who is this voice on the end of the line? What do they want, I am unprepared...

  6. #6
    I guess we all have this experienced in our day to day routine. I have had these butterflies flying too in my stomach when I am about to make or pick up calls which are actually unexpected...I jst take a deep breathe, feel confident of about myself and what I am doing and then just a thought " Let's see...What's next"...Finally Everything gets sorted

  7. #7
    A User, but Registered! tonywalt's Avatar
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    Since the advent of messaging: I rarely call or answer phones. Weirdly. Even though its more of a pain in the *** typing on my iphone.

  8. #8
    somewhere else Helga's Avatar
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    phone anxiety yes, but not as much as I used to. I am very happy to order pizza through the internet and I would rather send an e-mail or text than call. I am firmly against owning a smartphone, even though I know some of the applications would make life easier. But after I split up with my ex (7 years ago) I learned I had to do so many things he used to do, calling is one of them so it has gotten easier. My problem though is that I go over everything I said later and sometimes I fix the conversation in my head. this song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rj2CD5xgpNY does a good job at explaining that. I also love a webpage called introvert doodles, brilliant insight at times, some of the pictures are about phone conversations.
    I hope death is joyful, and I hope I'll never return -Frida Khalo

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  9. #9
    Super papayahed's Avatar
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    Is it a generational thing? I've noticed that the young engineers avoid phone calls like the plague. They will text and email rather than pick up the phone and talk to somebody. At one point my coworker was trying to get information from a vendor, after a week of texting and emailing without response I had to force the dude to call the vendor.
    Do, or do not. There is no try. - Yoda


  10. #10
    A User, but Registered! tonywalt's Avatar
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    Calling is so 1945-1999

  11. #11
    MANICHAEAN MANICHAEAN's Avatar
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    The one that always gets me on edge is when I have to ring my bank, ( especially when abroad.) The whole identity check procedure has to be prepared and in front of me before I can ring up.

  12. #12
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    From an early workign age I had to answer the phone as part of my job so now I don't give it a second thought. I'm much more comfortbale on the phone that using text

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