Wednesday, February 09, 2005

Phonophobia

Yes, it's an actual word, and I know because I just googled "fear of telephones." As for why I googled "fear of telephones," well, I think I have it.

The thought occured to me last week, and again this. You may remember that I was trying to track down some basic contact information for certain companies. A few times (well, more than a few), getting some of this information required making phone calls to their offices. I came up with every trick Icould to avoid this. When I was finally forced to make a few calls, I found myself sitting, staring at the list of numbers, trying to work up the courage to do it.

Then, this week, I had to call an editor on the West Coast for a non-CC-related matter. Again, I put it off, makign excuses. Even today, when I swore to myself I'd do it, I found myself procrastinating while in the act of looking up the phone number. Honestly, I finally broke down and did it out of embarrassment.

I've been like this for a while; probably one of the reasons I didn't date in high school (right under a tendency to develop long, obsessive crushes that I took forever to act on and even longer to let go of after I struck out) was because I barely ever touched the telephone. Hell, I even had the problem calling guy friends just to shoot the breeze. College was similar, although the campus atmosphere and university email system usually meant I didn't need to call anyone. And it hit me pretty hard for a few weeks in my internship, too.

So this is something I'll be bringing to therapy.

2 comments:

Lena said...

I know exactly what you mean. I'm terrified of calling up ANYONE. I avoid it at all costs and procrastinate it as long as possible. There have been times my parents had to make the phone calls for me- talk about embarassing.

What I find interesting is that once I'm on the phone, I talk a lot. After the conversation ends, I regret everything I said and/or think that I made no sense or was completely boring.

Anonymous said...

Hi
I am trying to overcome this also, that is how i found this blog. My problem is that I have my own business and everyday gets harder for me to answer my phone, or returning calls. Is hurting my business. Do you have any advice on how to handle this phobia?
Thanks
Maria