I have extremely high anxiety when I have to talk on the phone, even with friends. Every time I get a phone call, I have to ignore it because I simply can't force myself to answer it. If I really have to answer (work related calls), I almost feel like I'll faint , my heart is beating super fast, palms are sweating, face is burning up and my legs feel numb, such a weird feeling and I can't understand why. I am friendly and talkative when I'm speaking to people in person, but speaking on the phone is just like a weird phobia that I had for at least 18 years now. It is really frustrating. I tried pretty much everything, but I just can't seem to get over this fear.

Only way I found to deal with social anxiety is to put myself in uncomfortably situations. Stepping out of that comfort zone. Every time I felt that horrible feeling in my stomach telling me not to do something, i force myself too, and every time that feeling becomes a little less. Also just acting confident, and the best way I found to do that was when I met someone knew I always introduced myself first. Whether it was a new person at work or whatever. I found that doing this made me more confident to approach them in the future because I had already broke the ice. Instead of thinking they have negative thoughts towards me, I believed they probably thought I was confident in myself to do this... Anxiety really does suck and I definitely think school should do more for students with it. I feel like if I had that support in school I would've done so much better and would've dealt with it better. This is all coming from a guy who's only told one person they have anxiety lol still a stigma about it, especially if you're a guy.

I needed this today. I've been having such a hard time regarding anxiety while on the phone lately... and a portion of my job is phone based. I'm going to do this tomorrow.

Sometimes I just write down a loose script when making appointments. Having a conversation plan helps :)

I have this problem at work. I have social anxiety and I am TERRIFIED of the phone. I get flustered every time. I always think of the worst case scenarios. I immediately am scared the other person is going to yell and get mad at me. Thank you for this video! I find that writing down everything I have to say helps, but it's SO time consuming. It does help though.

I'm on lockdown rn so I have to do therapy on the phone.

You are such a good friend

thank you so much for this video, i mean it. i have recently got a job as a assistant manager with 0 experience in a office this has really helped me calm down in this hectic time.

This is super useful to me! I get so worked up sometimes that I end up avoiding dealing with important things due to my anxiety in having to deal with people. Thank you so much for the advice!!

I fear talking on phone. People would say it's obvious that I am nervous because my voice is shaking.

This was really interesting and something I never would have thought about. If I have to call someone to ask them a question, request something, etc. many times I find myself not knowing how to phrase it in a way that does not sound as though I don't know what I am asking or requesting. To help facilitate that, I typically write out what I want to say while making sure I get my point across and then I take a few minutes to memorize what I wrote before calling that person. At times, I do become nervous before the person answers, however, in that time I allow myself to try to relax and breathe. Once I am relaxed, the process of talking on phone doesn't seem as intimidating or anxiety-provoking. Not sure if this is a strange method to use, however, it works well for me. 🙂

thank you so so much. talking on the phone is so hard for me. 💕

this is solid advice. like given.

The last minute of this vid is probably the most useful part

Thank you for this video

thank you, this is going to be very useful

Thank you so much, you help me so much :)

I have a difficult time with this. Writing an outline of notes before the call helps me a great deal. Hope it helps someone else.

yes thanks for this! i really love the idea of transitioning, taking a pause and setting goals before jumping into the wild mess of life. i have a question tho: ive (kinda) done this before and sometimes i find myself feeling like im being too aloof and distant (maybe even cold idk) to others when i set a goal set in mind cause i just rush somewhere, do whatever needs to be done, and go out of the place, then i never get to "connect" with people around me which kind of leaves a void in me. am i missing something or...?

.....things I wished I did decades ago...maybe I did this but didn't realize it. I seem to do better on the phone than face to face - no need to read body language/facial expressions, etc.

I kind of feel that my " phone anxiety " really came forth when I started texting. Never had a problem on the phone before...

😭😥 I don't know what wrong with me, last night I tried joining a Discord group voice call for the first time, i dunno, everytime I tried to turn on my mic to speak I loose my voice, I ended up turning my mic on/off couple of times. Sheez I really Don't have the Courage, even though it's only 6 of us in the VC, but I still end up speaking after a very long time, cuz they're all forcing me, my voice keep on stumbling, after saying some words, I can't even join the conversation, I can't even say some words properly, I'm so nervous, feel like am having panic attacks so just turned off my mic and leave, I Feel really bad, my very first voice call, didn't end up well. I keep on crying, I can't be like this, I don't wanna be like this 😓😢😭

Ok but what do I do when ma friends always ask me call-

What about situations in which you don't know who will be at the other side of the phone or what the phonecall will be about? I have anxiety and phonecall phobia and last year I had the opportunity to work as an interpreter over the phone. But every time I try to do it I'm just unable to. And not being able to know who is calling or what the phonecall is about just makes it that much more dreadful.

I have extreme anxiety that even my own friends makes me feel so anxious and nervous talking to them over the phone. sometimes i declined or not answering the call at all. just today my husband asked me to contact somebody and refused to do it because again im not comfortable doing it, i palpitate, start thinking alot like omg what should i say or how do i communicate well or what should i ask them things like that hahahah bcoz of that i made my husband kinda pissed off which I totally understand bcoz he wants me to learn and practice talking over the phone with strangers. but the only main reason of having this issue is because of my lack of english fluency that's it.

What do you say when the people you talk to are always combative over everything you have to say , and you have to be professional and not curse them out like you really want to

I’m struggling to FaceTime this boy that I’ve been talking to for a few weeks now and I’m so scared to FaceTime him like if I FaceTimed him I would physically not be able to talk because of my anxiety

Get some curtains bro. Good video though, thank you