Phone phobia

eh i hate talking on the phone as well, i pretty much avoid it at all costs, drives my wife nuts because if i need to call anyone, i ask her to call them for me. I will use the phone if there is no other way around it however, but i will use other methods first such as email and texting.

--

I just remembered another one of my quirks about phones; if forced to use one, I will never use one if anyone is around. If someone is home at my house, I will wait til they leave, if by some strange happenstance I find myself outside and in need of using my phone, I claim I am going to use the restroom and go find some isolated spot to use my phone >_>;

---

I hate phones, and I have to say, if I really needed to talk to someone I'd rather do it in person, because I can see their reaction, and not just in tone, but body language as well. On the phone you can only tell something about the tone, if even that!

I try to make phone calls as short as possible. I hate to be rude though, so if it's a promotional callers (and those bastards are sneaky to begin with in luring you into not saying anything) I can't actually right away say "I'm sorry I'm not interested"; I did it once, and the guy was like "ok ###$ you too!"... harsh; destroyed my whole evening...

emotionaltyphoon wrote:I hate to be rude though, so if it's a promotional callers (and those bastards are sneaky to begin with in luring you into not saying anything) I can't actually right away say "I'm sorry I'm not interested"; I did it once, and the guy was like "ok ###$ you too!"... harsh; destroyed my whole evening...

That is harsh. If someone calls you unsolicitedly and you don't want to talk to them they have no right to be insulted about it. I generally tell them very politely but firmly that I'm not interested. They're just trying to make a living doing some #######5 job and if they realize they can't sell you anything they'll be quick to move on to the next target. No need to be rude about it.

From the number of positive responses to this thread I'd say that phone phobia as such seems to be a pretty typical feature of AvPD. Maybe that means I'm not avoidant. Maybe there's hope for me after all...

From the number of positive responses to this thread I'd say that phone phobia as such seems to be a pretty typical feature of AvPD. Maybe that means I'm not avoidant. Maybe there's hope for me after all... Confused

Maybe the high prevalence of phone phobia under avoidants can be explainend in part by the high comorbidity of social phobia rather than avoidant traits as such?
I had some problems with phone phobia years ago. But then I had more problems with social anxiety in general. Now, I have no problems making "official" phone calls at all. Calling my parents is also okay. What I hate, is making those "friendship-maintaining" calls. I find it difficult to be responsive enough to the other person just by language alone. Usually, I'm a good listener and people easily open up to me (yeah, this is ironic for an avoidant). But I think I allow them to do so by nonverbal signals mainly.
And I hate talking on the phone when I'm evaluated on it. I have worked in call centers for some time and it was horrible. I was always afraid to do something wrong (although I was quite good at it).
I would say, my phone phobia is only activated when I'm evaluated or when I have to convey interpersonal closeness. This can be well explained by AvPD and all other could rather be social phobia-related.

I've already seen several people on here who have had jobs in call centres. This to me sounds like an avoidant's nightmare job, particularly if it's outbound. Even if I do consider myself not suffering from phone phobia, I would never ever want to work in a call centre. Why do you do this to yourselves?

It just occurred to me that being a man I can probably get away with not conveying closeness much more often than if I were a women. I'm a man damnit, we don't have emotions! Oh how I wish that were so sometimes...

I've had problems answering the phone for years. I simply can not do it. The only person I have an acception for is my mother, and I have to get her to make phone calls for me if needed.

I txt because it gives me time to think.