Telephonophobia, believe it or not, is a genuine and very common fear nowadays due to the increase of needing to use the phone in modern day society. Often, you’ll realise it’s younger people that suffer from this phobia. Most likely because we have spent more of our childhood communicating through text and messaging systems; we generally didn’t need to make many phone calls. The phobia is usually caused by social anxiety and you probably feel emotions of dread and panic when you know you have to make a phone call that isn’t to your mum. But phone calls are a part of everyday life, so here are some tips to overcome your telephonophobia:

  1. Roughly plan what you want to say. The conversation probably won’t go exactly how you imagine it to, but knowing what questions you want to ask or having some answers planned for likely questions will help you to relax.2. Wing it! Scripting your calls might actually make you more nervous. Sometimes simply going with the flow can help you relax and you could be surprised at how naturally your conversation flows.

    3. Start small! Make doctor appointments, make takeaway orders, these are very simple and can build your confidence overtime. It will simply get you used to talking with strangers over the phone.

    4. Remember that the occasional stutter is just as common in real life conversation. It can just seem more obvious over the phone but you can guarantee that the person you’re talking with will hardly notice.

    5. Remember they are just people! They’re probably nervous too.