Content
I never talk on the phone at work At every job I’ve ever had I have never dared to talk on the phone. There were two instances where I had no choice but to answer the phone and both times were disasterus. I’ve been at my current job for nearly a year and my boss knows I don’t do phones and never puts me in a situation where I need to answer the phone. I work in a diner as a server/busser. Ironically enough the one person who knows me the best (over 10 years) has no idea I have anxiety over talking on the phone. At home when I need to call someone it takes me an hour if not all day to get myself to actually go through with it. I know I will stutter and if the person hangs up I never bother calling back. The only people I feel comfortable talking to on the phone are my parents and my two closest friends. I want to talk to my one friend and explain to her why I can’t handle picking up the phone at work. Oh yeah, it’s probably important to say I work with her too. For as long as I’ve known her it has never once occurred to me that she didn’t know about my anxiety over the phone. I have seen therapists over the years about my stuttering and one guy who made it possible for me to actually be willing to talk on the phone at all but I still am not 100% comfortable with it. She has seen me on the phone before and maybe she assumes I don’t care about my stutter. I have come to accept it, I really have it’s just the very thought of talking on the phone terrifies me. Especially if I am not expecting it. If I am near the take out phone at work and no one is manning it my friend will occasionally tell me to pick it up. I always make up some stupid reason why I can’t and bolt. How do I tell her about this without her thinking I am just making up some dumb excuse for not picking up the phone at work?