Posted by Noa on June 28, 2001, at 10:55:22
In reply to Re: Telephone anxiety, posted by Maisy on June 28, 2001, at 7:09:03
I am sometimes anxious about using the phone, either answering it when it rings or making a call. My feelings about being available to answer calls vary, and at home, I often turn the ringer off if I don't feel like dealing with the phone. Then, at a later time when in the mood, I check the voice mail. This is the case even now when I am not really depressed, other than a passing depressed mood from time to time. Other times, I love gabbing on the phone. I feel like I have learned to respect the variation in my moods about phone calls.
At work, it isn't as easy. I have anxiety about calling people. Perhaps because I am more of a visual learner, or at least I rely heavily on visual input, combined with the auditory. I feel like I need to see people's faces to get the full effect of communication. And, I process information better by reading it than by hearing it, although I usually require a combination of the two to really process things. One of my weaknesses at work is that I don't call people back quickly enough, and this is definitely because of the anxiety. I am trying to work on improving this.
Also, with colleagues, I usually ask them to convey informational messages by email rather than voice mail, becuase it is hard for me to process a lot of information from voice mail messages--people tend to talk too fast for me to take notes, etc. so I have to listen to the message several times over. This also makes me a bit anxious, too, I guess, although certainly not as much as making calls to clients or others.
poster:Noa
thread:68132
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010625/msgs/68238.html