# Anxiety Disorders > Specific Phobias >  >  Phone Anxiety

## CloudMaker

I have phone anxiety .... whenever my phone rings I have a short panic attack. I always assume it is going to be something bad, like someone calling me to tell me someone died

It doesn't bother me if I'm the one making the phone call. Only when I receive calls

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## Cuchculan

You any good at acting? Stupid question. I bet you are great at acting. When the phone rings you can act. Think of a movie or TV show. Something you like. You are now in that show. You answer the call as if acting. I know. It sounds really strange. But you like strange. So this would be perfect for you. It is a true form of therapy. To role play. That is exactly what you would be doing. Lord knows we act a lot of times during our life. We don't want to go somewhere. But we have been asked by a friend. You can call it a lie that you will be telling them. But to tell that lie you have to act. To make them believe it. Or  you might have somebody you really hate. But you are not that bad to show them you hate them. So you act all nice around them. Life is made up of acting. I used to hate answering the phone. One day I picked it up and said in a creepy voice ' City Morgue, how may I help you '. They hung up straight away. They than rang back and told me they had dialled the city morgue by mistake. I had such a laugh. I began to like answering the phone. Putting on voices. Seen who I could fool. I didn't care if it was a serious call or not. If I didn't know the voice I might just ask ' what may I do you for '. Any accent was perfect. Then we had the phone sales people. I used to love them calling. They would hang up on me. How rare is that? Don't fear the phone. The phone is your friend. The phone loves you. Become one with the phone. Bad news? It can travel in many different ways. Not just by phone.

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## Antidote

The thing is how do you get people to call you in order to get exposure?

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## sweetful

Both making and answering calls are anxiety-provoking for me. The whole phone call thing in general is pretty scary for me.

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## Otherside

I can't do answerphones. I used to be bad with calling people but thankfully that's improved over time. 

But ask me to leave an answerphone message and the answer is no. 

Sent from my G3121 using Tapatalk

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