Fear of Talking on the Phone

Could Your Fear of Talking on the Phone be Social Anxiety?

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Many people have an intense dislike of talking on the telephone, and some have a true fear of doing so. Having a fear of talking on the phone is called telephone or phone phobia. There are a number of different reasons why people might be scared to make or receive phone calls. For instance, some people develop telephone phobia after they have received bad news over the phone. In many other cases, the phobia is rooted in social anxiety disorder.

Relationship between social anxiety and telephone phobia

Social anxiety disorder is characterized by overwhelming anxiety about social situations that is disproportionate to the events that happen. It affects people in various ways. Some people might be anxious about social situations in general while others have fears of specific types of social situations, including talking on the telephone. However, making and receiving calls are important in our daily lives. If you often try to do everything possible to avoid telephone calls, you may have social anxiety disorder.

Social anxiety involves worrying about the judgments of others so much that it interferes with some of the important things in your life. Social anxiety is more than a feeling. It includes physical sensations, feelings, thoughts, and behaviors. If your telephone phobia is caused by social anxiety, you may experience several symptoms and signs.

You may have negative thoughts about what the person on the other line thinks about you or about how you sound on a phone call. You might also experience negative feelings like panic or dread, which may be prompted by simply thinking about making a phone call. Physical symptoms of telephone phobia that arises from social anxiety include such things as feeling nausea, having sweaty palms, and experiencing a racing heart. You might find that you take behavioral steps to avoid phone calls. For example, you might always let incoming calls go to your voice mail or ask others to answer your phone for you.

Why some people fear phone calls

Talking on the telephone can sometimes be more daunting than having a conversation in person. When you are having a conversation directly with another person, you can read nonverbal cues that might encourage you such as a smile. You might also worry about the way in which you sound over a phone. People who have social anxiety commonly worry that others can hear how nervous they are in their voices.

With the increasing popularity of sending text messages, people may also worry about not having time to create their messages when they are talking on the telephone. Some people may also be worried about disturbing others by calling them since phone calls are becoming less common.

Overcoming fear of talking on the telephone

There are several strategies that you can use to overcome your fear of talking on the phone. Remind yourself that pauses in conversation are normal. You should not worry about pauses. If you count in your head during a pause, you will likely find that it only lasts a couple of seconds even if it feels like it is much longer.

Remember that businesses want people to call them. You are not bothering anyone when you call a business to schedule an appointment or to talk to customer service. You also should remind yourself that no one expects you to be perfect. You do not need to feel that you should know the answer to everything that is asked of you instantly. An advantage of talking on the phone versus texting or emailing is that you are able to ask questions for clarification during your conversation.

Think about phone calls that you have had in the past that were successful. Before you make a phone call, think about times in the past when you have placed similar calls that went well.

Set goals for yourself and take small actions to confront the fear that you feel. You can start small by making calls that make you just a little nervous. You can then work your way up gradually to making calls that are scarier for you. By doing this, each successive call will become easier for you to make or receive.

Contact Premier NLP Life Coaching

Having telephone phobia can cause you to lose out on opportunities that you might otherwise enjoy such as getting a great job. It can also harm the relationships that you have with your family members and your friends. If you have a fear of talking on the phone, neuro-linguistic programming can help you to address it. Fill out the online contact form to schedule a consultation with Premier Life Coaching today.

What's The Difference Between Social Anxiety and Asperger's Syndrome

What’s The Difference Between Social Anxiety and Asperger’s Syndrome?

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People who have autism are said to be on the autism spectrum. People on the higher end of the spectrum used to be diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, but that term is no longer used. Instead, all people who are diagnosed with autism of any type are now diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, which is an umbrella term that covers all of the variants of autism. There is little difference between people who have Asperger’s syndrome and those who have high-functioning autism. However, people who have Asperger’s syndrome have better language acquisition skills in early childhood than people who were previously diagnosed with high-functioning autism. At Premier Life Coaching, we are sometimes asked about the difference between ASD and social anxiety. Here is what you need to know about these two different conditions.

How ASD and social anxiety relate to each other

People who have autism spectrum disorder commonly have problems with social anxiety. However, while people who have ASD diagnoses often struggle socially, not all of them will also be diagnosed with social anxiety disorder. People who are on the higher end of the spectrum and who are bright may develop social anxiety disorder as a co-occurring diagnosis.

People with autism struggle with social interactions because of the manner in which their brains are wired. They have trouble understanding nonverbal cues that neurotypical people are able to read. When most people reach adolescence, their communication skills become sophisticated. They are not as literal as they were as children.

People who have autism have trouble understanding how communication changes as they and their peers grow older. This leads to difficulties in communication because they rely on what is being verbally communicated instead of including body language, tone, and other nonverbal indicators of meaning. Often, people who have autism are unable to understand rhetorical questions and sarcasm. Because of this problem, people who have autism may have issues when they try to interact with the people around them.

Some people who are on the autism spectrum will create their own rules by which to live. However, this can still create social conflicts. For young people who do this, they might press forward each day regardless of the conflicts that they encountered. However, they may be unable to handle conflicts that may carry serious consequences. People who have autism and who are sensitive may become avoidant and develop anxiety.

People with autism who also have anxiety are more likely to seek therapy even when they are not facing a crisis. People with autism who tend to press forward and ignore the strife around them are unlikely to seek therapy unless there is a crisis. The key is to help people who have autism to develop an awareness of their social problems and how they manifest in their lives. They must then be taught effective strategies to compensate for their social deficits.

People with autism who work actively to improve their ability to comprehend nonverbal communication can make substantial progress. When they work on it, their brains begin to rewire in a manner that helps them to change.

Contact Premier NLP Life Coaching

If you have autism spectrum disorder and would like to improve your communication abilities, neuro-linguistic programming might be an effective way for you to accomplish your goals. Neuro-linguistic programming is a set of tools and models that can be used to improve your communication skills by providing you with an understanding of the interplay of the language that you choose, your actions, and your unconscious mind. To learn more, contact Premier Life Coaching today by completing our online contact form.

Why Nuero Linguistic Programming Works So Fast

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Neuro-Linguistic Programming recognizes that all behaviors occur in patterns and are rooted in the subconscious mind. Another tenet of NLP is that we are always communicating. The person you communicate with more then anyone else is YOU! And the single most important factor that affects the way we think and feel is the deep structure of that “internal dialogue” of communication of you to you. With this information, a qualified NLP practitioner can help his students to influence behavioral patterns through the use of specific language changes and other types of communication changes (words only account for 7% of our ability to communicate) to enable a person to “recode” information that is stored in their subconscious. This results in new and better patterns of behavior. This also radically affects how people see and feel about themselves in a very positive and healthy way. Because these people now value themselves at a much higher level, they often go on to make significantly more money, many get married or get into healthy fulfilling relationships and go on to lead rich, fulfilled lives. Neuro-Linguistic Programming often incorporates hypnosis and self-hypnosis to help achieve the change (or “programming”) that the client wants to change. I have personally seen hundreds of people stop doing depression and or anxiety with lasting results after only a few sessions. The results you can expect with a good NLP practitioner are nothing short of amazing.

Understanding hypnosis

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Another word for hypnosis is trance. Being in trance is a very natural state. We go in and out of trance multiple times everyday. Most people never even notice it. But did you ever have a time when you were driving and you missed your exit? Or worse yet, you drive to your destination, turn off the ignition, and not remember driving there? Believe it or not, that is a very common experience.

All new learning happens in some state of trance. If you watch someone’s eyes as you’re speaking to them, their eyes will move in different directions. They may look up, side to side or look down. That is know as eye accessing cues and is indicative of trance state that last only seconds in most cases.

There are deeper, more prolonged states, and deeper learning happens in these states. When people go into these states, I will often guide the conversation helping them to make new distinctions by disassociating them from the experience. In other words, I will ask them to close their eyes and make a picture or movie of themselves experiencing their “stuck state”. This allows for some space between the person and the experience. This new perspective often is enough for the person to find a new resourceful way of handling the challenges of their life. Often as the open their eyes, they tell me,”I didn’t think I was that deep.”( in trance) The reason they say that is because they were completely aware of outside noises such as a phone ringing, sounds from outside, music in the background etc.

Hypnosis is a very powerful tool that is often misunderstood and subsequently feared. But going into a light guided trance is a powerful way to move yourself rapidly forward in life. I have personally  seen multiple people who had suffered from anxiety, many for years, let go of it in a single session.