On the phone

[Aimee]

....This may sound completely pathetic, but I find phone conversations difficult. A friend of mine has said they will call me this evening to cheer me up, as I am missing home a bit today. I am fretting about it already. I am tempted not to pick up. But what is the other option? Sitting alone feeling upset that I have no one to talk to. Grrr 

[Alexandra]

Finding phone conversations difficult is completely understandable. You're under pressure to keep the conversation going without awkward silences, and you can see the other person which cuts out a large part of communication from body language and facial expressions. I used to hate calling up people I didn't know in particular, until I had to do it a lot when job hunting a few years back. Practise makes perfect!

I still don't like phone conversations though. When I was a teenager, before MSN I'd spend hours on the phone to my friends. God knows how I could keep a conversation going that long without getting bored!! But now The thought of having to devote that time to one single thing without doing anything else makes me feel uneasy. So I can sympathise.

Hope it goes ok

[Aimee]

Thanks for the reply Alexandra.

My friend rang and we actually chatted for about an hour. It wasn't as bad as I thought and felt quite at ease once I got into the flow. It helped that I 'joked' that I am rubbish at phone conversations, which gave us something to giggle about and took a bit of the pressure off. 

[Noisy]

Woohoo! I'm glad it went well. I often find phone calls tricky and especially if I know they're coming. 

[Edward]

Are you more anxious about people calling you (as opposed to you calling them)?

I get something similar with meeting people in real life. I find I'm more anxious when they come to me (because I have to wait, and I have less control), whereas going to see them feels easier.