Does anybody else have trouble making phone calls and talking to people?
So I had to make a phone call. They need to send back a form to the office but the office has their protocol and that other place has a protocol and of course they conflict and both would not budge. They will not send the form directly back to the office and will not have contact with a 3rd party, only the account holder (me). So last year they never sent the form back and the office let it slide because they were behind on their paperwork. But this year, they would not let it slide since this needs to be done once a year, every year (verification) and they can’t let me slide on this every year.
Talking to each one individually yielded no results- each demanded the other follow their protocols and neither would budge. I’ve been postponing contacting that place for literally 6 weeks. I finally managed to get myself to make the call 2 weeks ago. But I couldn’t get a live person on the line so I just gave up. I told myself to call again but I couldn’t muster up the courage to call till today.
I finally called today and got ahold of someone and after going back and forth, how they can’t do it as they have their protocol, she mentioned I could be on conference call with the office (office is not allowed to contact them directly). So I ran downstairs and put them on speaker. The person at the office yielded and allowed the other place to follow their protocol.
Anyway, the specifics are not what this post is about. It’s about being so socially inept, of being so stressed out at having to make a phone call that I literally postponed calling for over a month. It needed to be done so finally I called today. Thankfully, the girl on the line this time was nicer and more patient than the previous woman I spoke to last year when I had to do this and she was okay with being on conference call or speaker to speak to the office directly.
Anyhow, long story short, it turned out not to be as bad as I thought, better than getting nowhere last year. But still- the point is- why can’t I just make a phone call and talk to someone? It’s not just this but I dread having to make phone calls in general. I get stressed out if I have to call some office or business. Like what is wrong with me that I get stressed out and dread having to call and talk to someone? I literally could not get myself to make that call for 6 whole weeks. I only forced myself to finally do it today because the deadline for the form to be sent back is coming up.
Does anybody else get this stressed out over having to make a phone call? Or postpone calling for weeks? I feel like wtf is wrong with me that I can’t do it. Normal people just pick up the phone and that’s that. But it took me 6 fucking weeks to do it. Like what is wrong with me? Why can’t I “just do it”?
6 comments
Yes. It may not be a phone call, but yes, there are situations I dread and avoid because of the contact and how uncomfortable they make me. I have to psyche myself up, and oh yes, there are the “practice” sessions, where I practice what needs to be said, over and over again, because making a mistake is unacceptable.
Yeah. I know what you mean.
The problem with me is that it’s not every once in a while- it’s nearly all the time. It’s hard to function like that.
Yes, it is hard. Very hard.
But remember: All companies care about you a great deal. Your call is important to them. Someone will answer your call in the order it was received, then promptly hang up on you, because it is 11:00 a.m., and time for a ten minute break. And – here’s the best part – by answering your call and hanging up immediately, the reports that are generated by the I.T. people will show that the rep successfully completed a phone call with you, and they keep their quota of “answered phone calls” near its goal.
Yes. I utterly loathe talking on the phone for any reason. It’s one of the things that drove my ex nuts (who insisted on calling me for every little thing, at least twice a day)
This is perfectly “normal” for a person with autism or Asperger’s and probably other syndromes. I can relate. Do you happen to have any of that? If so, there’s nothing to “worry” about as you aren’t alone or unique in this (in a bad way).
I don’t think there’s anything you can do about it, and most people won’t understand it either. We just lack something in the brain that can deal with this. It’s not a choice any more than “refusing to see” is a choice for mentally-blind people (those with healthy eyes but no ability to ever see because the brain lacks such function), yet people insist to tell us to man up or snap out of it, that’s what pisses me off.