Managing Anxiety While Making Phone Calls

@pastelolly thank you so, so much. It does kind of help to step back and remember that these people are just doing their job, and I'm not the first or last person they're going to talk to today. I also really do think I'm going to get out some of my fidgets and see if any of them help. Thanks so much!

@JumpingMouse thank you. I'm going to try and repeat that to myself in between calls. Maybe it will help. I definitely appreciate the vote of confidence.❤️

@BeetleBug I make my calls during the day when it's fairly peaceful and quiet, with no distractions. At least, with very few distractions, considering I have two dogs and two cats. Lol I hadn't thought about using one of my fidgets while making these calls. Which, is kind of weird, because that's what I would do at work when I had to answer phones at the receptionist desk, or go to meetings, or whatever. Perhaps I will get out a few of them and see if any of them help while I try to make these phone calls. Thanks a lot for the suggestions. I appreciate it.

@ApricotJam I'm so sorry to hear that phone calls are that bad for you. I know that part of my problem is that I take care of my 80-year-old completely blind father, and even though I'm partially blind, it falls on me to do literally any calling that needs to be done. Scheduling appointments, contacting home insurance or home warranty whenever something needs repairing, a finding somebody to do installations etc around the house. All of it. And I can list those examples easily because those are the calls I've been making this week. We got a new dog door, and I need to find someone to install it, but I've been just sitting here looking at the Google search results for local businesses and feeling extremely overwhelmed. Right this moment, I've got this weird feeling like my skin is crawling on my scalp, or possibly like it's crawling inside my head. I know it's not actually doing either of those things, but it's that kind of feeling, and that's the best way I can put it. but yeah, hopefully we can both find something that helps us out with the phone call stress. Lol

@tiredtarantula I tends to take a lot of notes when I'm on the phone, which I always thought was an ADHD thing so I wouldn't forget anything, but now that I'm thinking about it I also think that it helps me remove myself from the anxiety of the call a little bit. And it really doesn't even matter what the call is, I feel mild anxiety when I'm about to call my best friend to see if she wants to hang out. It's just a much more obvious struggle when I have a week like this when I have a whole lot of phone calls that have to be made. I might try writing out my intro like you suggested, and see if that helps. I really appreciate it.