The Fear Of Answering The Telephone

I will always remember the day that my problems answering the phone first started. The night before had been one hell of a disaster, in fact looking back now it could actually sound quite funny to the people who read this article however I can assure you that what happened was less than funny to me. I had been out on a first date with a rather attractive girl that I had met in a nightclub the weekend before. The date was a complete washout, for some reason she did not take to me, perhaps because I could hardly string a sentence together. Whatever the reason it was obvious that things were not going well so I decided to call it a night. I asked her if she wanted me to drive her home and she answered in the positive. On the journey to her house I was stopped by the police for absolutely no reason other than the fact I had been to a bar. They asked if I had been drinking, I hadn’t and therefore had nothing to worry about. So why could I not speak to them? I just could not get a word out and was stuttering uncontrollably. The policeman thought I was drunk and made me take a breathalyser test!

The next morning I was angry at many things; life, stuttering, the police and that young lady from last night! My confidence was rather low and then the telephone started to ring. I went to answer it but for whatever reason could not say the word “Hello”. It was crazy, what must the other person have thought of me?

This simple start led me to have continual problems when trying to answer the phone for the next six months; it was one hell of a tough time and one that I would not wish on my worst enemy.