I’ve hugely improved my social anxiety except phone calls. Years ago I was so socially anxious and couldn’t talk at all. Right now I’m much more confident and am even looking at a job that involves a lot of interacting with people. I genuinely would consider myself extroverted, which is something I never thought I’d be
Even though I’ve improved, I still cannot do phone calls. I feel so awkward and uncomfortable. I had a phone assessment earlier and it went horribly. I messed it up so bad and I’m cringing.
Basically as she was talking for long periods I didn’t know how to respond. If I stay silent will she think I’m not listening??? Do I acknowledge her as she’s talking? I did that in the first half but it felt awkward saying “okay” and “yeah” every 15 seconds. I just kept responding robotically in one word sentences. It didn’t feel natural. Face to face I can talk well, but that phone call was so painful. It lasted half and hour and I sounded like a bad AI the entire time
The worst part is, at the end I said bye but she continued talking. She went silent and as I was about to hang up she said “good luck with the exams”. It surprised me so instead of saying thanks, I just said bye again. I literally just ignored her and didn’t even say thanks. It was so unbelievably awkward. She felt it too because I then heard her laugh and then said “okay bye then” and hang up
I’m cringing so hard. I fucked it up so bad she literally laughed at me. I already felt awkward the whole time and that made it worse