July 3, 2025
Overcoming Phone Anxiety: 10 Strategies That Actually Work
Phone anxiety – otherwise known as “telephobia” – is an anxiety disorder that makes people feel afraid of making or receiving phone calls. Per one study, 42% of people experience some form of phone anxiety, with 9% seeing moderate to severe symptoms.
While no anxiety disorder should be taken lightly, there are positive steps you can take that may help to ease or entirely overcome these negative feelings.
What is phone anxiety? 😰
Lots of us have a general dislike of speaking on the phone. But that’s not the same thing as full-blown phone anxiety, in which people suffer anxious feelings around phone-based conversations.
Although people can experience phone anxiety in different ways, it’s often associated with a more general fear of being judged, criticized, and/or rejected.
As such, it has much in common with social anxiety disorder, which affects approximately 15 million American adults – making it the second most commonly diagnosed anxiety disorder.
10 strategies to get over phone anxiety 💪
The worst cases of phone anxiety may require professional help to overcome – and even then, the aversion to phone calls might remain. But people with less severe conditions can mitigate these negative feelings with positive thinking and plenty of practice. AI-based tools can also help phone conversations feel less intimidating.
Make low-pressure calls
Sometimes, the best approach is to face your fear. Making lots of low-pressure calls helps you feel more comfortable on the phone — so you’ll be in a better position when it’s time to deal with higher-stakes calls.
Keep it simple by starting with calls to friends and family. You don’t need a reason; a simple “just wondered how you were getting on” will do just fine. Once you’re feeling a little more at home on the phone, work up to calling colleagues and taking other business-related calls.
Set achievable goals
Rather than putting yourself under pressure to eradicate your phone anxiety overnight, set more manageable goals. Also, make them specific so it’s clear whether you’ve succeeded. For example:
❌ Hard to achieve, unspecific: “Stop sounding nervous on the phone”
✅ Easier to achieve, specific: “Have a five-minute phone conversation with a colleague”
Smile while taking calls
Try tricking yourself into feeling more comfortable on the phone by smiling when answering calls. That’s right — even a posed smile can make us feel happier, according to research published in the journal Nature Human Behavior. Similarly, adopting an open posture when taking a call helps you feel more comfortable, which may reduce tension and anxiety.
Picture successful outcomes
Another way to get yourself into a good mindset for a call is to imagine positive results. Focusing on all the things that can go right, rather than dwelling on potential problems and stressful moments, will naturally make you feel better about an upcoming phone conversation.
It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy, because if you go into a call feeling positive rather than anxious, it’s more likely to run smoothly.
Get support from AI tools
Feel stressed about the demands of answering a high volume of calls? Artificial intelligence can help to take the pressure off.
AI-powered call answering services like Rosie AI handle calls for you by answering FAQs, booking appointments, screening messages, and scheduling callbacks. All of which makes the task of answering phone calls feel a lot more manageable.
Plan talking points
As the old adage goes: “Fail to prepare, prepare to fail.”
If you don’t feel ready for a call, you’re more likely to stress about it — and that stress can lead to phone anxiety. So set yourself up for success by planning talking points in advance and trying to anticipate potential follow-up questions.
Practice deep breathing
Deep breathing – sometimes called “diaphragmatic breathing” – allows more air to reach your lungs. This has a range of benefits, from improving your attention span to reducing stress and anxiety.
But while it’s easy to start taking deeper breaths, it takes practice to unlock the benefits of deep breathing. Still, the more you do it, the more effective it’ll become.
Clinical neuropsychologist Kristoffer Rhoads recommends imagining an extremely stressful situation, then focusing on breathing from your stomach. Push your stomach out each time you inhale and count to three for each inhalation and exhalation. It might feel uncomfortable at first, but in time you should start feeling calmer.
Try not to overthink
If you’re a naturally anxious person, you’re more likely to overanalyze situations that others would simply brush off. This tendency can be heightened by phone conversations, where the lack of nonverbal cues can make it harder to understand how your comments are being interpreted.
While it’s hard to change embedded behaviors, try to get into the habit of shifting your focus to something else once you hang up the phone. That way, you’re less likely to dwell on mistakes (real or imagined).
Put mistakes in context
Speaking of mistakes, remember that no one’s perfect.
Sure, you might have tripped over your words or accidentally called someone “Mark” instead of “Mike”, but it’s hardly the end of the world.
Remember that while these things might seem like a big deal at the time, the other person might not even have noticed – and if they did, they’ likely don’t care.
Reward yourself after a successful call
Speaking on the phone is a legitimate reason to feel anxious. So when you get through a call successfully, treat yourself to a little self-care – whether that’s a stroll around the park, 15 minutes of Yoga With Adriene, or even a quick power nap. Over time, you’ll learn to associate phone calls with rewards, which should help you feel more positively toward them.
What causes phone anxiety? 🤔
Phone anxiety often stems from a general fear of being judged or rejected during calls. In this way, it’s similar to performance anxiety (otherwise known as “stage fright”). The inability to pick up nonverbal cues can also feel uncomfortable. And if you’re an extreme introvert, speaking on the phone can leave you drained, similar to other social interactions.
Difficulty picking up nonverbal cues
You might have heard that 90% of communication is nonverbal. While that’s not actually true, there’s no denying that things like eye contact, hand gestures, and smiling have a huge influence on how we react to people and information.
When you’re speaking to someone on the phone, you can’t pick up any of that stuff. Plus it’s also more difficult to perceive verbal cues (like tone of voice). We might feel like we’re guessing at the other person’s reaction, which can be pretty anxiety-inducing.
Performance anxiety
Telephobia is similar to stage fright: we feel anxious because we’re scared of negative reactions from our “audience”. Stage fright causes a fight-or-flight response that releases adrenaline, often prompting physical symptoms like a soaring heart rate and dry mouth. All of which makes us feel super anxious.
Extreme introversion
An estimated 65% – 75% of people are extroverted, meaning somewhere between one-quarter and one-third are introverted – and some of those are extreme introverts.
Extreme introversion can leave people feeling exhausted after any type of social interaction. Phone conversations can be especially challenging, particularly when combined with associated difficulties like a lack of nonverbal cues.
Feeling judged
Just like how posing for a photo makes you feel super aware of your hands, speaking on the phone practically forces you to fixate on your verbal communication. Are you being too loud or quiet? Speaking too fast or slow? Breathing too heavily? Honestly, it’s a minefield.
This sort of hyper-focus inevitably makes us feel like the person at the other end of the phone is judging everything we say and do – even though they almost certainly aren’t.
Struggling to be "present"
A good phone manner requires us to be 100% in the moment. Otherwise, you’ll sound hurried, distracted, disinterested – or all of the above. So if you’ve got other stuff on your mind – like, for instance, the fact that phone calls make you nervous – you’re less likely to feel present during the call.
As a result, you end up feeling even more anxious. And it only gets worse as the conversation progresses and you struggle to keep up with everything being said.
How phone anxiety can hurt your business 📉
Speaking on the phone is essential for lots of businesses. You might need to do outbound calling to reach new customers, generate leads, and confirm appointments. Plus customers might call you to ask questions about your business and products. Phone anxiety makes dealing with all that stuff a whole lot harder.
Damages the customer experience
Unfortunately, the person on the other end of the phone doesn’t know that you struggle with phone anxiety. You might be trying your best to sound helpful and attentive, yet they may think you sound unenthusiastic, dismissive, or just plain rude.
Sure, that was never your intention. But that’s not the point – what matters is the customer feeling like they’ve had a negative experience. At best, they might view your business less positively; at worst, they might spend their money elsewhere.
They might even tell their friends…
Causes more negative reviews
Negative customer experiences often lead to bad reviews. In fact, one study found that after a bad experience…
👉 46.7% of Americans tell a friend
👉 17.1% write about it on Facebook
👉 11.1% comment on or rate the company on a review site
By contrast, just 27% don’t tell anyone.
This is a big problem for businesses, because reviews and word-of-mouth have a huge influence on our purchase decisions. Indeed, 98% of shoppers say reviews are an essential resource when choosing whether to buy something.
Reduces sales and revenue
Over time, poor customer experiences and bad reviews will damage your bottom line – because people simply won’t trust you to do a good job. You might even end up cutting prices to win more business, eating into your revenue and profit margins.
The cruel irony of all this is that, if you struggle with phone anxiety, you’re likely to worry about all these negative outcomes way more than a non-anxious person. And the more you worry, the more anxious you feel.
The bottom line ✍️
It’s easy to dismiss phone anxiety, but it’s a serious problem that can have serious consequences for your business.
Fortunately, there are a lot of potential ways to mitigate or overcome telephobia. Physical exercises – like smiling and deep breathing – can “trick” the body into feeling more positive, and you can also switch your mindset through mental tactics like setting achievable goals and picturing successful outcomes.
The best approach for most people is to simply answer more calls. But if you're feeling overwhelmed, remember you can leverage AI solutions – like an answering service or virtual receptionist – to ease the burden of dealing with constant customer queries.