I'm at the point where I very, very desperately need to be in therapy and on meds but I have the worst phone anxiety. Like I literally start sweating and babbling and my hands shake so bad I can barely hold the phone. Pretty much no therapist anywhere close to me (or in this ass backwards country in general, it looks like) books appointments via e-mail so I have to call. I can't make anyone else call for me bc they either have phone anxiety too, social anxiety or just tell me how bad I have it without really wanting to help. I've been told going to my GP for help with that is a waste of time, so that option is out too and I really don't know what to do. I tried scripting something to say first but people always mess up what I was going to say and then I get shaky and embarrassing again... So, any idea on how I could get help? I mean I know they get anxious people calling all the time, probably, but I can't even make myself call because I'm so scared of being judged or not being taken serious because I can't string together a sentence.
You've probably already thought of this, but do any of the therapists have cell phones with which they could receive texts?
Do you know anyone who could make the call on your behalf? The therapist might ask them to pass the phone over to you to confirm your identity and that you’ve given your permission for them to speak for you, but that’s easier to script than an entire phone call
I am petrified of phone calls, not helped by the fact that trying to make sense of language over the phone is twice as bad at LEAST as trying to understand people talking in person. Unfortunately, my job requires that I call and schedule things semi-regularly. Between that and what therapy I received before I stopped being able to go, here's what advice I can provide: -- They definitely aren't judging you. They are too busy focusing on their own end of the phone conversation to worry about judging your end. -- Don't worry about what to say. All you have to be able to do is answer very obvious questions that you will be like "oh yes, I know this, I can answer this!" (can you remember your name? you've got this! :D) -- Really, once you say you are calling to make an appointment, they will steer everything else (they will ask anything else they need to know in the order they want to know it, you aren't expected to be able to see through the phone and know what their information profile looks like! it is okay to wait to be asked and not know what's going on when you haven't done this before. It is helpful for me to know I can basically shut my brain off and let them do the prompting.) -- If you do babble or cry on the phone or something, that's okay too. It will not be the first time it has happened to them and they will talk you through it. We can even be crying-to-our-phones together friends.
Update: I still can't make a phone call but I tried reaching out to a number of therapists as well as to two state run organizations that are supposed to help you with things like making appointment and helping with the paperwork etc via email. No one's responding, even after multiple emails in a couple of places. Texting isn't an option, no one does that here, apparently. I'm considering snail mail at this point, if only I didn't have exactly zero money, not even for stamps. Great how the system just systematically fails mentally ill people
I don't know if this would be remotely comfortable for you, but if you're in the U.S. I could mail you some stamps if you'd like. I recently unearthed 19 forever stamps while cleaning my room. I can only guess that I bought 20 at some point and only needed one. I have easy access to more stamps so they've just been sitting forgotten. If you'd like, you could contact me via private conversation on Kintsugi with an address, and I will mail the stamps with all haste. I promise that I will keep no other record of the address. I'd totally understand if you'd rather not take some internet rando's word for that though, or if this just isn't something you're interested in. In any case I'm so sorry you're in this position. I completely agree that the system drastically fails mentally ill people at every turn. It makes me extremely angry.
I don't know if it's an easier option for you, but would you be able to go to their office in person and make an appointment?
Oh man, people here are so nice! I'll be checking it out seebs, but so far it looks out of my price range even with the discount I'd get for not having money. @Verily Sadly I'm not in the US, but thank you so, so much for offering. Maybe they can be useful for someone else who needs them. In any way, it was incredibly nice of you to offer! @Alaspooralice Hmm, I'll keep that in mind as a last resort. It'd probably make me reeeeally panicey too but I guess any future therapist of mine's gotta get used to that anyway so I could try to do that. Thank you for pointing me towards an option I haven't considered before. -- Thanks for the advice and nice words! My course of action now is going to be to email my health care provider *again* to see if they are going to help me out, if I don't get a response from them via a few days I'll do the thing and just go there in person. And change insurance because I pay a whole bunch of money and they're not helping me with a healthcare related service they should be providing and just... aren't. While also not responding to correspondence from one of their clients, which is pretty unexceptionable.
I'm glad I could be helpful! I hope they respond to you so you can avoid going down in person. And if it comes to that I hope you don't get too anxious. Best of luck!!!
Another update: One of the organizations that are supposed to help getting appointments and so on e-mailed back. And they even offered to have someone visit me at home, if that's easiest for me! They weren't dismissive about the phone anxiety or the fact that I go non-verbal sometimes either, which I'm taking as a good sign. So it seems that if I'm not chickening out (I won't, I'm so sick of living like) this I'm *finally* getting somewhere! Thanks, Kintsugi. I don't think I would've been brave enough to approach anyone without this place!
