Become less nervous around the telephone

I have real problems with the phone. My Dad’s a doctor, and when I was a kid we were forbidden under pain of death to pick up the phone in case it was a patient. I ended up very scared of getting into trouble for using the phone myself.

These days, I’m still very uncomfortable around telephones. I use the phone at work OK, although I will default to email at the slightest provocation, but my dislike of the telephone means I don’t call my friends and family enough, and I have real trouble calling the bank, the council, booking tables in restaurants and so on. I’m going to make an effort to do it more; to use email less and to ask my husband to call people for me less.