Lived Experience Forum

[tyme]

I'm sorry to hear @Minerva ,

Sounds so difficult, yet your view is inspirational. 

Thank you for sharing. I can see how these glitches can affect the most vulnerable people.

Can you explain a little more what you mean by accessing the phone is a barrier for you? Do you mean you prefer text based supports?

[Minerva]

Yeah @tyme  for some reason i have huge anxiety around making phone calls. It’s bizarrew

[tyme]

Join the club @Minerva ! I don't like phones... I mean, I do it, but I don't like it. I also have a lot of anxiety around calls, so that's totally understandable.

Hence I'm here on text-based communication!

Now it's about finding what works for you if phones don't 🙂

[Minerva]

@tyme it helps if I have someone with me if I have phone , and I am ok with making phone calls for other people and weirdly  can do video conferencing if I have time to settle my head.

any tips? 

[tyme]

Hey @Minerva ,

For me, I do a lot of self-talk. I literally take deep breaths before a call and just dial the number. After working on phone lines, including SANE, I still find I need to take deep breaths!

I recognise phones are not for everyone, and that's okay too. 

When things moved from f2f to telehealth during covid, it took some time to get used to. Then once it moved to phone, it was awkward. After a few sessions (quite a few), it got easier... then my psychologist decided to start zoom f2f, so that was another step!

I seems like every new mode I use needs time to get used to, but I'm certainly most comfy via text.