Does hearing the phone ring make you panic? Does the thought of making a call give you cold sweats?

　　你是否听到电话铃声就会恐慌?一想到打电话是否冷汗连连?

　　We’re rarely separated from our mobile phones these days, but many people still suffer from a true, deep fear of making a phone call. Recognised as an offshoot of social anxiety disorder, telephobia afflicts people across countries and generations.

　　如今，我们和手机形影不离，但是很多人依然饱受真实而又严重的电话恐惧的折磨。电话恐惧症被视作社会焦虑症的分支，世界各地各年龄段的人都遭到它的折磨。

　　Those who suffer from telephobia might be comfortable delivering a talk in a room full of strangers or might send dozens of text messages a day, but get shivers when they need to talk on the phone.

　　那些饱受电话恐惧症折磨的人，可能在充满陌生人的房间里递送电话或者一天发几十条短信时很舒服，但当要求他们在电话里交谈时，就颤抖起来。

　　Technologies that enable communication without directly speaking to someone, have made it easier to mask the problem of telephobia. As a result, the problem has become harder to spot, and there’s no hard data on the prevalence of telephobia. Ultimately, the fear of talking on the phone can have disastrous results for productivity or job mobility.

　　科技使得我们无须直接面谈就能进行交流。这很容易掩饰电话恐惧症的问题。因此，问题变得越来越难发现，对于电话恐惧症的蔓延也没有确切的数据。最终，通电话的恐惧会对生产力和工作流动造成毁灭性的后果。

　　Telephobia has been around well before the advent of smartphones. George Dudley and Shannon Goodson wrote The Psychology of Sales Call Reluctance in 1986. In his 1929 autobiography, British poet and writer Robert Graves writes about developing a deep fear of using the telephone after suffering an injury while serving in the First World War.

　　在手机出现以前，电话恐惧症就已经很普遍了。1986年，乔治·达德利和古德森撰写了《排斥电话销售心理学》。在英国诗人兼作家罗伯特1929年的自传中，他提到自从效力一战并且受伤以后，他对使用电话就产生了深深的恐惧。

　　In some cultures, people are apprehensive about talking on the phone, says Michael Landers, global director of Culture Crossing, a consultancy which advises groups and individuals working in a global context.

　　Culture Crossing是一家咨询公司，为在全球范围内工作的团队和个人提供咨询，它的全球总监麦克尔兰德斯说，在一些文化中，人们担心在电话中交谈。

　　“In Japan there is a hesitancy [regarding] talking to someone you don’t know — they don’t want to offend someone or lose face,” says Landers. In Indonesia, where the average person sends about a hundred text messages every day, he says people are just less comfortable making calls.

　　兰德斯说：“在日本，和陌生人交谈让人犹豫。他们不想冒犯某人也不想丢脸。在印度尼西亚，每人平均每天发送上百条短信，这仅仅因为打电话不太舒服。

　　Landers says that across cultures the fear of the phone closely relates to a fear of being rejected, whether that means asking for an appointment with someone or trying to close a deal.

　　兰德斯说，在跨文化中，对电话的恐惧和对拒绝的恐惧紧密相关，无论这是否意味着请求和某人约会或者试图解决一个问题。

　　Most therapists use an approach rooted in cognitive behavioral therapy to help patients overcome their fear of the phone. Isenstadt asks patients to identify the anxious thoughts they have about talking on the phone and walks them through worse case scenarios.

　　大多数治疗师使用根植于认知行为的治疗方法来帮助患者克服对电话的恐惧。Isenstadt要求患者识别他们关于电话交谈的焦虑想法，并引导他们经历更糟糕的情况。

　　“We’re helping their mind realise it’s OK and not dangerous,” she says. Eventually they build up to making low stakes calls like ordering a pizza.

　　她说：“我们在帮助他们放松。没关系，这并不危险。”最终，他们开始打一些低风险的电话，比如点匹萨。

（编辑：何莹莹）