I used to hate them to a phobic degree, now I just hate them. I really dislike how much people are dismissing this. If I hated spiders, people wouldn't say "Oh you're just covering up an anxiety disorder".

Hang on - people aren't dismissing this as trivial; they're saying it's a common phobia (which is a form of anxiety disorder) and that there's good news: phobia is very treatable with a short course of therapy. That's freely available in England with short wait times.

Sure, but why should you treat it if it is not a disorder?

I think it is more a design issue with phones (than it is a phobia like for spiders).

Or rather: It is more a situation like if phones also happens to spew out huge spiders all over you in addition to letting you communicate remotely, and people get phobia as a result.

Why should I accept being woken up in the middle of the night for spam? Is this good design?, should I be "treated" to accept it?

Why should I be available 24/7 all the time for work? (design for PTSD?, more treatment yay...)

How come I can't use a secure medium to communicate to banks, or other services. (completely insane way to communicate securely)

The real insanity here: Forcing all people to use ancient remote voice communication and pretending it is even remotely secure. It might have been good enough way back, probably the only option, not so much in the current age of spam and digital communication.

There is a difference between disliking something, and having an adrenaline-driven fight or flight fear response to something.

OP doesn't just dislike phones that ring in the middle of the night. OP dislikes phones all day every day, and dislikes them to the extent that he has a physical reaction to them.

Also, I'm not saying that OP must get treatment. I've given OP a strategy to continue to avoid using phones if they want to do so: OP can using UK law to force companies to make "reasonable adjustments". OP can say they have a phone phobia, but OP may face resistance if he says that so he could say he has a hearing impairment. Companies should have things in place to make reasonable adjustments for people with hearing impairment.

Yes, I was half joking and only half serious. I would probably qualify for phone phobia myself and I also definitely prefer not to treat it with government programs or similar. Thus my answer.

As some other guy said: the only time people call is if they want something from you. Yes, but then I prefer to not be force to make an decision on the spot, rather think one minute and then answer, or preferable not be disturbed to begin with.

Some other guy quoted Scott Adams; And I agree "all phone calls have a victim, i.e. the person receiving the call".

So yes, I could qualify for phone phobia, but I don't think there is anything wrong with it, It is rather strange how people think phones are so natural and good, and must be used. No, they are horrible and tools of evil.

And I'd rather not have a formal diagnose with a paper/digital trail of such a "sensitive" issue as hating phones, I prefer not be sucked into the mental health industry as a patient, prefer not doing the CBT training with exposure to phones or whatever, and I would not be forcing my employer to make even resonable adjustments (I'd rather adjust my employment to something else)

It's done over the phone, isn't it?

If a ringing phone or a knock on the door causes you stress, rather than diagnose I’ll simply say: it doesn’t have to be that way. One can be focused while simultaneously not jumping at the sound of a ringing phone.

admittedly, although i also wouldn't class it as a mental disorder, i don't like using the phone. interestingly, i find i often have to have a cigarette to calm myself down before making or answering an important call...

How can a phone ringing not ruin your focus? Maybe you never actually focus on anything, and so do not understand the phenomenon?

Some of us have a different problem, which is that our focus can endanger us or ruin our marriages. For us, it is easy to tune out things going on around us like phone calls, houses burning down, or our spouse repeating the same question with escalating irritation...

this is not ruined focus:

> Recently, when I was at mum’s alone, the house phone rang. I didn’t answer it. It rang again immediately. I didn’t answer it. It rang again immediately. I stood over it, willing it to stop, palms sweating.

I guess managers are a disorder then.