Recent survey finds over half of Canadians are anxious when phoning a stranger

Have you ever felt anxious about calling someone you’ve never chatted with before? If so, you are in the same boat as over half of Canadians who share the exact same concern.

According to an online survey from Research CO, 53% of Canadians feel anxious when making a phone call to someone they don’t know – that figure jumps to 66% when examining the results from those aged 18-34.

Shirley Hogan with the Canadian Mental Health Association’s Northern BC branch explains how some people, especially in the younger demographics may be more comfortable communicating via text message instead of dialing out.

“With a text message, you can always change it, you can fix it and re-arrange it so before you actually say it, and is in your mind perfect. When you are having a conversation of course, it never goes quite the same way.”

“That could be a part of what is happening to folks that are a little bit younger and more used to sending text messages and options to correct themselves before they actually send it or say it.”

Hogan added these types of results are likely a by-product of some of the lockdown measures during the pandemic, however, there are resources out there to tackle this such as the Bounce Back program.

“100% I think that is certainly having an impact. I think also that we need to understand and maybe unpack this idea of a call to a stranger and what may be underneath it. There is so much anxiety that people are feeling right now around so many things in our world that sometimes it’s hard for us to pinpoint what the actual anxiety is about.”

“We all feel anxious at certain times and it’s important that we do have those conversations so that we can hope to manage our anxiety and part of that is understanding you are not alone and many people feel similar to this.”

Furthermore, the kind of words we speak when talking with someone who has anxiety matters just as much.

“Our language is really important and sometimes we use the word anxious, instead of like uneasy or a little bit uncomfortable. Sometimes we can get these surveys that come through that make it sound like our levels of anxiety are becoming uncontrollable.”

On the topic of text messages and emails, 46% of people polled believe this form of communication is impersonal while 47% disagreed.

When breaking down the data by province, nearly half of those polled in Saskatchewan and Manitoba more likely thought emails and text messages were impersonal. That figure was slightly less in BC at 47%.

In addition, over a third of Canadians would opt to make a phone call if they had to question their municipality or city hall. Over four in ten Canadians would also call their bank when they have an inquiry.

Hogan added that those dealing with anxiety can access the Mental Health Association’s Bounce Back program.

A link to the survey can be found here.