*hands u hot cocoa and hugs*
Look, I have a similar problem, but for me it's the act of calling someone (I'm about to cry every time I have to contact the customer service of something). I learnt that writing down some notes can help me a lot, also taking some deep breaths, having a tea or a drink you enjoy in general before doing the thing helps too.
Perhaps focusing on something else for a while could work, I mean, relaxing your mind and then face the thing with a calmer approach. A friend with strong anxiety issues has a very specific ringtone for unknown numbers, that helps her a lot! She put a song that she generally associate with positive things, something very calm.

Yeah, I have the problem with calling someone too, especially if they are total strangers to me :x
I was thinking of just blocking the incoming calls from strangers but that might only deepen my fear :0
buuut, the nice ringtone is a thought!

Ahh, I swear I don't know what I'd do without the internet. It's so comforting to know that there are others out there who have the same quirks I do. Me, I'd rather shower, get dressed, and go halfway across town to talk to someone in person just so I can avoid calling them on the phone. It's completely ridiculous, but a simple phone conversation (even with family and friends) can cause soooo much anxiety. Thankfully my loved ones are rad and understand completely, so I can get away with texting or email most the time until we're in person ;p

I don't know if I had the phone fear before this, but when I was 19 I worked at a call center for a blood bank. Our job was to call previous donors and try to convince them to come back and give more blood once they were able. So it was kind of like being a telemarketer for a good cause. But that didn't stop people from being jackasses. Long story short, I ended up being terrible at my job because of how I'd seize up. I think the fear always existed, but having that job just made everything so much worse - and it's something I never really got over, even 11 years later.

But yeah, you're not alone. I literally never answer the phone unless I know exactly who it is. The only advice I can offer, which is hypocritical of me because I don't follow it myself, is to just face your fear and use the phone as much as possible. Eventually, the fear will dull to a manageable level and you can function somewhat normally. I know it works because my husband has phone phobia as well. It used to be pretty bad, but his career forces him to do it .. or get replaced, you know? Over the past five years he's overcome it quite a bit. He still dislikes it, but he's able to do it without having any kind of anxiety attack.

Honestly though, in this day and age, so long as you're able to gather the courage in absolute emergencies to pick up that phone, it's really not a big deal if you don't deal with it directly with your career. So don't stress too much. We all have our little quirks <3

*Hugs*

I really don't like talking on phones, I end up rambling so much and get embarresed :/ I haven't had panic attacks but i've let my phone ring on many, many occasions :/

one time we kept getting this phone call from some weird number, over and over, about around the 4 days or week
so i did some research on the number, seemed it was a number that came up on normal house phone if someone send a sms to it.
so all in all it was nothing really to be worried about just annoying