Phonephobic

I have a friend with whom I exchange emails almost daily. She expressed recently that she feels like she should call me, since I'm at such a bleak point in my life, but since "both of us hate the phone" she hesitates to do that. She's right. I hate talking on the phone. I just did a brief Google of my problem, and apparently I'm not alone. (Wikipedia helpfully informs me that it may be a sign of bipolar disorder.) I like talking to people face-to-face. I even enjoy public speaking - I like being the center of attention. I have no problem calling businesses. But calling people I actually know is really hard for me, and I don't know why. The internets indicate that this kind of phobia is often basically a fear of rejection, which I guess could be true. I find it really uncomfortable to talk to people without the visual and physical cues of a face-to-face conversation. And I REALLY loathe talking to people when either of us are on a cellphone, especially when either of us are doing other things at the same time, with background noise and distractions galore.