I think this subject is the one which I get asked about almost more than any other, so I am going to “reprint” an old article I had published a while back and hope it is of some help.
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I read some time ago that a number of folk would preferably be anywhere, even in their coffin, than have to speak in public. I think that takes the dread to an extreme, but it makes the point, if a little dramatically, that nearly everyone does indeed dread the call to talk in public.
Let me begin by saying that I am a cured sufferer of all sorts of anxiety disorders and also have done a great amount of public speaking, so I unquestionably have a foot in both camps and understand the issue very well. My disorder lasted almost 13 years, in the course of which time I amassed a wealth of experience, a lot of it my own of course, but also a lot gleaned from respected authorities and fellow sufferers.
As a rule, people who you go to see/hear public speaking exude ultimate confidence, but believe me when I tell you that is not at all times the case, and what you are seeing may be, in a manner of speaking, the unruffled swan gliding along the stream, but what you are not seeing is all the frantic activity beneath the water!.
I have to tell you that in EVERY case, my own public speaking was each time preceeded by extreme anxiety, even when I did not have my disorder. There was even a period when younger, that I was so terrified by the idea of public speaking that I would have done anything to get away from having to do it.
I managed to beat it by placing myself into scenarios where I HAD to public speak and it was this which ultmately cured my phobia.
However, even these days I still develop the same anxiety “blast” so to speak, its I just that have learned to manage it to help me to talk better, and that is more or less what I will go into here. Being in CONTROL, or FEELING you are in control – this is at the root of everything.
But, before doing that, I want to cover just a small part of what the anxiety disorder sufferer can do to manage things when they have to speak in public. Their dread is created by the actuality that they believe, or dread, they will have an attack during their speech and be publicly made a fool of. They worry they will be in the public view, their disorder exposed to their audience, and with nobody to assist or help them. You need to understand those fears have got to be shown to be without foundation, which indeed they most certainly are.
Very simple techniques can be learned so you have the silver bullets to combat this awful fear, and I will use the following as an illustration of one such method. It is by and large the “getting going” which is the most awful part of the speech to overcome, and its the fear of fear itself which needs working on and got rid of. In most cases, when people can get into their stride so to speak, everything starts to go well.
What I did, as soon as I stood up, was to get some sort of feedback or interaction with the audience. Perhaps ask them was the sound and/or lighting ok for them, or did my microphone work ok, ask them if it was not too loud or, the simplest of all, could they all see me properly from wherever they may be sitting.
This broke the ice for me, and what it did was to give me the feeling that it was ME in control – you should read that again. That is one of the biggest fears which public speakers have got to overcome. They feel they will be trapped in the glare of publicity like a moth in the flame and will have no control over what is happening to them.
Very simply just work out a way for YOU to be able to assert control. Just as the person who can manage a skidding auto will have no problems with driving in adverse weather conditions, because they know deep down that they are in control no matter what happens, so it is the same with public speaking and panic attacks.
It is important to rationalise the fact that no injury will happen to the public speaker. It is not hazardous to get up and talk in public. You will not be immediately shot on sight!.
No one from your audience is going to leap up and attack you. Your clothes will all not suddenly disappear or fall off leaving you naked and exposed!. You may well be smiling now whilst reading this, but I have to tell you that I know personally of people who have had such phobias and fears and imaginings.
And there is another way to be in control, and that is to prepare properly, know in advance exactly what you are going to say, have a prompt card to keep you on track, all geared towards asserting your control, TO YOURSELF.
There is one hugely important thing which I learned when I had my anxiety disorder, and that was that I needed to find the root cause of the disorder in order to rid myself of it. The same thing applies to the terror of public speaking, and/or the dread of having an anxiety attack whilst speaking in public.
You need to go to the root cause, address that and the anxiety will go away. By anxiety here I mean the actual anxiety disorder. In the vast majority of cases, once in control, being anxious before speaking in public will actually make sure that one does a good job. Ask anyone in the public eye, even well known public figures, and they will all admit to having real nerves before appearing or speaking in public.
What some will also admit is that they never get over those fears. What they do however is learn how to use the adrenalin rush which the anxiety creates to their own advantage, making them even better performers as a result. They simply MANAGE their fear. We are back to that word CONTROL again.
And that is what the fear of public speaking can do also i.E. Make you perform even better if you feel YOU are in control, and you can learn how to do that
I cannot stress this point enough, as it is by feeling in control when you stand up that you will start to master the panic attack fear. You should also remember as I have stated above, that it is a fear, or an anxiety, held by virtually all public speakers, no matter how proficient they make look, or how confident they come over. So you are NOT alone.
Over the years I became a very proficient, and much in demand speaker, and I proved to myself that ANYONE can master their public speaking fears. It is like any other skill which can be learned, and you do that by learning from those who have mastered it.
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You will find the answer to the overall problem of ALL sorts of Anxiety Disorders, including Public Speaking, by going here so you can PERMANENTLY banish your PUBLIC SPEAKING FEARS
