Reasons for Fear of Public Speaking

wimaowo

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My advice is to practice.

And my question to your fears is, " so what?"

It's all internal, you just have to come to terms with the fact that each of your fears has no consequence save for some embarrassment, to which you ask yourself, so what?
 

Paris Love

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Fear of making a mistake and people laughing at you.

With me, I decided the best cure for my fear of public speaking was to do it anyway. So I did. It didn't kill me. (I think.) And now I'm not scared any more.

Of course I still get butterflies, but they're closer to excitement than fear.

This! The adreline rush after nailing that presentation or talk or speech is better than any drug invented by man.

I'm kind of hooked on the attention I get when presenting in public now. Sure, there have been dreadfully bad and embarrassing times, but I draw upon that experience to make my fiction writing better. Basically, I never see any experience as negative if it can help me to connect to readers later.
 

dantefrizzoli

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I think a lot of public speaking fears come from fear of being judged, or fear of being wrong, or laughed at, which is something I am sure we all struggle with on some level.
 

Bolero

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I had done a few bits of public speaking and was always very nervous. I was then sent on a course by one job - it was various things on team work and organisation. Two things came from that:

1. There was a girl on our team who just kept saying "I'm useless at this I can't do it." We made her practice and practice and each time she did a fluff yelled "don't stop, keep going". Her actual talk in front of all the groups was not very good - wooden, stared at the clock, but she kept going from beginning to end, didn't fluff, didn't run out the room. "Her" group - us, told her how well she'd done compared to the practice sessions and pointed out that she had not made a fool of herself. No idea what happened to her, if she went on to better performances, but what she put over was perfectly acceptable and non-embarrassing - dull, but absolutely fine.

2. They video'd the presentations. I was very nervous, especially of being video'd. Did my best, thought I'd done OK - not waved my hands around, spoke clearly, remembered to look around the audience from time to time, all the things we'd been taught, but I thought it was obvious I was nervous. No it wasn't. On the video I was absolutely fine, looked much better than it had felt from the inside, and after that it has always been easier. Not a doddle, but OK.

So I'd recommend giving a practice speech to a video camera, to a couple of friends and a video camera.

Also have a few stock phrases ready for questions - if you don't know the answer, can you send it through afterwards? As in just say "I don't know the answer to that one, but I can get it for you, would you like to leave your details afterwards?"

Incidentally, one of Maureen Lipmann's humorous autobiography books - she was in a costume drama in a West End theatre. She is short sighted. She has never worn glasses on stage - and couldn't when in period costume anyway. She gets fitted for contact lenses and wears them on stage for the evening performance - and could see every face in the audience WATCHING HER. It was no longer a friendly audience blur, they were people WATCHING HER. Terrible stage fright and as soon as she could get into the wings and take out the contact lenses, she did.
 
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Jo Zebedee

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I have anxiety. Big time: panic attacks, life derailed for cycles. I also give public speeches which I don't, espcially, like (although I work as a lecturer and find that fine.) i also train people to do presentations.

Anxiety is one factor and can be very inhibiting. Most of it is low level - fear of making a mess, of freezing in front of people, of seeming like an eejit. But there are often more prosaic reasons - not being sure of an audience. Not being familiar with powerpoint, so fluffing the slides. Lack of knowledge of the subject. As Anne says, practice is a big overcomer of many of these barriers as is doing it regularly -but few have the luxury of that.
 

CrastersBabies

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Most people loathe speaking in public.
Most people get extremely nervous speaking in front of others.

I require my students to do one presentation and they all dread it.
Just remember you are in good company. And everyone's is rooting for you.
 

Okelly65

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I can not tell you why I hate it, But the moment I am standing there facing the crowd. I get chilled, my brain slides into neutral and my stomach knots up then climbs up my throat so that it can throttle my brain for putting it there in the first place.

Its not fear of sounding stupid, I suffer from foot in mouth disease all to often. :D
 

OJCade

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I hate public speaking, I really really hate it. It terrifies me. For years, all my teachers and lecturers have forced me to do it on a regular basis, all the while wittering that I'll get used to it.

They lie.

The only thing I've found that helps is alcohol. Sadly, a few shots before a talk does more good than imagining the audience naked or anything else.
 

heyjude

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Old thread, I know, but a great topic.

I've been told that the basis of fear of public speaking is ego. Put simply, I'm afraid people will like me less if I freeze, or tell a lame joke, or am generally bad at speaking. If I can put aside my ego and recognize that what I'm doing is bigger than me, it's easier.

For me, as someone else upthread said, speaking to individuals is much more likely to make my nerves go away than anything else. Picturing people in their underwear just does not work for me.

Also, another repeat, practice. Sunday I spoke in front of the biggest crowd of my life. Fortunately, I knew my material and even though I'd spent sleepless nights worried about it, it went very smoothly. I fervently hope to never do it again. :)
 

Silenia

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I don't fear public speaking, but I severely dislike it, moreso if there's an interactive part to it.

But in my case, the reason is pretty simple: moderate-to-severe hearing issues, depending on various matters including season, allergies, illness.

As a result, I very frequently can't judge if I'm talking too loud, too soft, if I'm mumbling, over-pronouncing, if I'm talking too fast, etc. Then at some point I notice and auto-correct, but slip back into one of the above pretty fast again.

If people can give comments or ask questions, nine times out of ten I can't properly hear what they're saying/asking and have to either venture a guess based on the words/syllables/sounds I could pick up, their visual cues and whatever little lip-reading I may be able to do over distance or ask them to repeat it (and likely still not hear fully what they're asking). (In face-to-face conversations, I estimate that I get by for about half on lipreading with most people)