Performance Anxiety

Performance anxiety is a very broad term and covers topics as diverse as giving a speech to sexual performance. 

You have probably heard it said that people fear public speaking more than death. For some this is true: I remember having to do a speech at school and wanting more than anything to be struck down with a serious illness instead of having to do it. 

From an evolutionary perspective it is argued that this fear relates to our need to not be kicked out of our social group. Many ions ago, being rejected by your group could mean certain death if it were decided you had to go.

So, standing there feeling you may be judged or critiqued and ultimately ostracised can feel like a life-or-death situation – your hands sweat, you feel hot/cold, your heart pounds, you have an urge to leave NOW!   

Feelings like these can be intense, and they can also be accompanied by unhelpful and distorted thoughts: ‘I am going to screw this up’; ‘If this doesn’t go well, I will get sacked!’; ‘I will look stupid’; ‘I might clam up’; and so on and so on.

There can often be a fear of loss that triggers these thoughts, or a feared loss of respect or reputation and wanting to avoid difficult feelings if it doesn’t go as well as you’d hoped.

Things that help

• Do your preparation and practice your speech/questions/ideas before the big day – saying it out loud on your own or practising with a friend can help, too.
• Remember that anxiety is normal – some anxiety can actually give an edge to your performance, so try thinking of it in this way.
• Remember to breathe – many of us hold our breath when we get tight, so do a few rounds of mindful breathing. Take a deep breath in for a count of three and try to make the exhalation slightly longer for a count of four. Do this several times.
• Nervous energy can make it hard to stay still. If this happens to you, try tensing your hands and releasing, tensing your legs and releasing, then your face, your shoulders...working your way through your body. You can also go for a walk around the block (or around your village or across a field) to release some of this built-up energy.
• Think about WHY you want to do this? Why is this presentation/meeting/interview important to you? Then consider what the anxiety is about. Is it your desire to get the job/do well at work/improve/get your knowledge and expertise across to others to help them?
• Remember that your audience generally want you to do well – they want to support and encourage you. They are not there as judge and jury.
• Try not to engage with the unhelpful thoughts. Instead of challenging them directly, you can notice them, such as: ‘anxious thoughts are here’ or ‘thoughts that I will fail are here’.  This creates a little distance between you and your thoughts, and you are then less likely to get tangled up in them.

Remind yourself:

1. I am not on the savannah about to be kicked out, I am simply nervous, and I want this to go well. This is why I feel some tension in my body and have unhelpful thoughts racing around.
2. I can feel this anxiety and know that I don’t like it or want it, but it is here to remind me that this matters to me and is important to me. Whatever the outcome, I will be okay. 

Written by Rachel Green, Counselling Psychologist and CBT Therapist at Psych Health, a Health Partners Company.