Public Speaking and Panic Attacks
It is often observed that many people’s
top ranking fear is not death but having to speak in public. The
joke is that these people would rather be lying in the casket at
the funeral than giving the eulogy. Public speaking for people
who suffer from panic attacks or general anxiety often becomes a
major source of worry weeks or even months before the speaking
event is to occur.
These speaking engagements do not
necessarily have to be the traditional “on a podium” events but
can be as simple as an office meeting where the individual is
expected to express an opinion or give verbal feedback. The fear
of public speaking and panic attacks in this case centers on
having an attack while speaking. The individual fears being
incapacitated by the anxiety and hence unable to complete what
he or she is saying. The person imagines fleeing the spotlight
and having to make all kinds of excuses later for their
undignified departure out the office window…
This differs slightly from the majority of
people who fear public speaking because their fear tends to
revolve around going blank while speaking or feeling
uncomfortable under the spotlight of their peers. The jitters or
nerves of speaking in public are of course a problem for this
group as well, but they are unfamiliar with that debilitating
threat which is the panic attack, as they most likely have not
experienced one before.
So how should a person with an anxiety
issue tackle public speaking?
Stage one is accepting that all these
bizarre and quite frankly unnerving sensations are not going to
go away overnight. In fact, you are not even going to concern
yourself with getting rid of them for your next talk. When they
arrive during a speech/meeting, you are going to approach them
in a new manner. What we need to do is build your confidence
back to where it used to be before any of these sensations ever
occurred. This time you will approach it in a unique, empowering
manner, allowing you to feel your confidence again. It is said
that most of the top speakers are riddled with anxiety before
speaking, but they somehow use this nervousness to enhance their
speech. I am going to show you exactly how to do this, although
I know that right now if you suffer from public speaking and
panic attacks you may find it difficult to believe you can ever
overcome it.
My first point is this and it is
important. The average healthy person can experience an extreme
array of anxiety and very uncomfortable sensations while giving
a speech and is in no danger of ever losing control, or even
appearing slightly anxious to the audience. No matter how tough
it gets, you will always finish your piece, even if at the
outset it feels very uncomfortable to go on. You will not become
incapacitated in any way.
The real breakthrough for if you suffer
from public speaking and panic attacks happens when you fully
believe that you are not in danger and that the sensations will
pass.
“I realize you (the anxiety) hold no
threat over me.”
What keeps a panic attack coming again and
again is the fear of the fear—the fear that the next one will
really knock your socks off and you feel you were lucky to have
made it past the last one unscathed. As they were so unnerving
and scary, it is your confidence that has been damaged by
previous anxiety episodes. Once you fully understand you are not
under any threat, then you can have a new response to the
anxiety as it arises while speaking.
Defeating public speaking and panic
attacks…
There is always a turning point when a
person moves from general anxiety into a panic attack, and that
happens with public speaking when you think to yourself:
“I won’t be able to handle this in front
of these people.”
That split second of self-doubt leads to a
rush of adrenaline, and the extreme anxiety arrives in a wave
like format. If, however, when you feel the initial anxiety and
you react with confidence that this is not a threat to you, you
will move out of the anxiety rapidly. Using this new approach is
a powerful ally because it means it is okay to feel scared and
feel the anxiety when speaking–that is fine; you are going to
feel it and move with and through the sensations in your body
and out the other side. Because he or she is feeling very
anxious, often before the talk has begun, that person may feel
they have already let themselves down. Now, you can relax on
that point. It is perfectly natural to feel the anxiety. Take
for example the worst of the sensations you have ever
experienced in this situation—be it general unease to loss of
breath. You will have an initial automatic reaction that says:
“Danger–I’m going to have an episode of
anxiety here and I really can’t afford that to happen.”
At this point most people react to that
idea and confirm it must be true because of all of the unusual
feelings they are experiencing. This is where your thinking can
lead you down a train of thought that creates a cycle of anxiety
that produces a negative impact on your overall presenting
skills.
So let that initial “oh dear, not now”
thought pass by, and follow it up immediately with the attitude
of:
“There you are–I’ve been wondering when
you would arrive. I’ve been expecting you to show up—by the way,
I am not in the least threatened by any of the strange
sensations you are creating—I am completely safe here.”
The key to controlling your fear of public
speaking and panic attacks is that instead of pushing the
emotional energy and excitement down into your stomach, you are
moving out through it. Your body is in a slightly excited state,
exactly as it should be while giving a speech, so release that
energy in your self-expression. Push it out through your
presentation not down into your stomach. You push it out by
expressing yourself more forcefully. In this way you turn the
anxiety to your advantage by using it to deliver a speech where
you come across more alive, energetic and in the present moment.
When you notice the anxiety drop as it does when you willingly
move into it. Fire a quick thought off when you get a momentary
break (as I am sure you have between pieces), asking it for
“more.” You want more of its intense feelings as you are
interested in them and are absolutely not threatened by them.
It seems like a lot of things to be
thinking about while talking to a group of people, but it is not
really. You’d be amazed how many different non-related thoughts
you can have while speaking. This approach is about adopting a
new attitude of confidence to what you might have deemed a
serious threat up until now. This tactic will truly help you
with fear of public speaking and panic attacks you have
associated with them.
If your predominant fear of the speaking
engagement is driven by a feeling of being trapped, then I would
suggest factoring in some mental releases that can be prepared
before the event. For example, some meetings/speeches allow for
you to turn the attention back to the room to get feedback etc.
from the group.
If possible, you might want to prepare
such opportunities in your own mind before the engagements. This
is not to say you have to ever use them, but people in this
situation often remark that just having small opportunities
where attention can be diverted for the briefest of moments can
make the task seem less daunting. It my even be something as
simple as having people introduce themselves or opening the
floor to questions. I realize these diversions are not always
possible and depend on the situation, but anything you can
factor in that makes you feel less trapped or under the
spotlight is worth the effort and can help alleviate fear of
public speaking and panic attacks.
Learn more
http://www.panicportal.com
Joe Barry is an international panic
disorder coach. His informative site on all issues related to
panic and anxiety attacks can be found here: http://www.panicportal.com
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