Anxiety About Public Speaking? Take a Breath

1. Anxiety About Public Speaking? Take a Breath Marvarene Oliver, Ed.D., LPC-S, LMFT-S Professor, CNEP Interim Associate Dean, CGS

2. Fear of Public Speaking • Very common – estimates: about 25% of adults • Wide range of level of impact and severity, from: • Mild: some anticipatory anxiety accompanied by some unpleasant arousal symptoms during presentation • Severe: specific phobia: intense fear/anxiety associated with public speaking • Type of anxiety disorder • Extreme/irrational fear, often persistent • Leads to avoidance of object/situation • Over 19 million adult Americans have some type of specific phobia • No single cause

3. Symptoms • Anticipatory anxiety • Increased heart rate • Dizziness or unsteadiness • Nausea or upset stomach • Sweating • Shaking or trembling • Breathlessness • Avoidance behavior

4. More Symptoms • Tight chest • Experience of mind going blank • In more severe forms, may take the form of panic attack • Sufferer generally realizes fear/anxiety is disproportionate • Others?

5. What we Think we Know about Anxiety in General • Genetics – Some estimates indicate that genes contribute 30 – 50% to development of anxiety disorder. There is no specific information regarding specific phobias. • Physiology • Fear & anxiety involve arousal of the autonomic nervous system in response to potentially threatening situations; our bodies prepare for battle. • Some people experience higher anxiety across situations and are therefore more likely to experience fear of public speaking as well. • Emotional centers of the brain are more disrupted than higher cognitive centers. • Familial patterns of anxiety appear to play a role in anxiety for some people. • Learned behaviors/attitudes/emotions are a part of the process of anxiety. • On-going stress can exacerbate symptoms (or even trigger them).

6. The Good News • Fear and anxiety are normal facets of human experience. • Anxiety-related symptoms can be managed and reduced or perhaps, for some people, even eliminated. • There are a lot of strategies that have been demonstrated to work, though no single strategy works for everyone.

7. An Organizer • Physiology • Thoughts • Emotions • Behaviors • The external world

8. Strategies: In General Strategies you try depend on your own strengths and vulnerabilities, what you know about yourself, your internal and external resources, and the severity of your symptoms. Strategies you use should make sense as a whole – not be contradictory to each other. No strategy works every time. Find several that work for you so that when one is not working, you can move to another that may be better for the “right now” of your current context. Be your own scientist!

9. Strategies: Specific • Breathe – slowly, deliberately, and patiently • Goal is not necessarily to calm all arousal but to temper it – remember that some anxiety is helpful and it is normal. This will also help counteract any tendency to hold your breath. • Move – deliberately • People respond differently; for some, a brisk walk to bleed off excess physiological arousal is helpful, but for others, stretching or other slow movement is more effective • Check how you are “holding” yourself. Just as our thoughts and emotions impact our body language and posture, our body language/posture impacts our thoughts and emotions.

10. Strategies: Specific, continued Challenge your thoughts • Assess by considering whether they are accurate and helpful rather than whether they are “positive.” Is it true? Is it helpful? • Consider, among other things: • Are you overestimating the stakes? • Are you thinking from a performance orientation rather than a communication orientation? • Performance orientation: public speaking requires special skills; role of audience is to be judges • Communication orientation: the goal is to communicate your ideas to a group of people • Are your thoughts from an old definition of yourself and your skills? • Are you “what if-ing” in a way that is not about planning? • Are you catastrophizing? • Interrupt and replace with what is true and helpful.

11. Strategies: Specific, cont. Check your body. • Assess for tightness – neck, shoulders, jaw, fists, etc. Deliberately release. • Assess your posture and physical stance. • Are you making yourself small, trying to take up less space? • Are you folding in on yourself? • Adopt a more expansive pose and hold it for at least two minutes. • Produces more sense of being powerful. • Impacts emotions – not only a matter of emotions impacting posture. • Taking up space is powerful. • Women tend to pull in and minimize the space they are taking more than men do.

12. Strategies: Specific, continued Exposure and Desensitization • Practice – then practice again. • In vivo, meaning literally “in the living” • Practice in front of a group, preferably multiple times. • Where possible, tape yourself and watch non-defensively and objectively.* • Avoid being overly critical. • If you can’t watch yourself without an overly critical stance, enlist the aid of trusted others. • In vitro, meaning literally, “in glass” or “in a test tube” (also called imaginal exposure and desensitization • Used alone, generally not as successful as in vivo techniques • Especially useful for situations where live practice cannot be practically done or as precursor for in vivo practice, especially with severe symptoms

13. Strategies: Specific, continued • Know your topic – overlearning can help, but be aware there is a sweet spot. • Get organized – having your presentation/material/speech together in an organized way can help you keep your presentation moving. • Get comfortable with silence – including your own. • Recognize your successes, including incremental ones. • Arrive at your venue early – allow sufficient time to get “present.” • Wherever possible, be familiar with the space. • Half-smile. • Enhance your presentation skills and knowledge.

14. A Very Limited List of Resources • Toastmasters – provides opportunities for practice, feedback, enhancing speaking skills. • On-campus workshops – GROW, various departmental and college offerings • Mary and Jeff Bell Library – There are a lot of books about public speaking, including those about how to address anxiety about it; the library also offers workshops. • University Counseling Center • Courses on public speaking – check online free courses (and check their ratings!) • Talk Like TED, by Carmen Gallo. There is a book as well as YouTube video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNOQDp8v_wc). The book and video are about elements of a successful presentation and not about fear of public speaking.