Phobia - public speaking....

Bigmonty69

Hi

I am looking for some advice if possible.

I have a fear/phobia of public speaking. It usually manifests itself as soon as I know I have to speak in public with sleepless nights and constant worrying and eventually escalates to a point during the event of shaking hands, bright red face, talking too fast and forgetting what I have/want to say.

It has gotten to the point in my career now that I will shortly be speaking to small/large groups more regularly and the only solution I can think of is to write out what I want to say and read it verbatim. This obviously does not work if any public speaking is required without any notice or in small group "general chat" meetings.

Does anybody have any experience of good successful courses and/or treatments which may be able to help me?

Many thanks.

absolutebounder

Bigmonty69 wrote: »

Hi

I am looking for some advice if possible.

I have a fear/phobia of public speaking. It usually manifests itself as soon as I know I have to speak in public with sleepless nights and constant worrying and eventually escalates to a point during the event of shaking hands, bright red face, talking too fast and forgetting what I have/want to say.

It has gotten to the point in my career now that I will shortly be speaking to small/large groups more regularly and the only solution I can think of is to write out what I want to say and read it verbatim. This obviously does not work if any public speaking is required without any notice or in small group "general chat" meetings.

Does anybody have any experience of good successful courses and/or treatments which may be able to help me?

Many thanks.

Its one of the most common phobias but also dead easy to overcome. A little fear is good as it keeps yopu sharp but what I always remember is that because people hate public speaking so much there are very few people in the audience who would swap places with you. prepare your speech well with a joke or two and just in case there is a prat in your audience likely to heckle you learn a couple of universal put downs. the one I have used most often is " look mate if you think you are so clever and I am so dumb could you please come up here and finish the presentation" No one has ever got up.

Bigmonty69

Thanks for the advice!

However I have tried most of the self-help techniques and am more after advice/recommendations on professional treatments.

Spain_Shopper

Have you thought about taking up a hobby tht incudes public speaking like joining a drama group.

belfastgirl23

You could try hypnosis - it worked for me for another irrational fear.

This org may also be of interest to you if you want to go the exposure route

http://www.toastmasters.org/

Amanita_2

Bigmonty69 wrote: »

Hi


Does anybody have any experience of good successful courses and/or treatments which may be able to help me?

Many thanks.

You have my sympathy - I hate doing this too but it is expected of me and I do it. I am really so nervous each time that I can't use a laser pointer as it betrays how much I can be shaking!

Please don't read directly from a prepared speech - it always sounds stilted and you don't have the flexibility to adapt it to your audience.

I find being very well prepared helps - even to the degree of having a spare copy of my presentation on a data stick in my handbag. My worst nightmare came true when at a major event where I was a guest speaker and last on, my presentation didn't come up! The data stick was pressed into service with a suitable joke and all carried on. Talking to one of the delegates a few months later he didn't even realise that there had been a problem although it is seared into my memory.

I have also learned to disassociate "me" from the person up there giving the talk - Various relaxing and self hypnosis techniques really do help here.

Bigmonty69

Thanks for all the advice.

However I have tried most of the techniques mentioned before in some way shape or form and now feel I need some more professional help. I was just looking for some recommendations of places or people that forum members have perhaps used before.

http://www.toastmasters.org/ this one seems like some sort of club, which is not quite what I was looking for.

Many thanks.

belfastgirl23

Bigmonty69 wrote: »

Thanks for all the advice.

However I have tried most of the techniques mentioned before in some way shape or form and now feel I need some more professional help. I was just looking for some recommendations of places or people that forum members have perhaps used before.

http://www.toastmasters.org/ this one seems like some sort of club, which is not quite what I was looking for.

Many thanks.

It is a club but the point of it is that you would get a lot of opportunities to do public speaking in a safe and supportive environment where it doesn't really matter whether you do a good job or not. Personally I think that's the most effective way to get rid of a fear like this, you just do it till it becomes normal....

absolutebounder

Question has to be why do you fear public speaking? Is it that you are not committed to what you are speaking about. Is it because of how you think people perceive you. Is it that you dont really know your subject and you are worried you may get questions you cant answer? Are you worried about making a fool of yourself.
Yes hypnosis will work if one can identify the true cause of the phobia.

Amanita_2

Have you raised this as a training need with your employer? If you feel you need to acquire skills in this area then there are plenty of professional coachs. They are far from cheap though.

If you work for a large organisation it is possible that they have an inhouse scheme already.

marrowgirl

You could try Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (google it for an explanation). This can work for all sorts of phobias -and definately worked for mine. You can get this free on the NHS but the wait can be a long time. You can also pay for it but I would get a therapist recommended by someone if you can. (You could always try one session to see if it suits you. Usually the first session is much cheaper so you can see if you gel with the way they work.)