Speaking Fear # 2

Speaking Fear: Ambiguities and Specifics

Is this you? 

Do you find yourself panicking at your next public speaking deadline when you see it on your calendar or in an email?

Is your life a speech – a terribly bad one?

Are you a bona fide quivering wreck?

‘Speaking Fear.’ The name says it all.

Fear of public speaking often attaches itself to the category of performance anxiety where it hides snugly under the umbrella of social anxiety and never wants to come out.

This means that this type of performance anxiety can generalise, but its delivery can be debilitating, and often very specific.

In fact the impact this has on society as a whole was outlined in the results obtained from the U.S. National Comorbidity Survey Replication, 2008, which stated:

'Public speaking fear is highly prevalent and manifests itself as a significant burden in society through lower educational achievement, occupational impairment, and increased health care utilization.'1

Internet statistics on the people who sufferer form this fear differ wildly and percentages appear incredibly high from a variety of part-credible and unsubstantiated sources, with the probability being that academics or independent professionals who purport these high figures are either removed from the day-to-day reality of working with these people or that they have some sort of vested interest at heart to inflate the said percentages.

Moreover, one can surmise that any fear is difficult to map mostly because:

'We are all different people with different histories, cultures and perceptions, living in different environments.'

For example, children in the U.S. are taught at an early age to stand up and speak in school. (No surprise there, as the mute American appears as rare as hen's teeth!)

Britain, in contrast, still has an underlying class belief pervading throughout its culture in which its children inadvertently learn not to stand up and 'make a fool of our self.'

In reality these small cultural differences from only two English speaking countries can make a great deal of difference or none at all.

With many of these statistical sources on the inter-web varying from an average as low as around 22% up to a popular 74%, it is funny that the 74% rule has become another of those urban myths much like Mehrabian's non-verbal communication theory of 55% (body language) 38% (tonality) and 7% (words).

One report, Social Phobia in the General Population, found that, ‘About 77% of the general population fears public speaking.’ Note the ambiguity surrounding the words ‘about’ and ‘general.’ Another study suggests that the fear is more prevalent in women, but I am inclined to ask, ‘which women, specifically?’My first-hand experience gathered from over ten years with a U.K. therapeutic setting has been quite different.

On the contrary most of my clients have been men: stressed-out managers, business executives, sports and performance professionals, chief executives and managing directors who have suddenly had to 'up' their game through some kind of promotion event, public performance, or increased demand for their presence or voice.

Stage Fright and Public Speaking Fear are two ruthless assassins which can stem from but is not limited to early childhood experiences. Some of these fears and anxieties may have evolved incrementally over time. Some painful memories can be linked to one or two specific past events. Some anxieties, we find, are not related to the past or any performance contexts at all.

In other cases it might be an anticipatory fear of the future that appears to have no root of origin. This is what baffles researchers because we are entering a very grey area: the unknown.

French writer Antoine Rivarolle was once quoted saying:
‘It is the dim haze of mystery that adds enchantment to pursuit.’For him and I, yes, but not for the many, or sometimes the few, and that’s because:

'We are all individuals living out separate realities through our own unique model of the world.'

Scientific and academic studies in this field, in search of the truths about people and behaviour, are often confined by the limits of demographic and context. Studies can be inaccurate and the need for specifics often results in nothing more than calculated guesswork, and worse, broad generalisations.

Speaking Fear (Glossophobia) can generalise into other life and work contexts too, like the fear of having a heart-to-heart with your partner or spouse; of course, there's the good 'ole job interview, perhaps an evening of stand-up comedy where the comedian singles you out of the audience to ridicule and answer one of his ‘hilarious’ questions and to be his performer; wedding announcements, Christmas and office parties, wider social contexts where a calm assertion is needed.

Speaking Fear has no mercy.

It does not discriminate between gender, age, nationality, race or creed, yet any potential solution to overcome it must take into account all the above variables in order to have some kind of positive effect.

If you are one of those people (and there are a few), that does have a genuine fear of public speaking, and you are specifically considering the possibility of positive change, without all the ambiguity nonsense, then it’s probably worthwhile having a chat with someone who avoids all that waffle and gives you the tools to move on. 

***

I can do that. I can even make your speech feel like you are on a warm beach (bit of poetry there), so that you look forward to future events knowing 100% that 'life IS a speech', and it is, if only you allow it, and when you do, soon you will discover that you can create the exact same feelings of a nice warm beach whilst giving your life’s best speech.

Sorry, I’ve broken into some kind of weird gangster rap now!

Anyhow, we could go somewhere nice, warm, more comfortable or cool, on a journey in your mind, that suits your personality more appropriately and gives you those GOOD feelings in order to be very, very comfortable on any podium or stage, in the times when you need it most.

After all…they’re only thoughts…and feelings, aren’t they?

If you are genuinely struggling to get your butt off the fence, then I'd be more than happy to link up for a 'no obs' consultation herer: Speak to Jay.

This is how I do it: www.coachingaccelerator.com  

This is where I am: www.nlpnewcastle.com

Maybe you're life will transform. Maybe it won't. 

Maybe you're too far gone?

Until the next speech!

References

Social fears and social phobia in the USA: results from the National Comorbidity Survey Replication.

Ruscio AM, Brown TA, Chiu WT, Sareen J, Stein MB, Kessler RC      

Psychol Med. 2008 Jan; 38(1):15-28

The economic burden of anxiety disorders in the 1990s.

Greenberg PE, Sisitsky T, Kessler RC, Finkelstein SN, Berndt ER, Davidson JR, Ballenger JC, Fyer AJ

J Clin Psychiatry. 1999 Jul; 60(7):427-35.

Social phobia in the general population: prevalence and sociodemographic profile.

Furmark T, Tillfors M, Everz P, Marteinsdottir I, Gefvert O, Fredrikson M

Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol. 1999 Aug; 34(8):416-24.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3647380/ (Courtesy of Dovepress) accessed: 1.09.15

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