What is Speech Anxiety?
Speech anxiety is the general fear of public speaking that people develop. In its extreme forms, it is taken as a social phobia whereby people develop the intense fear of facing an audience and speaking. Why? Because they convince themselves of the fact that if they speak in public, they will bungle up the speech in one way or the other by forgetting something important, fumbling with the words and making a fool of themselves, or worse still, not being able to convey what they want to. It is the fear of undergoing an embarrassment that causes for this phobia to come about. But, why does a person end up feeling this way? There could be several causes of speech anxiety. What are the causes that lead to a fear of public speaking? Let us get into details of the same in the following section.
Speech Anxiety - Causes
The fear of failure that leads to anxiety symptoms to make way. Which over time, leads to speech anxiety.
An earlier failure in course of public speaking that has led to the conditioning of the mind to associate public speaking with failure, and therefore, the tendency to avoid the same comes about.
Less preparation of the speech that causes for the anxiety of failure.
A person, who has low self esteem and keeps feeding himself with negative and self depreciating thoughts (to the likes of him not succeeding at all) will find that he is setting himself up for failure and that is what will lead to speech anxiety.
The nature of the audience can also lead to developing these feelings. If the audience is hostile, restless or seems disinterested in what the person is saying and the orator catches on to this, it could lead to the development of the symptoms of social anxiety. Similarly an unfamiliar environment or a very large audience could lead to feelings of the same.
If a person has never spoken in a public arena before, it could definitely lead to the emergence of speech anxiety.
Speech Anxiety - Symptoms
A cracking of the voice that lends to an uneven voice quality and lowered volume.
There is an increase in the heart rate, pulse rate and blood pressure as well.
Excessive sweating also comes about as a general rule. The hands and feet will get sweaty and sticky.
The throat feels scratchy and dry and you keep feeling thirsty that no amount of water can eliminate.
A person starts stammering and stuttering along with fumbling in his speech.
A person gets very restless and fidgety. Which is apparent in his stance and the way in which he moves.
There might even be the emergence of nausea and shortness of breath.
There could be chances that you'll end up forgetting more of your speech.
How to Overcome Speech Anxiety?
It never is an ideal situation to be stuck with any kind of social phobia, in this case speech anxiety. It cripples and limits. That is why there is a need to undertake some measures to overcome this anxiety. What are the ways in which one can overcome this phobia? Here are some public speaking tips that will help.
Be Thorough in your Preparation
Understand the topic at hand completely. Find out all there is to find out about it. That way, if there is any doubt about the topic at hand, you can clear them and prepare a speech that is thorough and well researched. Making clear notes about the same is seen to help make the speech even better.
Know your Audience
How does knowing the audience help? Studying the audience helps because you know their general psyche, what they expect from the orator, what makes them tick and what doesn't. This can be deduced from a number of factors like age, background and the like. Knowing the audience will help you formulate the speech to make maximum impact on them.
Practice in Different Scenarios
So, you know your matter and you know your audience and that will help you in perfecting the speech well. But to ensure that the speech goes according to how you have planned it, there has to be a lot of practice done. There are several ways in which this can be achieved. You can practice in front of a mirror to study and improve upon your style of delivery and body language. Another way to perfect your speech is to practice in front of a small audience of family members and friends so that they can give you a feedback when needed. Similarly you can either audio or video record your speech to check for the same and bring about a change.
Speech anxiety is the general fear of public speaking that people develop. In its extreme forms, it is taken as a social phobia whereby people develop the intense fear of facing an audience and speaking. Why? Because they convince themselves of the fact that if they speak in public, they will bungle up the speech in one way or the other by forgetting something important, fumbling with the words and making a fool of themselves, or worse still, not being able to convey what they want to. It is the fear of undergoing an embarrassment that causes for this phobia to come about. But, why does a person end up feeling this way? There could be several causes of speech anxiety. What are the causes that lead to a fear of public speaking? Let us get into details of the same in the following section.
Speech Anxiety - Causes
The fear of failure that leads to anxiety symptoms to make way. Which over time, leads to speech anxiety.
An earlier failure in course of public speaking that has led to the conditioning of the mind to associate public speaking with failure, and therefore, the tendency to avoid the same comes about.
Less preparation of the speech that causes for the anxiety of failure.
A person, who has low self esteem and keeps feeding himself with negative and self depreciating thoughts (to the likes of him not succeeding at all) will find that he is setting himself up for failure and that is what will lead to speech anxiety.
The nature of the audience can also lead to developing these feelings. If the audience is hostile, restless or seems disinterested in what the person is saying and the orator catches on to this, it could lead to the development of the symptoms of social anxiety. Similarly an unfamiliar environment or a very large audience could lead to feelings of the same.
If a person has never spoken in a public arena before, it could definitely lead to the emergence of speech anxiety.
Speech Anxiety - Symptoms
A cracking of the voice that lends to an uneven voice quality and lowered volume.
There is an increase in the heart rate, pulse rate and blood pressure as well.
Excessive sweating also comes about as a general rule. The hands and feet will get sweaty and sticky.
The throat feels scratchy and dry and you keep feeling thirsty that no amount of water can eliminate.
A person starts stammering and stuttering along with fumbling in his speech.
A person gets very restless and fidgety. Which is apparent in his stance and the way in which he moves.
There might even be the emergence of nausea and shortness of breath.
There could be chances that you'll end up forgetting more of your speech.
How to Overcome Speech Anxiety?
It never is an ideal situation to be stuck with any kind of social phobia, in this case speech anxiety. It cripples and limits. That is why there is a need to undertake some measures to overcome this anxiety. What are the ways in which one can overcome this phobia? Here are some public speaking tips that will help.
Be Thorough in your Preparation
Understand the topic at hand completely. Find out all there is to find out about it. That way, if there is any doubt about the topic at hand, you can clear them and prepare a speech that is thorough and well researched. Making clear notes about the same is seen to help make the speech even better.
Know your Audience
How does knowing the audience help? Studying the audience helps because you know their general psyche, what they expect from the orator, what makes them tick and what doesn't. This can be deduced from a number of factors like age, background and the like. Knowing the audience will help you formulate the speech to make maximum impact on them.
Practice in Different Scenarios
So, you know your matter and you know your audience and that will help you in perfecting the speech well. But to ensure that the speech goes according to how you have planned it, there has to be a lot of practice done. There are several ways in which this can be achieved. You can practice in front of a mirror to study and improve upon your style of delivery and body language. Another way to perfect your speech is to practice in front of a small audience of family members and friends so that they can give you a feedback when needed. Similarly you can either audio or video record your speech to check for the same and bring about a change.
No comments:
Post a Comment