Frequency of Public Speaking Fear
It's not exactly news that people experience a range of anxiety like symptoms when faced with the prospect of public speaking. According to WebMD, 35% of Americans fear public speaking and 13% experience social anxiety disorder. This phobia is not exclusive to those who rarely speak in public either. In fact, even actor Harrison Ford refers to public speaking as "a mixed bag of terror and anxiety."
Symptoms and Consequences
A variety of symptoms generally accompany the fear of speaking in public. These symptoms may begin to manifest weeks before a speech or in the period of time directly before the address. Symptoms are similar to those experienced during anxiety and panic attacks. These may include sweaty palms, dry mouth, shortness of breath and unreasonable fear. The expression of these symptoms differs across people. Not everyone differs from the same degree of social anxiety when faced with a public speech.
In some cases a fear of public speaking can become debilitating. For people whose careers require that they give lectures or presentations, this type of anxiety may compromise the quality of their work. Therefore, in cases such as these it is imperative to take steps to overcome the fear of speaking in public.
Treatment Options
Since so many people fear public speaking, many treatment options are available. The standard recommendations for overcoming this fear are facing the problem head on. This may even involve going out of the way to speak in public, thus desensitizing the individual. It may be best to choose non-work oriented public speaking opportunities so that the pressure is slightly alleviated. Examples of these could be speaking in church, during classes or even at social functions.
Other potential treatments for social anxiety are understanding the material and interacting with the audience. When a person enters a speech prepared they are less likely to experience the extent of fear felt by an unprepared individual. This also lessens the likelihood for embarrassment. Interacting with the audience can also help the speaker to connect to their viewers rather than on the spot.
A slightly more advanced option for treating social anxiety is virtual reality therapy. According to Science Daily, Page Anderson, an assistant professor of Psychology at Georgia State University, studied the impact of virtual reality on a research group of people who did and did not suffer from social anxiety. The goal was to create a virtual reality environment comparable to an actual public speaking experience. This would allow people to repeatedly give "public speeches," thus increasing their comfort in the process without actually speaking in front of people. Although their studies found that the virtual reality was similar to an actual speech, they did not conclusively prove that it was an adequate treatment option. However, it may still be beneficial for people struggling with speaking in public.
Tags: public speaking, social anxiety, virtual reality, speaking public, faced with, fear public