How to Overcome Fear Of Public Speaking

Fear of public speaking is thought to be the number one fear. More people suffer from this fear than that of dying. It is believed that three out of every four people, (1) have a phobia about speaking. Fear of public speaking is part of social anxiety disorder. The medical term connected to this fear is “glossophobia”.

Having a fear of public speaking can have both an emotional and financial impact on those who suffer from this problem. The economic cost of having this problem is thought to be ten per cent lower income (1). The reason for this is that people with this fear can avoid putting themselves forward. It is, however, a problem that you can overcome.

Understanding Fear of Public Speaking

It is often said that facing your fear will overcome it. This statement isn’t true for everyone. For some people, confronting their fear will lead to them overcoming it. For others, it is the worst thing that they could do, as continually putting themselves into a traumatic position merely intensifies their fear. Worst case scenario is that the problem increases. They go from feeling nervous and uncomfortable to having panic attacks. The reason for this is that if the intensity of your fear is high, when you push yourself through a presentation, your mind stores the experience as another trauma, confirming that public speaking is dangerous.

Fear of public speaking isn’t something you need to live with; it can be overcome. There are potent techniques available which can be highly effective at dealing with this fear. EFT (Tapping therapy) can be highly effective with this type of problem. NLP techniques can also be beneficial.

How We Develop a Fear of Public Speaking

Fear of public speaking is a learned behaviour. We develop this issue as a consequence of our experiences in life. For example, I worked with a client who at six years old was humiliated in front of her classmates by her teacher. To feel humiliated is a very disempowering, uncomfortable experience. She had high-intensity emotions during the event. We learn very rapidly during life events with high emotional intensity. The reason for this is survival. We are born with powerful survival mechanisms. This event would have been classed as a threat to her survival.

As a consequence, to try to protect her from it happening again, the unconscious mind holds onto the memory. Certain elements within the memory are now tagged as dangerous. During this event, a whole room full of people turned to look at her, the six-year-old child, so, therefore, being the centre of attention, people’s eyes looking at her was associated with danger. This memory faded from her conscious memory. It was still stored as a threatening experience within her unconscious mind; as such, it influenced her future behaviour. The memory and the data within it became part of her database for assessing potential threats to her survival.

When she went to University, and at the age of 21, she had a panic attack while presenting. The reason that she thought age 21 was the origin was that she avoided presenting and speaking in public until she had no choice at the age of 21. Acting this way is normal behaviour, part of the fight, flight or freeze response. Behaviours associated with “flight” are avoidance. She had been able to successfully avoid being in a situation that put her as the centre of attention, with lots of people looking at her. At University, she did not have an option, she had to do it, and as a consequence, she had a panic attack.

Although to her, it might have felt like the problem began at the age of 21, its origins lie at the age of 6 or younger.

Overcoming the Fear

Both EFT and NLP are highly effective at overcoming this fear. With both, you can target the memories that are connected to the problem. The problem is that that information from the memory is being treated as if the threat is still happening. How this works is that when you have a traumatic (mild/ moderate intensity reoccurring event or high-intensity one-off) event happens in your life, your mind can hold onto it as if it is still happening now, a current threat. When you tap using EFT (Movie Technique or Direct Tapping) or use an NLP approach such as Quick Phobia Cure, your mind re-codes the memory. For example, as you begin to use these techniques on the memories that underpin the current problem, they often become dimmer or more distant, more difficult to visualise or feel. And people often say things such as, “It seems so long ago now”, or “I can’t believe that bothered me”.

This change in how you think is called a cognitive shift. This is a common phenomenon that occurs during successful therapy. A natural shift in thinking is also an indicator that the memory is being or has been re-coded as “old”, “no longer a threat”. Effectively this is switching off the memory, reclassifying whatever happened as no longer a threat. As the memory is re-coded and switched off, it stops the event from the past influencing the current behaviour, in this case, causing the fear in public speaking. The techniques do not change the fact that the events happened; all they do is free us from their influence now.

To sum up, facing your fear in some circumstances can lead to overcoming it for some people. For others, it just intensifies the fear and can, in some cases, lead to panic attacks and increased stress. Facing your fear is not necessary to overcome your fear. Fear can be eradicated using powerful natural and easy to apply techniques that can create significant transformational change. Why live with a problem when you can overcome it?

All the best,

Tania A Prince

EFT Founding Master

AAMET Accredited EFT Master Trainer of Trainers

NLP Trainer

1. https://brandongaille.com/14-fear-public-speaking-statistics/