Public Speaking Fear — Body Responses

Does public speaking fear interfere with your presentation?

You’re at the front of the room, ready to begin your speech, and all of a sudden your brain feels empty and you can’t recollect anything that you prepared beforehand for your presentation. In addition, your mouth goes dry so that you have difficulty swallowing and your voice starts shaking. And if that wasn’t enough, you start to feel sick, your legs and hands are trembling, and your heart is pounding so loudly that you worry everybody will hear.

Isn’t this exactly the moment when you need to be at your best and make a professional impression? You want the people to listen to you and recollect later what your message was. Not great when you’re a nervous wreck, is it?

Your body responds to public speaking fear with these uncomfortable behaviors that reach back to when early human beings were still prone to be attacked by animals in the wilderness and other enemies. Even today, when you’re in physical danger, your body sends an alarm out that triggers the “fight or flight” chemical in your brain, in order to protect you. This electro-chemical, adrenalin, is produced in the oldest part of the brain, the amygdala.

When you’re suffering from public speaking fear, the amygdala believes you’re under attack and triggers the electro-chemical panic alarm to get your body ready to fight the “threat” or run away from it.

As out of proportion this response may be to the “danger” of public speaking, your body isn’t aware of that. Here are a few methods it has so you can either attack the “threat” or escape:

– The most primitive part of your brain, the amygdala, sends a message to your heart to increase the heart rate and to hike up the blood pressure in your body in readiness for the attack. This means that, when you’re fearful when you’re in front of your listeners, your heart begins hammering.

– Most of the blood in your stomach, for digestion in normal circumstances, is taken away because it is needed by the muscles to give them more strenght to either fight orescape. This means that you may have a sick feeling in your stomach that goes with your public speaking fear. And that means that if it’s your turn to give an after-dinner speech, you may not be very hungry. Not only because the food won’t taste very good, but your body needs an empty stomach, in readiness for a quick departure.

– While the blood builds up in the muscles it is also withdrawn from the brain. I would suggest that for the amygdala it’s possibly more important that you act when confronted by a threat than to think about it. Thinking takes time. So, your mind becomes empty and you forget what you wanted to say. Have you ever been in danger and afterwards said that you didn’t remember what specifically happened?

– When a wild animal attacks you and you either want to fight it or run away, you need to have sufficient air in your lungs. So, the amygdala sends out a message to the lungs to boost your breathing. Now, as there’s no real physical threat when giving a presentation or a speech, the increased amount of air in your lungs has to go somewhere and we exhale too fast. We begin hyperventilating and feeling woozy. In severe instances public speaking fear can lead to loss of consciousness.

– As your breathing is increased to give you lots of air to ward off your foe or escape, you don’t want to be suffocating on your own saliva. So, your brain stops the saliva production for this time and you get a dry throat and mouth.

– this is why your voice gets hoarse. Another reason may well be that your brain wants to ensure that you’re as quiet as possible when when you’re in danger of wild animals.

These are all responses to fear that are inborn in us. They are instinctive and come from our ancestors. You don’t need to torture yourself about them.

But it’s possible to do something about them. It’s possible to learn some methods that will help you get the better of your initial public speaking fear. Good public speaking courses help you to get more relaxed and self-assured so that you can benefit from
the adrenalin that is surging around your body.

Imagine, taking your public speaking fear and turn it into a passionate speech that moves and inspires people!