Causes of Public Speaking Phobia
According to World Book Online Research Encyclopedia, "Phobia is an unreasonable yet strong fear of a certain object, class of objects or a situation." People who suffer phobia have a compelling desire to avoid the object or situation that causes their stress.
Phobia may be classified into two types:
· Specific Phobia, such as fear of animals (i.e. Arachnophobia - Fear of spiders; Necrophobia - Fear of death or dead things).
· Social Phobia is an anxiety disorder where the sufferer fears being assessed adversely in front of a group. Thus, Public speaking phobia is an over-emphasized fear of speaking in front of a group.
According to World Psychiatric Association (1995), Social Phobia affects one to 10 people at some stage of their lives. Sufferers experience dizziness, muscle tension, trembling, blushing and/or sweating, and even heart palpitations when exposed to the feared object or situation. Others do not manifest physical symptoms but they are overtly conscious of how others react to them. They also have a tendency to underestimate their capability to overcome the feared situation.
Among the common effects of Social Phobia in a person are:
· Unstable employment record
· Have less or no friends
· Being single
· Having a low educational attainment
Studies show that public speaking phobia, and most phobias, develop in middle or late childhood stage. It usually starts from an unpleasant experience like being humiliated in front of the class; this unpleasant experience gets stored in the child's memory and is brought up when faced with similar situations.
Children who have been exposed to people with public speaking phobia, like their parents or friends, learn the phobia by hearing them. They immediately conclude that what they have heard of is true without actually verifying the facts.
Research also shows that genetics also play an important role in developing phobias. It has a tendency to occur in families. Phobias are mostly likely to occur in identical twins, than in fraternal twins.
Luckily, there are many ways to treat Phobia.
· PERSONAL MOTIVATION. There are many self-help books that can help you overcome your public speaking phobia. Your desire to overcome your fear is the most important factor of treatment.
· PROFESSIONAL TREATMENT. If self-treatment does not work for you, you can seek help from a professional. Exposure to therapy is a good example of this method, which focuses on the behavior instead of the thoughts of the sufferer.
· Other kinds of treatment include:
o Counseling - discussing your phobia with a professional.
o Hypnosis
o Medication - This method is used if the sufferer has other mental conditions that are affected by the phobia. The use of these drugs can only be used for a short period of time. Using medication alone cannot cure the phobia.
Can You Be An Effective Public Speaker?
Whether it is a group of 50 or 500, the question is still the same: Can you be an effective public speaker?
The answer is yes if you keep on mind some key points when it comes to communicating with your audience in public speaking.
- First of all, prepare as much as you can because you can’t under-prepare for anything.
However, for your sake (and everyone else’s), a lead-time of about 2 to 3 days should be enough for a 20 minute presentation (this includes rehearsal time and putting together decent visual aids, when applicable).
- Get to know your audience.
Are they mostly children or young adults? Company executives or day laborers? Is it comprised mostly of men or women? Asking salient questions about your audience gives you ideas on how to tailor your message to them specifically so they can better relate to the topic.
- People remember 20% of what they hear, 30% what they see, and 50% of an audio-visual presentation.
That said, as much as your topic and venue can afford you, incorporate visuals in your talk. It doesn’t have to be a PowerPoint presentation or an overhead projector all the time. Sometimes, a well laid out chart to serve as a visual guide to the presentation will do wonders because the audience can see where you’re going with the talk.
- Get participation.
When people participate in an activity, their retention rate jumps to as high as 80 to 90 percent depending on the activity. Ask a member of the audience to come up to participate in an example you’re illustrating or ask them to repeat the salient points. The latter alone adds about 40 percentage points.
Now, on to you – the speaker.
- Feeling nervous is fine and to an extent a good thing.
It shows you want to perform well but you must harness this energy and put it into your preparation and put excitement into your delivery. You’ll find that as you become more adept in controlling your nerves, you’re able to take on more advanced techniques that will help your public speaking skills.
- Visualize.
Even before you step up to the podium, imagine yourself speaking to the audience and being great at it. A technique commonly used in performance athletes, this approach has yielded positive results.
- Finally, learn to enjoy the experience and not dread it.
This point alone improves your skills by a 100% which is great not just for you, but for your audience as well.
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