Fear of oral presentations

[writerbry]

I can relate, I get so incredibly nervous when I have to talk in front of peers and such. The best thing you can really do is be as prepared as possible, practice, and once you're up there and it starts I find it gets easier as you go along. Good luck :-)

[Rainbowmum]

One technique I used was to address myself in the mirror over and over until I became more comfortable with it .

[Lonelysoul]

Thanks a lot for the advice and the dose of humor guys The thing is that when I am stressed, I start stuttering and I forget what I wanted to say. That's the thing I am mostly afraid of. And of course the fact that my peers will make fun of me (because unfortunately, I want to please everybody and I want people to like me!). I really envy people that have the charisma of oral presentations. They can just remember things easily and they just feel comfortable in their own skin.

[driftwood]

when I am stressed, I start stuttering and I forget what I wanted to say...the fact that my peers will make fun of me ...

Anytime I'm speaking to anyone about anything important, stressed or not, I need to have notes. Otherwise I'm guaranteed to forget what I wanted to say.

As far as people making fun of me, I expect that - it's part of life.

[southbiochem]

As much as I have social anxiety, panic attacks in large crowds and all..I have no trouble what so ever with oral presentations

what you want to do, is to look a 3 spots sequentially, that cover the whole room, but, the key is to look towards the people, to these spots, but not directly at people, meaning don't make eye contact with anybody..that way you won't get as self-conscious while it seems that you are adressing everyone

Also, it help's to take that "yes, I'm better than you mother f*cker" attitude with the crowd (to yourself of course) that makes you exude confidence and it helps you to have an attentive audience

[Sylph]

Ill be dead ass, I dont like talking a large group of people, but I hate not talking at all lol, so I tend to just treat everyone, even people I don't know as if they are my long lost Siamese Twin.

It's just how I deal with people. Until they fuck up, they're my friends.

It helps me not get nervous when talking to new people or a heap of people.

[Ekwarph]

Hi everyone.

So I am currently studying at the University and some courses require oral presentations. The thing is that I hate them. I hate this forced public exposure. This fear stems probably from the fact that I was bullied at high school (and I have very low self esteem) and because I hate my voice.
As I will not be able to escape this time, would you guys recommend a way to alleviate the terrible fear the day of the presentation? For example, would you suggest any natural tranquilizers (apart from valerian which does no good to me!). I need something really strong (but no chemicals!).

I know for sure that I do not want to make oral presentations a part of my career. I will never like them. So no counseling will do me good because all I want to do is skip them whenever I can.

Thanks in advance.

My only advice : "c'est en forgeant qu'on devient forgeron".
In my first year of studies I was very scared by the idea of doing a presentation, but we had those like twice a week to prepare the oral part of the competitions to enter engineering school. I've never been very good in speaking, but it's often only few minutes, I get over it. People may think I'm stupid or whatever, but...who cares?

Maybe you could train with a mirror, to get your presentation better and even interesting, if it helps you.

You're not in high school anymore so the only one who will criticize/bully you will probably be yourself.

[trialbyerror]

May I weigh in on this?

Don't miss the point that this is part of your education, called life skills.

It's not the subject on which you will be giving the presentation, however relavent it may be to your knowledge base, it is the skill to deal with overcomming that is the real lesson, and as such, it is important that you overcome your trepidation.

Find a way to engage your audience.... Perhaps open with the statement "I hope you won't judge me to harshly, I've never done a public presentation, and am as nervous as hell"...

Whatever the outcome you will be the winner, but you have to step up and do this...

Best of the best for you,

Duckkie

[trywait]

i hate speaking in public but when the need arises, I will speak in front of the crowd

[Ekwarph]

Find a way to engage your audience.... Perhaps open with the statement "I hope you won't judge me to harshly, I've never done a public presentation, and am as nervous as hell"...

Hell, please no!

Never ask for being forgiven about your presentation before it started. Seriously! It means "ok guys, I'm going to say shit because I have to, I hope you don't mind".