Fear of oral presentations

[Lonelysoul]

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.

[driftwood]

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.
.

There's no need to make oral presentations part of your career; not is it necessary to like them. You don't need counseling. You're just like most people. It may stem from being bullied, or it may stem from being human. I don't recommend taking a tranquilizer, natural or otherwise.

A few years ago I was president of a small organization in my town. At our first get-together, I knew that it was my responsibility to make the announcements, but I chickened out. I had someone else do them for me. The next month, I steeled myself and did them myself. Doing the announcements once a month, within a few months I started to relax with it, and within a year, I didn't have any trouble at all anymore.

The thing is these oral presentations are part of your education; even though you don't plan on making oral presentations a part of your career, if they decide they are going to be a part of your career, you may have no say in the matter. Some people never learn to relax with them. But most do - at least enough to get through them. If you just bite the bullet, and do it, you'll be surprised at how relaxed you feel after a semester of them.

[MisterLove]

I once tried a natural supplement called SEREDYN, that contains valerian and other ingredients. It was good, very effective and had no side effects.

[Edward]

I understand you. When I studied, I used to hate oral presentations too. I just learned by heart what I have to say and I just spoke. I tried to imagine that the class is empty and I'm just talking to myself. Now PowerPoint makes it all a lot easier, I had to do it without it, I had to present with just some handouts and the theory I had studied.

I assume you're not the only one who has to make a presentation. The truth is that your course mates don't really care what are you talking, I know I didn't. When someone else was presenting, I was thinking about my own presentation more than I was listening to them. And just imagine how relieved will you feel when it'll be over.

Also I wouldn't recommend you to use any tranquilizers, because they might make you sleepy and make your thoughts and speech unclear.

[EvenOlderButWiser]

Im always presenting orally - no puns please

If you want to reach management grade in your chosen career, standing up and making a speech or presentation is usually a standard requirement.

I guess Im lucky, although I sometimes get nervous before making a presentation, Ive been doing presentations all my life.

My biggest presentation was to about 3000 people at a convention in Vegas. I regularly present to around 50/60 people every week. Luckily for them its usually on a WebEx :biggrin:

For something to calm nerves, why not try this http://www.amazon.com/Hylands-Nerve-Stre..._sim_hpc_7 My SO uses these all the time whenever he has to present to more that 1 person!

ObW
X

[Chris]

Try to ask yourself a question: what am I really scared about? That your body will be shaking? Your voice will be unclear? So what? Let it be. I had the same feeling as you and finally let myself to shake, shiver etc. Maybe other students noticed it, maybe not but what I noticed was that my body actually relaxed. I think that one reason of such a reaction is that we try to control us. Stop to control. You don't realize but probably more than a half of your colleagues have the same feeling as you.

Btw I found vitamin B complex, tomato juice and magnesium very useful. Also don’t forget to tire your body before presentation by running or swimming.

[MisterTinkles]

OH GAWD!!!! I always hated that. I used to be like that. Scared the SHIT outta me to speak in front of people.

Of course, back then, I was so boring anyway, the only person to pay any attention to what I was saying was the teacher. And they always liked what I had to say, even though it put everybody else to sleep. I was still scared of speaking in public though.

One time I decided to do something different and put a bit of comedy into my oral presentation.

It worked. Nobody fell asleep or got bored. I even got a couple of laughs. My teacher was confused as to the purpose of my complete turnaround on my usual methods, but I made it different.

It felt nice having something I wrote get paid attention too, and even laughed at, since thats what I really wanted. And since then, I have become sort of a "ham" in public speaking and I like to try and make things funny. Because if you make things with a bit of humor, people pay more attention, and also find you a bit more fascinating and less boring. It also helps with the fear of speaking in public. If you make somebody laugh, even if its just one person, you feel better about having said something that entertained. And you are'nt so scared the next time you speak in public.

[Woollyhats]

Ouch. I hate them too. So far I've gotten around them in that I've created wonderful slide show presentations for my group, and other people read off of them while I just clicked through them. When I do present, I am very formal, and focus on finishing and imagine the presentation as a problemto be worked through. I also remind myself that I don't mind what anyone thinks of me. They usually go well, I always make sure I know the material well (it's not a bad thing to have a citation on each slide!! It makes you seem a little intimidating and totally on top of what you're doing!), create a presentation that will please the teacher (I know the class is going to be put to sleep no matter what I do, so I bypass them), and then I make sure I'm using a loud voice, and focusing the front of my body towards the class... I find interactive activites to be the worst, so I finish those first...

Also, if you can, end the presentation on something light hearted. For example, my last presentation was on money management, so my last slide was a clip of Peter Griffin diving into a pile of money and breaking every bone in his body, and I was all like, "This humourously shows that not being careful with your money can pose consequences", but I was really just putting it in to be silly. It's good to end presenations this way.

Good luck.

[Wade]

Not to toot my own horn, but I'm about to...

I'm great at public speaking (even though I find normal day-to-day social interaction very intimidating). I find it both scary and exciting. But I like to hear myself talk so... what better opportunity than having a captive audience? Even when I don't know what the hell I'm talking about, I can usually bullshit and come off pretty well because I appear relaxed and try to make people laugh (a little).

Here's a couple of pointers if you're interested:

Know what you're talking about! In spite of what I just said, if you're confident and comfortably knowledgeable on your topic, you won't be nervous about being thrown off by random questions or people's bored looks. It helps if what you're talking about it of particular interest to you. Enthusiasm translates.

Speaking of bored looks... don't be deterred by them. It's easy to lose confidence when everyone seems to be enjoying your talk and then you see that ONE GUY who, for some strange reason, looks like he wants to kill himself... or you. Don't take it personally and don't let it throw you. Most likely, he's not even thinking about you or your presentation. Some shitty barista probably put too much sugar in his coffee that morning and he's is still pissed.

Most importantly (and this is going to sound very arrogant, but it helps) don't think so highly of the people you're speaking to. Ask yourself "why do I honestly give a flying fuck what these people think of me? What is their approval really worth?" Pssst.... the answer is nothing! If you can realize that, then everything else falls in place.

Just look at it as a game, as an experiment and have fun with it. Don't place too much importance on it. It's not a big deal, it never is.

[747XL29]

a beta blocker and 5mg of valium

I have given hundreds of presentations and they all still give me the butterflies ! Practice and gaining confidence are the only real non-chemical aids in my personal experience. It's never as bad as you think it will be. Good luck, you will do fine.