How to Overcome Fear of Public Speaking

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By RachelB
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You can overcome a fear of public speaking, but it takes effort.

Fear of public speaking is extremely common. (People like to say that the fear of public speaking is more common than the fear of death.) Even if that is not the case, it is still extraordinarily common and a lot of people want to overcome fear of public speaking. Some people who fear public speaking do not need to do any public speaking in their day to day lives so their fear of it does not present a huge issue for them. On the other hand, some people are required to do a fair amount of public speaking as part of their jobs, so if they are afraid of it, they do need to make an effort to overcome fear of public speaking.

Difficulty: Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

A keen desire to overcome fear of public speaking and a willingness to do the necessary work to achieve this admittedly challenging goal.

Step 1

To overcome fear of public speaking it helps to talk about it with people who love you and understand what you are going through. Sometimes when we discuss our fears out in the open rather than keeping them bottled up inside of us they lose some of the power that they once had over us, so this should be your first step in your quest to overcome fear of public speaking.
Step 2

Many people afraid of public speaking find that it helps to practice public speaking in front of a mirror and and/or in front of a small (but deeply empathetic) audience of friends or family members. If you rehearse a speech ahead of time, this is another way to decrease your fear because you get to hear your own voice forming the words, and you get to tinker with your inflections, your pauses, the words you want to emphasize the most, and other of the more subtle aspects of public speaking. Also, when you get positive feedback from your friends and family members, this will boost your confidence and go a long way toward helping you overcome fear of public speaking.
Step 3

Another step many people take to overcome fear of public speaking is to join a public speaking group such as their local chapter of Toastmasters International. (I personally know people who used to fear public speaking but had to do it as part of their jobs, so they joined Toastmasters International and found it to be enormously helpful.) You practice speaking in front of your fellow members of Toastmasters International, and you give one another positive feedback and (only constructive and gently phrased) criticism. This “teamwork” approach to helping one another overcome fear of public speaking can be astoundingly effective for many people working on overcoming this fear.
Step 4

Some people work to overcome fear of public speaking by discussing their fears with a therapist. Talk therapy by itself has been known to help some people overcome this fear. Other individuals combine talk therapy with anti-anxiety medications or anti-depression medications to overcome fear of public speaking. And a few people find that taking a very low dose of beta blocker medication right before they speak helps to ease both the “stage fright” as well as the physical anxiety symptoms and panic symptoms so often associated with fear of public speaking (the heart palpitations, the sweaty palms, the excessively rapid breathing, etc.) You will probably want to talk to your doctor, and perhaps also a therapist and/or psychiatrist, about your own personal “plan of attack” to overcome fear of public speaking.