Thinking in public

The most difficult thing for a person who is anxious about speaking in public to do is to think his/her own thoughts while other people (the audience) are watching. The reason for this is that as children they were interrupted by powerful others, who barged in on them and humiliated them, challenged and criticized them. Again and again students report that they were punished for speaking up and voicing their opinions. Little or no attention was paid to their feelings or boundaries as mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, and teachers dismissed their expression as if it was worthless. Another way that thought blocking is developed is when a parent or a teacher pressures a child with “what is the answer? Quick, quick! Hurry, hurry! Tell us the answer, talk, talk!” as if to say, “What is the matter with you? Are you stupid or something?”

Such a forceful intrusion into the mind of a young person is terrifying and causes a freezing up or a temporary mental paralysis, as a result you lose the ability to think or talk quickly, when others in authority are present. This condition persists into adulthood and occurs in all performance situations. Although people may have no problem speaking or thinking in a one on one, where a friendly or even a professional exchange is a usual style of talking, whenever the speechphobic individual is in a performance mode being observed or judged by others, the result is thought blocking and an inability to perform.

Although it would seem that since this problem was initiated in early childhood, you could overcome your fear and thought blocking in therapy; in my experience as a therapist and working with highly anxious professionals, knowing why you have this problem and talking about it will not change the automatic reaction of the inability to think on your feet in front of an audience.

For a strep-by-step method for regaining the ability to think fluidly in public see Chapter 5 A Panic Clinic for Public Speaking: How-to for the Hopeless in The New TalkPower available in print on Amazon or as a kindle book (TalkPower: A Panic Clinic for Public Speaking).

www.TalkPowerInc.com