Glossophobia Draft Final

Have you ever stood up in front of many people watching your every move? And you have something to tell them, but you mouth dries instantly in seconds. You start to feel anxiety and tension build up in your muscles. You start to shake , and you face gets embarrassingly red. Yes, a handful of us, including myself, feel these intense symptoms when presenting a speech in front of many people. All these are symptoms belong to the fear of public speaking, also know as glossophobia. 

This word isn't very familiar with everyone, but the word glosso means tongue in Greek and phobia means fear; this makes sense because most people with this fear don't want to speak or can barely speak at all in public. These people avoid situations where they would have to speak in public. Sadly, a high majority of people suffer from glossophobia.

You may be wondering what causes glossophobia. When someone constantly over thinks about succeeding on presenting the topic and having to be perfect at speaking; this causes you to get stressed out which makes you have a loss of words and breath because your worrying about what your doing. Also, thinking that the audience will criticize what you are saying will make you think of the worst scenarios possible, which keeps you off focus on what your saying. This can also be from low self-esteem and the lack of encouragement you give yourself. Without encouragement and confidence you won't be able to deliver the speech successfully. Some people might have had traumatic events from early childhood that may have left them to be afraid to speak publicly in front of many people, it could be too overwhelming or others might have not had some real experience talking in front of many people before.

It's unfortunate as it sounds that most people would rather die than give a speech! I've had my bad experiences before and they were horrible! It would start with a loss of breath and then some shaking in my voice. Now, I always try doing the best I can to practice and feel confident. On the bright side there are ways to move past this fear to give out a successful speech.

Here are some tips...

• Make yourself feel that the audience needs to hear what you are going to tell them. You are giving your time to educate a group of people what you have learned to share your knowledge with them.
• Always be prepared and practice, it's always best to prepare and rehearse before delivering your actual speech, and this gives you a chance to get to know your topic better.
• Remember to be relaxed! Take deep breaths and don't forget to breathe!

Therefore, never feel that you can't deliver a speech or talk in front of a group of people; because might say can change someone's, thoughts, beliefs, and even help them because you have educated them with your advice or information. Even though people can do well at public speaking, it doesn't have to stop you from sharing your knowledge with the world; you're stopping yourself from learning and experiencing the risks you could easily make. Generally, all you need is some time to practice to enhance your speech to continue to improve. So don't let a little fear hold you back, it's your time to shine!