PERFORMANCE ANXIETY
What Is Performance Anxiety?
Performance Anxiety is the fear or nervousness experienced during a performance and is commonly referred to as stage fright. Performance Anxiety, can either help or hinder a performance. Some anxiety benefits us by focusing our attention towards a performance task. When this anxiety becomes too great, it can overwhelm us, scattering our concentration, which can lead to a poorer performance. People with extreme levels of performance anxiety sometimes feel depressed as a result of their distress.
Performance Anxiety is experienced by students, amateur performers, and professional artists, and others who are highly skilled in a particular task. It can feel like extreme tension or apprehension in the face of performing a certain task in public, like a music recital in a large concert hall in front of your peers and music experts, or having a social game of golf with your friends. And it happens to children, adolescents, and adults.
What does extreme performance anxiety feel like? Many people...
...feel physical sensations like:
- fast, shallow breathing (hyperventilating)
- sweating
- shaking
- racing pulse
- dizziness
- dry mouth
...think things like:
- I'm not good enough
- I'm going to fail
- I fail everything
- Nobody likes me
- It's hopeless, why bother?
and:
- have a Panic Attack, wanting to escape from the situation as quickly as possible
- avoid similar performance situations and opportunities in future