Why do we become nervous?

Fight or flight. When we are in danger the chemicals and hormones in our body revs up our stamina and strength so we can fight or leave fast. In modern day we don’t need such a strong physical reaction for the things that trouble us typically, so it feels like our body is more out of control.

I would say exactly the opposite; that if we have the choice of fighting or fleeing, we do not get nervous. It is the alternative that gets us panicked.

I have to plat the piano at a recital; I am so nervous I feel sick. I would really like to flee but cannot. So I sweat and feel nauseated.

As well as @JLeslie‘s response, it’s because we give such a shit what other people think of us.

Physiologically, your brain weighs the situation and decides that you’d better be ready for anything, so it kicks your endocrine system in the pants for the adrenaline and cortisol and the like. There’s an issue in an old Science magazine – August 1999, I think – where a guy goes and measures the effects of stress on kids. Good read.

I hate public speaking, so naturally I got my degree in communications and a minor in marketing. XD
I coped by putting on the metaphorical game face. I would glance around the room, not really making eye contact but pretending that I was, and use my PowerPoints as a set of notecards – read the point, expound (rote memorization would be the death of me, so I’d wing the exposition), and move on. I suppose you could say that I would ignore the public. Imagining the audience in their underwear took too long.

Sympathetic nervous system activation, as was mentioned as fight or flight. As a fourth year pharm student, I could tell you more than you would ever want to know about it. Basically, your body re-focuses all of its energy and resources on whatever the stimulus was that made you nervous.

As for me, when I get nervous, my ears always get really warm and red. Kind of weird.. and I feel sick to my stomach. Oh, and always have to pee. This always happens before an exam or a race, for me. Once either of them starts, though, I quit being nervous and really appreciate that extra energy and focus!

Nervous is just the minor reaction to stress. That adrenaline is great stuff. It helps us survive. In extreme cases it heightens some senses and suppresses others so we have a better chance of fighting or fleeing. I fended off a truck that never saw me in the crosswalk with my fist and never felt it until 15 or so minutes later. If I stopped to notice the pain he would have got me much worse.

@gailcalled That is basically what I mean. We still have all the nervousness even though it isn’t usually something that is going to kill us. The body still is producing adrenline and other hormones in larger quantities than in our calm state. You don’t have to actually fight or flee.

@tups some people have amore free floating type of anxiety that is rather constant and there doesn’t seem to be a specific cause. But, there usually is some sort of cause. Avoiding facing something that has been a life long trauma can create anxiety. Or, anticipatory anxiety, when nothing bad has happened yet, but someone creates scenerios in their mind and work themselves up.