Sudden BAD stage fright, how to get over it?

Oh you’re not the only one. Back in my presentation days in college I used to experience the same thing, or perhaps even worse. I’ve studied all time about my subject, read online and watch video about how to do a good presentation and such. And guess what? As soon as I appear in front of everybody my mind suddenly becomes blank. All those things I’ve memorized and keep telling myself to do it right suddenly vanish. I ended up explain things spontaneously and luckilly all those memories gradually return as I keep explaining in my own way and I ended finishing the presentation in my own personal way. It’s the same destination with slightly different route.

All those time and I have finally found the secret. Stop thinking too much that what you can do to make it perfect. Stop thinking that you’ll make a mess. And finally, stop trying to impress your audience. Simply imagine that the room is empty and you’re in your own bedroom. If that is too hard, then just think (yes, you must think this way) that your audience are a bunch of stupid people and you have to brighten their mind. With this kind of mindset and superiority behavior I find that it’s the same like telling little kids some information they don’t know yet. Think that they will just waste your time but you will still explain anyway.

Alcohol works for some.

LOL Maybe I should do a quick shot of something. I never had to resort to that though but I’m so stressed. I never been so nervous in my life.

Are you still nervous, even after the practice session? Try practicing in front of family or friends. Are you allowed to bring notes? It can be helpful to have a rough outline of what you want to say.

The professor won’t let us use notecards! I’ve never had someone say we can’t. I think it’s just that I’m not confident in this material… maybe an outline will do. I plan to practice in front of my family…I only had one day to get it together so maybe that’s why I bombed.

I wasn’t nervous as much after speaking for the second part of the presentation.

I did that once at an event….stuttered and repeated myself, froze up. It was by far the largest crowd I’d presented in front of, so maybe that was it. Just take a day for yourself and try again!

@chelle21689, I sympathize. I hate, hate, hate to address a group, unless I can just sit down in a circle and talk to them at eye level (and even then…). And I’ve had training in public speaking, and lots of practice at work.

So I rehearse my presentation over and over, rehearse it to death. I print out my scripts in large letters so I can read them even when I’m so nervous that I can barely see, and I include prompts for where to change slides if it’s a Power:Point. I time it. I go over the rough spots. I anticipate questions and prepare answers.

And all this performance anxiety and compulsive prepping is despite the understanding that I’m there to be a channel for the information I’m imparting, and my job is to deliver it and not to call attention to myself as a performer.

So at one big meeting, I gave a talk and Christie gave a talk. She was fumbling and stammering and dropping pages and turning to the wrong slide, and she got a much better reception than I did. I was upset and asked my boss about it afterward. And she said: “Who do you think got more sympathy, you with your smooth, perfect talk, or Christie with her stammers and backtracking and dropping things?”

I was mad and said “But I prepared the hell out of it, and hers just sounded thrown together that morning.” And my boss said, “I know you did. But you know what? They don’t know that. You made them think it was easy for you, and they identified with Christie.”

Way to learn a lesson.

I’ve taught short term lot classes for years and I still get anxious beforehand despite hours of prep. This does sound new for you so try to not over analyze it and see if you can frame it as a one off.