You are right in front of your classmates, ready to listen to your proposals in the form of a presentation. They seem expectant, but your heartbeat deafens your thoughts and you can’t concentrate to begin with. You wipe away the constant sweat that emanates from your forehead while you try to remember what you were going to say, but multiple catastrophic thoughts plague your mind: “do they realize that I don’t know anything? Have they seen my nervousness? or am I a fraud, I don’t deserve to be here”. In the end, you remain silent, unable to articulate a single word.
Did it look familiar to you? We have all felt anxiety when speaking in public, but there is a group of people who have a really bad time, people who suffer from glossophobia. In this Psychology-Online article: glossophobia: what it is, causes, symptoms and treatments It will be explained what this extreme and irrational fear of speaking in public consists of.
Glossophobia: what is it
Glossophobia, in psychology, is a concept that is used to refer to a specific phobia, a pathological fear. Next we will see what glossophobia is and how it differs from fear and social phobia.
Glossophobia: etymology
The word glossophobia comes from the terms of Greek origin glosso (tongue) and fobos (fear).
What is glossophobia?
Glossophobia is a specific condition in which a great irrational, uncontrollable and permanent fear when speaking in public. Nervousness before speaking in front of a group of people is something normal that can happen to everyone, since there is a certain pressure on our part to do it well. However, for a person who suffers from glossophobia, the anxiety is so high which prevents them from carrying out the activity and blocks them mentally, and there may be cases where they faint. For this reason, people who suffer from glossophobia always tend to avoid these types of situations.
Glossophobia can be a serious impediment to the well-being of the person and their quality of life, especially in work and academic environments, which are the settings where these activities are most likely to take place.
Glossophobia versus fear
Glossophobia is distinguished from a normal fear since it has the following characteristics, which does not present an adaptive and functional fear:
- It’s excessive. The experience is lived as something much more frightening than it really is.
- Irrational. The person is aware that his fear is disproportionate and incongruous and cannot give it a logical explanation.
- Uncontrollable. You cannot control fear or fear.
- Permanent. The level of anxiety is invariable every time the opportunity to speak in public arises.
Glossophobia and social phobia
Glossophobia could be confused with social anxiety disorder, or more commonly called , due to the area in which they are defined, which would be the social environment. Although a person with social phobia could develop glossophobia, there is a clear distinction between the two. The difference lies in what is feared:
- Social phobia is an anxiety disorder that describes an irrational and persistent fear of any social interactionwhether it’s having a conversation, walking down the street and being watched, or eating in public.
- In glossophobia, your fear focuses exclusively on the specific situation of speaking in front of a group of peoplewithout the need to present excessive fear in other social situations.
Glossophobia: causes
As with most phobias, it is difficult to know for sure the cause that generated glossophobia. People who suffer from it are not usually able to remember or determine what caused the extreme fear in the first place. Even so, there are some factors that seem to be linked to the appearance of glossophobia.
Fear of speaking in public: causes
- Genetic predisposition towards anxiety and stress.
- One or multiple traumatic experiences related to public speaking.
- Constantly avoid speaking in public until a normal fear turns into a phobia.
- Formation of negative beliefs at an early age about one’s own abilities regarding speaking in front of people. Thoughts like: I’m not capable, I’m not good at it, I’m going to make a fool of myself, etc.
Glossophobia: symptoms
Glossophobia, being an anxiety disorder, presents symptoms typical of this type of condition. This means that a person with glossophobia experiences different anxiety-related symptoms when exposed to public speaking. Sometimes the fear is so great that even imagining the situation is enough for the person to show anxiety reactions.
When we talk about anxiety, each person can experience different symptoms and with varying intensity. Each person can experience it differently and does not necessarily have to present all the symptoms. There are, like other phobias, three different categories in which anxiety can manifest. The most common symptoms of glossophobia are the following:
Glossophobia: physical symptoms
- Increased breathing.
- Palpitations and/or tachycardia.
- Feeling of suffocation.
- Increased muscle tension.
- Increased sweating.
- Fainting.
- Dry mouth.
- Stomach aches
- Headache
- Nausea, dizziness and vomiting.
- Tremors.
- Stuttering.
Glossophobia: cognitive symptoms
They are a followed by recurring thoughts around irrational beliefs and ideas regarding what can happen when speaking in public. Many times these same thoughts can increase with physical symptoms and vice versa.
- Intrusive and uncontrollable speculation about possible scenarios.
- Mental images of catastrophic ideas of all the bad things that can happen.
- Fear of losing control and not knowing how to properly manage the situation.
Glossophobia: behavioral symptoms
Faced with the aversive stimulus of public speaking, people with glossophobia will show specific behaviors to escape from the situation in any way possible. Any behavior that has the purpose of avoid or avoid the possibility of having to speak in public They are called avoidance behaviors. Some of these behaviors are:
- Being late to the activity on purpose.
- Make it appear that he has fallen ill.
- Invent an excuse to miss the activity.
Glossophobia: treatments
How to overcome glossophobia? How to lose the fear of speaking in public? In order to treat glossophobia, it is essential to carry out psychotherapeutic sessions. The root of therapy is for the person to face the situation that generates anxiety so that they can overcome the fear of speaking in front of an audience.
What is usually done are live exposure techniques, systematic desensitization and cognitive restructuring.
How to overcome glossophobia
Not being able to speak in public is a great impediment; many opportunities in life can be lost because of it. Is there anything I can do to try to improve my situation, beyond therapies? The answer is yes. If you want to facilitate the process of losing the fear of speaking in front of other people, there are techniques and activities that can help you overcome fear. However, it must be kept in mind that these techniques should not replace psychological treatment.
- Practice relaxation techniques It allows you to reduce the physical symptoms that are typical of anxiety itself, giving a greater degree of control over how you feel before being able to speak in public. They can be learned self-taught or with the help of a psychologist and can be used at any time.
- Training and practice. Another way to control anxiety is to sign up for training programs or workshops to learn how to speak in public. They will give you confidence and are an excellent opportunity to work through stressful situations in a safer environment.
In the following article you will find that they can help you.
This article is merely informative, at Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.
If you want to read more articles similar to Glossophobia: what it is, causes, symptoms and treatmentswe recommend that you enter our category.
Bibliography
- Finkelstein, D. (2017, June). Conquer Glossophobia: Help Students Overcome Their Fear of Public Speaking. In Innovations in Teaching & Learning Conference Proceedings (Vol. 9).
- Rahman, F. (2018). Glossophobia in Training of Speech. ELS Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities, 1(1), 28-36.