Every reasonably neurologically healthy person has some fear of public speaking. How much varies hugely from individual to individual. But I suspect that it is very common among philosophers. Why? Because the majority of people who enjoy receiving a lousy salary in return for an insane amount of work have got to have some very good reasons. One good reason, I believe, is that they enjoy working in the comfort of their own home and enjoy the solitude and the control they have over their own time and direction of their work. They are good old-fashioned introverts, who don't really truly enjoy large assemblies of people but who may have adjusted to them and who may even come across as extroverts on a good day. Do introverts fear public speaking more than extroverts? I don't know. But I believe that they do. If you dislike large groups of people or prefer your own company to that of other people, it is not likely that you by nature are super-comfortable speaking to a large group of people. That said, I don't want to rule out that some people went into the profession because of the possibility of fame and attention.
As for my own case, I started out with an extreme fear of public speaking. I recall taking a large lecture class in molecular biology the first year of college. Despite it being a large lecture class, we were all expected to do a presentation. I hadn't spoken in front of a lot of people before, so I had no idea that I had a fear of public speaking. I was assigned a topic, and over-prepared. I made about 50 slides. This was before the age of Powerpoint. So my slides were the old-fashioned transparent kind that you put on an overhead projector. They were all lying in my lap in the correct order when I was sitting in the lecture hall waiting for the professor to call my name. I felt my heart pump very fast and hard even before he called my name. When he called on me, I stumbled down the steps to the front of the lecture hall. My hands were shaking. My legs felt like rubber. Then as I was about to put the first slide on the overhead projector, I dropped all the slides on the floor. The 200 students in the lecture hall were not making a single noise. It was so quiet that I could hear my heart pound. I had no idea what to do. Like an idiot, I hadn't numbered the slides and now they were all lying in a big mess on the floor. No one said anything, not even the professor. I collected the slides from the floor in a big messy pile in my arms, mumbled that I just couldn't do this and then went back to my seat. No one said anything. The professor started lecturing like nothing had happened. I felt terrible.
On the way home in the bus I stumbled on the professor -- a sheer coincidence, I had never seen him on the bus before. I looked away, tried to cover my face, hoping he wouldn't notice me. But he walked right up to me and sat down in the seat next to me. "Do you still have the slides from this morning?", he asked. I mumbled something back and started digging through my bag. "Well, can I take a look at them?", he continued. I nodded and got out the slides from my bag and handed them to him. He grabbed them carefully. "Can I keep them until tomorrow?", he continued. I nodded again. Then one of us got off the bus. He handed them back to me the next day and told me that they were very impressive. I got an A in the course, without ever having to do the presentation that I feared so much.
I don't know if the incident intensified my fear of public speaking or just called my attention to it. From then on I never picked a course in which I had to present in front of a lot of people. Over the years I have managed to get over my fear of public speaking. I will tell you how. But let me first tell you about some other approaches.
If you suffer from extreme fear of public speaking, it may be tempting to use an approach that can stop it at the get-go. Which approach will do that? Well, there are drugs that can do that for you. Some people take diazepam, also known as Valium, for their fear of public speaking and other anxiety disorders. Others take alprazolam, also known as Xanax. Both drugs are part of the benzodiazepine family of drugs. They work in similar ways, but diazepam takes about an hour to work, whereas alprazolam takes effect after about 15 minutes. The half-life also varies for the two drugs. Diazepam has a longer half-life than alprazolam, so it stays in your system for many more hours.
Benzodiazepines are tranquilizers, or downers. Alcohol also has tranquilizing effects. And the effects of benzos can indeed resemble those of alcohol. At small tiny doses, they can remove anxiety and shyness. At larger doses, they slow down the speed of you voice, affect your balance, the clarity of your thoughts and your ability to distinguish between right and wrong. At even larger doses, they put you right to sleep.
At the right doses, these drugs can be effective ways of (temporarily) getting over your fear of public speaking. But there are many good reasons why you should not take them if you can avoid it. First of all, these drugs are highly addictive. If you give a lot of talks, you could become addicted. You also quickly develop a tolerance to them, which means that you will have to take higher and higher doses in order for them to do the job. Another huge problem with these drugs is that they do nothing to cure your anxiety disorder. They simply numb the neurons in your amygdala, the little almonds-shaped part of the subcortical matter of your temporal lobe that is responsible for fear processing. This means that if you continue to take these drugs to get over your fear of public speaking, you will likely depend on them for the rest of your life. What will happen if your bag is stolen or you forget to bring the drugs? Are you going to cancel your talk? It is furthermore difficult to find the exact dose it takes to remove your anxiety without appearing drunk to the audience and without being a big screw-up during Q&A.
If you really do need drugs, make it a temporary thing, and stay away from the very addictive benzos. Beta blockers are another group of drugs that can block the symptoms of anxiety. The most frequently prescribed drug among the beta blockers is propranolol. Like the other beta blockers, propranolol is a blood pressure and heart medication. It works by competing with adrenaline and noradrenaline for the receptors on your heart and muscles. While it doesn't take away your fear, it controls your breathing and prevents your heart from racing and your hands and legs from shaking. This means that you can get the job done perfectly even if you still have some fear. Many professional musicians take this drug to prevent stage fright or to keep their hands completely still, so they can do their best on the stage. Unlike the benzos, beta blockers are not addictive. They mask the symptoms of anxiety but they don't numb up your brain and they don't make you appear drunk or compromise your thinking.
But taking drugs is not the only way to get over your fear of public speaking. One approach, which I used, is gradual exposure (an approach which has many fancy names in the literature on cognitive-behavioral therapy). The idea is simple. Don't start out by speaking to 200 people like I did. Start by speaking to much smaller groups or speak for a shorter amount of time.
How? Present to very small groups of people at real conferences. The APA meetings are usually perfect places to do this. If you are just starting out, I can almost guarantee you that you are not going to get more than 15 people in the audience, whether you present at a colloquium or at a group meeting. 5 people in the audience, not including the commentator, the chair and yourself, is not unheard of. You can sit down if standing makes your more nervous.
Take advantage of classes or seminars with few participants. If you are taking a seminar with 5 other people, I bet you would be able to present toward the end of the semester, almost regardless of how much you fear public speaking.
Another thing you can do is force yourself to ask questions at talks. Questions can be very short, which means that you probably are able to ask them even if your arms and legs are trembling and your voice sounds like Mickey Mouse's. You can also break up your question, so you can catch your breath between asking the bits of your question. Give the speaker an ultra-short version of your question. Let her reply. Then follow up. It's rare that you are not allowed at least one follow-up, especially if your initial question was short.
Teaching is also an excellent opportunity to get used to speaking in front of people. Sometimes it helps when you know, or believe, that you know more about the subject matter than anyone else in the audience. And don't forget that the more times you tell people about your research, the better you will be able to present it. This can take the edge of your anxiety. So don't miss out on opportunities to tell colleagues, students, friends, parents, children, and so on, about your research.
Gradual exposure helped me get over my fear of public speaking. I can't say that I never get nervous when I have to speak in front of people. I often do, especially when I am supposed to speak in front of hundreds of people or I am asked to give a talk on a topic that is relatively new to me. But now my fear is controllable. It doesn't block my thoughts and sometimes it helps me look more enthusiastic and energetic than I really am. I believe I probably have less fear of public speaking now than most people in our profession who are not on drugs.
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