Glossophobia: description, causes and methods of struggle

Stage phobia is one of the most widespread phobias, which is found in both children and adults of any gender and social status. The causes of anxiety, anxiety and panic associated with public speaking, are diverse and in many ways individual.

Fear of the scene in psychology is called glossofobia. This name comes from the Greek language, where "glosso" means "speech." For various reasons, a phobia appears in people, delivering rather unpleasant and serious experiences, because for many of us, life is directly connected with public speaking. We have a lot to speak in everyday life - at work or at family celebrations.

In many professions and other areas of activity, individuals have to accept in one way or another the need to give a speech to the general public, as well as to communicate with the audience. For example, it may be work in political structures, pedagogy, work of a lawyer, management, acting. All these professions require confident self-control in public, moreover, the skills of tuning to the audience, the ability to convince people that they are right, inspire them with the right mood and convey their ideas clearly and attractively are important.

Every person in his life in any way came across a situation in which he had to rise on the stage, to demonstrate his oratorical skills, to present something to a large number of unfamiliar or even skeptical people. Various psychological studies and surveys demonstrate that The vast majority of all people in the world are afraid when they have to speak to a wide audience.

And very often we are not talking about a normal light wave, but about a real phobia, which significantly spoils the quality of life of the patient. After all, a phobic disorder not only causes severe stress in any individual suffering from them, but also becomes a cause of physiological malaise and even illness.

Many individuals suffering from this phobic disorder want to understand how to confront and defeat stage fright. Glossophobia provokes a huge decline in the quality of life of such people. The disease significantly interferes with promotion at work and all career activities in general. To perform many professional tasks it is important to be able to convince the audience.

In this way, Obsessive and uncontrollable stage anxiety is a very unpleasant and complex serious disorder.which many individuals attach is not the last value. In particular, this may apply to those who, by the nature of their own activities, are simply forced to perform daily in front of a large number of people in public. If such people run this phobia, do not try to overcome their fear on their own, and also refuse to receive qualified help from a psychologist or psychotherapist, the results can be sad. Stress in this case can lead to mental pathologies, the development of chronic diseases, constant indisposition, alcohol or drug addiction.

Some individuals attempt to self-overcome their stage fright.creating for themselves certain techniques and behaviors that help calm down. Some take light sedatives or, on the contrary, strong anti-depressants and sedatives. Sometimes it comes to drugs and alcohol in large quantities. However, this is not a solution to the problem, but ignoring it - this can help only for a short time.

Experts identify different types of glossophobia. The fact is that the problem is very complex and complex, and the reasons for its occurrence, as well as psychological manifestations, can differ significantly. After the psychologist reveals all the details of the stage and public speaking fear, he will be able to select the fastest and most effective treatment for the patient. This phobia can be divided into three types.

• Peyraphobia (fear of the public) lies in the fear of speaking in a large crowd of people. A person has no problems holding a presentation in a circle of two or three people, but a wide audience, a full audience of people cause panic. This disorder can often be associated with social phobia and anthropophobia, as well as fear and discomfort at any kind of public events.
• Verbophobia (fear of oral speech) - this is the fear of talking. In this case, the unpleasant symptoms of phobias occur even when the audience is very small. It is difficult for a patient to tell a long story in the company of his friends, not to mention the presentations in front of a full audience.
• Lalophobia (fear of stuttering or diction disorders) is that a person is afraid to make a reservation, start to stutter or fail to utter words. Interestingly, there is a phobia both in people who really suffer from all sorts of diction disorders, stuttering or dyslexia, and in people who have no serious problems or deviations with articulation.

Sometimes a person has only one type of stage phobia, and sometimes they act in combination. It is very important to correctly determine what a person is afraid of. After that, you can understand the symptoms of a phobic disorder, relieve symptoms and treat the disease.

The reasons for glossophobia in each particular case may vary: studying this phobia shows that, for example, schoolchildren can be afraid of being afraid of being ridiculed, and top managers of fear of not being sufficiently convincing to convey their thoughts. And such reasons can be countless. Professional psychologists identify two main and leading factors that may affect the development of stage fear. They excrete heredity and upbringing, that is, innate character traits and personality traits or acquired fears through a certain social influence.

Heredity in this case, according to psychologists, implies the initial tendency to too vividly experiencing any emotions, impressionability, as well as a genetically inherited fear of society. It is worth noting that the type of temperament, features of a person’s character, the degree of strength of emotions experienced by this person are also inherited. Parents and their daughters and sons are often very similar to each other in their psychological characteristics: researchers often have the same phobic disorders, not to mention the fact that there is definitely a similar emotional perception.

Among these prerequisites are the following:

• overly authoritarian parenting in childhood;
• Conflicts and aggression in the family or in another close environment of the child can also have a very negative impact and increase the risk of phobic disorder;
• emphasis in education on outside criticism, attempts to constantly compare the child with others;
• excessive self-criticism and reflection, the desire to be comfortable for all and to please everyone, the tendency to trust any authority;
• low self-esteem, insufficient self-love;
• a grand failure in childhood, which others have long discussed and criticized - this is a kind of trauma that can be the starting point for a phobia;
• propensity to pessimistically look at the world and negatively interpret any facts.

Another possible and frequent prerequisite for the development of such a phobia can be poor preparation for speaking, lack of competence, lack of confidence in their knowledge, inability to answer questions outside the report. In addition, sometimes a phobia is simply associated with a lack of practice. Often the more a person speaks to an audience, the more confidently he holds, and vice versa - if this is the first serious performance in life, the phobia can manifest itself with various unpleasant symptoms.

Over-perfectionism in the individualThe desire to be the best by all means, to fully control the situation is also a frequent prerequisite for the development of many phobias, in particular, panic anxiety before public speaking.

Panic fear of performances to the public can be expressed in different ways. Glossophobia provokes a person not only negative emotional experiences, it is worth bearing in mind that it often manifests itself also on a physiological level. The manifestations of certain symptoms are very variable and individual: In some cases, a person can tolerate a phobia relatively easily, and often it really prevents them from living.

It all depends on the causes of the phobia, the temperament of the person and the stage of development of the disease. In the presence of protracted, neglected and severe forms of phobias, such a disease may even become the basis for serious somatic disorders, interruptions in the functioning of internal organs.

Experts note that the most common symptoms of a phobia are the following symptoms:

• Nervous gestures of the patient are very common: a person in a state of panic fear simply finds it difficult to control his body;
• often, performance in the presence of a phobia is accompanied by a disorder of the gastrointestinal tract, for example, many people experience diarrhea;
• among the symptoms, many notice nervous laughter for no apparent reason;
• excessive sweating is another reaction of the body, characteristic of a strong fear, in particular, for a phobia of stage performances;
• many have noted dry mouth, dizziness, fever and nausea, which can sometimes be accompanied by vomiting;
• trembling in the voice of the patient, unnatural constrained facial expressions, muscle tension may also indicate the presence of obsessive phobic disorder;
• an acceleration of the heartbeat and an increase in pressure are symptoms that indicate that a person is under stress;
• sensation of a lump in the throat, and in rare cases complete loss of voice, also related to glossofobia;
• some note a change in timbre of the voice, a violation of diction and articulation;
• sometimes patients experience involuntary urination;
• Another characteristic symptom is numbness of the arms and legs, muscle cramps.

It is possible to overcome a phobia at its earliest stages independently.For this you need to have willpower, as well as enlist the support of friends and relatives. To overcome fear, psychologists recommend taking some measures.

• Yoga, meditation and breathing exercises - These are useful tools to get rid of the problem of excessive excitement. You must learn to relax, calm down and relieve stress. In a public speaking situation, also try breathing deeply.
• You can take light natural sedatives, for example, herbal teas. They will help alleviate anxiety, tune in a positive way and conquer fear.
• Any relaxation can help. - Massage, hot bath, pleasant outdoor recreation. Be sure to take time for yourself. Also try to sleep more, eat healthy food, play sports.
• Rehearsal performances in front of a mirror, thorough preparation, including facial expressions and gestures, can give you confidence. Ask your loved ones to listen to your speech several times before the event to sharpen all the details. This will contribute to public success, and the more often you will perform successfully, the sooner you will feel confident and free.
• You can visit the elocution training: on it you will be able to hone the skills of public speaking, gain self-confidence and get rid of phobias.

Modern psychology and psychotherapy will help get rid of the phobia at any stage. If fear prevents you from living, the ways to overcome it may be different, but the fastest is to seek professional help.