Catastrophic pattern of thought: What if I start to panic while giving a talk to those people? What if they think I'm crazy? I'd never live it down.
Identify the distorted thoughts: The distorted thoughts are I would surely panic if I had to give a talk and others would definitely think I was crazy, which would be devastating to me.
Question their validity: Realistically, how likely is it that I would panic while speaking? What are the odds, if I did panic, that people would be aware of what I was thinking and thus conclude that I was crazy? Suppose the unlikely happened and people really thought I was crazy because I panicked. How terrible would that be? Is it realistic to suppose I'd never live it down?
Replace them with more realistic ones: If I did start to panic, I could simply abbreviate what I wanted to say and sit back down. As people tend to be caught up in their own thoughts and preoccupations, no one would likely notice my difficulty or be upset that I'd cut my comments short. Even if people did detect signs of panic, like my face turning red or my voice trembling, the odds are very slim that they'd think I was crazy or weird. Would I think that of someone if the roles were reversed? It's much more likely that they'd express concern. And even in the rare instance that someone thought I was crazy or different because I panicked, I could explain to them that I sometimes have a fear of speaking in public. With all the publicity about anxiety disorders these days, they would likely understand. Being totally honest is one way I could handle the situation. And no matter what happened, I would forget about it after a while. It's just not true that I would never live it down. I've gotten over embarrassment before. |
