Learn How to Rise to the Occasion
Performance Anxiety Counseling in Delray Beach
What is Performance Anxiety?
Performance anxiety is nervousness and counter-productive behavior while performing a task. It can happen in any number of situations. Most often, it is characterized by a sudden onset of anxious symptoms, things like:
racing thoughts
sweating
upset stomach
hives
difficulty focusing
memory loss
difficulty speaking
These symptoms occur leading up to or during the moment you are trying to do something important. Very inconvenient!
Performance Anxiety is Common
Performance anxiety is one of the most commonly reported mental health problems. It happens across many situations, such as:
Public speaking, or stage fright, is the most common intrusive fear in the world in countries where public speaking is a common practice.
As many as 25% of sexual partners experience a disruption to their sexual performance or satisfaction due to performance anxiety.
Test anxiety affects as many as 40% of students in the United States.
Athletic performance anxiety (“Gameday Anxiety”) is common at all levels, ages, and across most sports.
Performance anxiety can affect anyone, in any situation that matters to them. The intensity of “meeting the moment” can impact first responders, cashiers, and job seekers. When the stress of showing up and meeting expectations becomes too much, it can lead to avoidance, burnout, and loss of motivation surrounding our most valued endeavors.
Meeting the Moment Take the Right Kind of Preparation
A frustrating problem with performance anxiety is that oftentimes, there is a poor correlation between your amount of preparation or practice and your actual execution in the moment. In other words, more preparation doesn’t lead to reduced nerves when you try to perform.
Our clients often talk about needing to practice or study “more” or “harder” to try and compensate for or prevent the stress of performing. Over-mastery can be a tool for managing performance anxiety, but many individuals mistake stress/anxiety as a sign that they are not smart enough, coordinated enough, or practiced enough. The good news is this is rarely the case. Specifically addressing the stress reaction itself, in addition to task-specific training, can drastically improve your execution when you are feeling monitored or judged.
Stress Helps Performance… Until It Doesn’t
Researchers have recognized the connections between stress and performance since the early 1900s. One of the most common theories about this is the Yerkes-Dodson law. Essentially, researchers found that a certain level of stimulation from a stressful task can help improve an individual’s motivation, focus, and mastery of a task to a certain point. Eventually, a threshold is reached and the stressful feelings suddenly begin to negatively affect performance and learning.
At Breakwater, we provide anxiety reduction services to help you find and stay in your ideal window of stimulation. The goal is to feel engaged enough to “ramp up” for the performance, but not so overwhelmed or burnt out that your hard-earned skills and knowledge suddenly become inaccessible or impaired.
Wellness Consults Can Reduce Performance Anxiety
We offer specialized, science-backed programming to help you:
Understand where your performance anxiety is coming from.
This means both gaining a better awareness of how your nervous system is responding to stress as a human, as well as a basic understanding of why the problem situation(s) can become so quickly overwhelming.
Learn practical skills to recognize and anticipate anxious symptoms.
Mindfulness, self-awareness, and observational tracking exercises are a few ways we help you get a better sense of awareness and control over when your problem symptoms begin to ramp up. This paves the way for early and more effective management of these symptoms.
Learn simple, pragmatic methods of reducing stress in your body, and hone them so that you can use them when it matters most.
This means learning the basic and effective strategies for managing how stress affects you specifically. It also means practicing in situations that might cause those reactions to happen, so that you will be ready for real-life performances.
Common Signs of Performance Anxiety
Performance anxiety is often easy to notice because of how specifically and intensely it shows up at the exact wrong time. But, sometimes it can be more subtle or misconstrued as something else.
If you find yourself experiencing any of the following, you may benefit from wellness consults for performance anxiety:
“Sunday Blues” or other common feelings of dread or fatigue in anticipation of the upcoming work week
Sweaty palms, shaky voice, nausea, or vision disruptions leading up to or during situations where you feel evaluated or publicized
Difficulty finding or recovering motivation to practice things you care about, especially due to feelings of regret or dread about past or future performances
Preoccupation with upcoming exams, speeches, or dates for fear of things going catastrophically wrong
Feeling embarrassed or ashamed about your perceived performance even when others have reassured you that you did better than you think
Difficulty getting or staying aroused with romantic partners
We Can Help You Do Your Best
Performance anxiety is common and responds well to both behavioral interventions and guidance from people you trust. We are ready to train you and offer the support and guidance you need to perform your best and gain your confidence.
If you feel curious or are ready to talk about your performance anxiety, reach out to our intake coordinator today for a free consultation about our services.