[NotTheGuyYouKill]

edit: Oh and to expand on NotTheGuyYouKill's advice on getting people to laugh to get it to be easier, that's a bit harder to do when your entire school isn't in front of you, but rather silently judging you from their respective classrooms. Kind of hard to feel better when Laughter isn't audible, but it totally works when your in front of people.

Yeah, I imagine that is pretty difficult. There's a lot of pressure on you and no visible feedback to allow you to alter your presentation style. You could always use like, pathos. Say it in a style they'd wanna hear (or how you think they'd want to hear it). Pop culture references, calling out teachers in a jokey manner, stuff like that.

I think it helps letting people know you're nervous up front. Seems to sway their sympathy towards you. I was nervous about a presentation once and I simply told them up front, "Hey guys, I'm pretty nervous, so if I stumble or stutter, sorry." Then I did reasonably well, after the applause I said, "Hey, you guys are lucky I didn't vomit" and and everyone cracked up.

[ATF487]

Despite being socially anxious most of the time, I'm a decent public speaker. The problem with me is what I'm presenting, usually.

I was presenting a case study last semester, and half way through the presentation I realized that a lot of our shit was wrong. So I'm up there, trying to defend our rationale with the teacher constantly grilling us in front of the class. None of my group members really wanted to say anything either, so it was my burden. I was shaking with anger.

That class was awful, he didn't know our finance curriculum and never let us see the answers for the cases. Well, he'd show them on the projector, but you couldn't really ever figure out what you actually did wrong; you just knew your answer was shit.

Otherwise, my presentations go well if I've had time to prepare and get comfortable with the material.

[EliteArtist]

Yeah, I imagine that is pretty difficult. There's a lot of pressure on you and no visible feedback to allow you to alter your presentation style. You could always use like, pathos. Say it in a style they'd wanna hear (or how you think they'd want to hear it). Pop culture references, calling out teachers in a jokey manner, stuff like that. I think it helps letting people know you're nervous up front. Seems to sway their sympathy towards you. I was nervous about a presentation once and I simply told them up front, "Hey guys, I'm pretty nervous, so if I stumble or stutter, sorry." Then I did reasonably well, after the applause I said, "Hey, you guys are lucky I didn't vomit" and and everyone cracked up.

Oh there were plenty of pop culture references once we got into the swing of things. It was truly glorious. I agree with telling people you're nervous. That helped me back Sophmore year when I had to do a presentation on Dante's Inferno to the class. That was a grand tale in itself.

[NotTheGuyYouKill]

Oh there were plenty of pop culture references once we got into the swing of things. It was truly glorious. I agree with telling people you're nervous. That helped me back Sophmore year when I had to do a presentation on Dante's Inferno to the class. That was a grand tale in itself.

[dmshaposv]

Public speaking works on the prime principle of "faking it till you are making it". You just have to pretend that a more confident version of you is standing there and addressing people.

Honestly, id rather suggest gaf this than therapy - we'd never need a girl-age thread again!

[Malleymal]

Hahahah My job is all about public speaking,

When I first started , I didnt know that it would be so the first presentation I gave to 25 people, drove me crazy...

then I just got used to it.

Now I speak in front of 3 to 500 people for a half hour to 45 mins at a time every so often all over the country and its not really a problem. I do remember those tough days at the beginning though.

I remember this one kid in my Public speaking class that had to show how beer was made and he had a bag of some barley that he was pouring into a glass and he was so nervous that the stuff flew all over the place missing the glass. I felt so bad I just stared at the ceiling ......

[Alucrid]

One of my English teachers pretty much snuffed out any public speaking problems I had since we had to give eight presentations I think and every week we had a vocabulary quiz where we had to stand up in class and spell/define/etc the word he gave you.

[maxxpower]

Your guys' stories are tame compared to mine. Public speaking is most definitely my kryptonite.

Throughout elementary school I was actually a fairly confident public speaker, I don't know what the hell happened, but I do know that in 8th grade this happened.

I was to present a short story in front of the class for my English class, I was the last one to do so. I remember going up there in front of everyone. I took a deep breath and began reciting my short story...As soon as I began speaking I suddenly felt this uncontrollable shaking in my hands and legs, and I mean uncontrollable. My speech became a bunch of gibberish, and I honestly could not stop shaking. I remember looking up(I was holding and reading from a piece of paper) at my classmates and the look on their face told the story quite well. My classmates were uncomfortable as fuck, most with wide mouth expressions on their faces.

I don't remember how long I was up there, but as soon I finished and took my seat, everyone, including my teacher(who was really attractive =[) turned back to look at me and gave me the most "What kind of freak are you" look I have ever seen in my entire life.

For the rest of the school year(and my high school career) most kids stopped talking to me, and if they did talk to me, they would do so in an extremely awkward manner. Ever since that incident, my hands shake even if I'm not nervous, and I'm just shaky and odd all around, and it fucking sucks.

[Red UFO]

I really cannot overstate the importance of having clear, concise notes with you when speaking to an audience. I fall apart without them, having something to reference to and make sure I am hitting all the important points.

I like it when people listen to me so I quite like public speaking.

[EliteArtist]

Back in Sophmore year we were tasked with choosing a topic to show a 20 slide power point on. I happened to choose the Divine Comedy, but then narrowed it down to Dante's Inferno because seriously have you looked at that thing? There was no way I was going to be able to give a presentation on the whole thing. Anyway, I sort of worked on the power point and it was amazing because everyone seems to be impressed with my artistic prowess at school, which is another confidence booster considering if my presentation was generally shit at least people would tell me "The way you drew Dante and Virgil riding across the sea of the dead on their kickass water ski was amazing".

Presentation day comes and I freeze up at the start and my voice is very wobbily until I tell the class sarcastically that I'm totally not freaking out and that my knees are shaking AT ALL. They laughed and well that gave me the boost to best my presentation and get like a 93 percent on the assignment. Then my friend got up to the podium and bullshitted his way through the FBI and got the same grade as me. Gotta love Highschool teachers.

[cametall]

I've never had problems during a speech, but before hand I always want to shit my pants I get so nervous. Once I start I'm fine.

HOWEVER, in college as an Accounting major I was forced to take general business classes, and most of them required presentations, so I've had to do a lot of public speaking and watch people give speeches.

In my freshman Public Speaking class we had a guy whose face would start twitching during his speeches. He could not control it and it was very noticeable that his face was twitching.

In another class there was a guy who, if he did not have a podium available and had to stand holding his notes, would start shaking very badly and forget his lines. Outside of class he is a loud outgoing person (in class too actually) but when it comes to public speaking he goes stupid.

[1cmanny1]

I had a group assignment; we had to prepare a report about a problem a company had and present it to the lecturer. The first guy and I did fine, but the other three people were horrible. I had to actually restrain myself from face palming, I did feel sorry for them though.

Some are so bad, for example just reading what is in the PowerPoint. Another thing that pisses me off (even lecturers do this) is putting gifs and some photos in their presentation. That is a big no no because it draws your attention away from the content.

[NotTheGuyYouKill]

Back in Sophmore year we were tasked with choosing a topic to show a 20 slide power point on. I happened to choose the Divine Comedy, but then narrowed it down to Dante's Inferno because seriously have you looked at that thing? There was no way I was going to be able to give a presentation on the whole thing. Anyway, I sort of worked on the power point and it was amazing because everyone seems to be impressed with my artistic prowess at school, which is another confidence booster considering if my presentation was generally shit at least people would tell me "The way you drew Dante and Virgil riding across the sea of the dead on their kickass water ski was amazing". Presentation day comes and I freeze up at the start and my voice is very wobbily until I tell the class sarcastically that I'm totally not freaking out and that my knees are shaking AT ALL. They laughed and well that gave me the boost to best my presentation and get like a 93 percent on the assignment. Then my friend got up to the podium and bullshitted his way through the FBI and got the same grade as me. Gotta love Highschool teachers.

Awesome story, dude.

[tokkun]

A couple years ago I was presenting some work I had done on the LHC at a conference, and my session chair introduced me to the audience as working on the "Very Large Hard-on Collider".

[BPRD]

I used to be a good public speaker, I could make a whole room laugh on queue too. then I dont know what the hell happened now I quake in fear. I even used to be the front in a band and everything. I dont know what the hell has changed, but I do want to get back on stage. but I get all shakey and forget to breathe and everything ahhhh

I think I was always on drugs and that made me not give a shit, now my drug problem is 110% of my life and now its the problem of why I cant speak. I am shaking most of the time regardless anyway.. its bad. I cant even leave the house without 16mg of xanax, half to full gram of heroin, and as much of a bottle as I can chug on an empty stomach. literally cannot leave the damn house like a prisoner until so many requirements are met i hate life.

luckily in 2008 I qualified for help from the state. They initially sent me to rehab for 5 months. Now they just pay for my meds, and give me a check each week. I still have to take tests and see 2 doctors just to talk, and one just for my medicine. oh and my case worker, I have to convvince her not to close my case which sucks, and she so easily can just say case closed and im cut off from everything and i probably shoot myself. if things arent going well and I forget to contact her she calls me, and my parole officer both with threats. luckily my current PO is so understanding. i mean one look at me its obvious im fucked in the head my PO is nicer than my case worker its kinda weird