Shaky voice

This may be one of my least favorite "side-effects" to SA. I say it may even be worse than blushing.

I've been participating a lot more in my classes this semester, so I've been feeling pretty good about myself. In one class today there was a short article in the front page of the paper about the exact topic my professor was talking about. So I raised my hand to share this fact and he then asked me to read the article aloud. I wasn't even feeling 100% nervous and I didn't feel myself blushing (I sort of thought he might ask me to read it, so I was semi-prepared). But my voice was still shaking like crazy which caused me to stutter and whatnot and it was like I barely knew how to read. grrrrr.

It's just annoying because I was feeling good and confidant, yet that still didn't stop my voice from shaking, and then that just totally shot my confidence.

Yeah, I hear ya on that. The weird part about confidence (I'm slowly learning) is that when you try too hard to be confident, you'll end up falling down. In other words, striving to be perfect or to look confident ends up pressuring us into feeling like one little slip-up is going to ruin our mood/day. And you know what happens when we focus all of our attention there - we end up slipping up because of the fear of slipping up!

So I guess what I'm trying to say is letting those things slip is the more rational/self confident way of going about feeling better about ourselves. Slip ups are slip ups, everybody has them, and nobody's focusing on you enough to see your faults. So next time you have a shaky voice, make no attempts to fight it... and you'll see just how easily it will let up.

Awesome to hear what you're doing. You know you are probably the only one that really noticed your voice - we notice our nervousness way more the others.

When I have to give speeches in public I am sooo scared and my whole body shakes. When I mention my nerves, shakes and sweating to anyone else they seem surprised ... got them fooled.

If you were feeling good and confident enough to read - chances are most people probably didn't notice... or they may have thought you were a little unwell.

Don't reply the negative just the fact that YOU DID IT!

Butterflies said:

Awesome to hear what you're doing. You know you are probably the only one that really noticed your voice - we notice our nervousness way more the others.

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Hmmm, not so sure about that. There have been a number of times when I've noticed other people having a shaky voice, and it's an instant giveaway that they're nervous.

It happens to me too, like when I'm having a heated debate with someone or talking in a meeting with people I'm not used to. I hate it, there's just no way to hide it.

Oh, and don't forget how Bill Clinton's voice when funny when he was denying having sex with Monica Lewinsky. It wasn't a shaky voice per se, but at one point it sounded like his voice was breaking like a boy going through puberty!

blackcap said:

Oh, and don't forget how Bill Clinton's voice when funny when he was denying having sex with Monica Lewinsky. It wasn't a shaky voice per se, but at one point it sounded like his voice was breaking like a boy going through puberty!

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No - I didn't see Bill Clinton (thank goodness)! But yeah - I hear what you're saying. Hope my friends aren't lying to me!!

One thing I know for sure, we often over exaggerate our own internal feelings - especially if we dwell on them. Also, as fellow suffers we easily notice others battling the same symptons as we do. Like when you buy a new red car - seems all of a sudden you notice so many other people have the same car. But, if others do notice we are nervous or shaky it doesn't usually make them like us any less.

Yeah, that makes sense what you're saying Vulvectomy. Because as I was reading I was then also thinking "ahhh, why is my voice shaking! I must seem so weak now! blah blah blah," which could've even made me stutter even more and made my voice even more shaky. If I just kept reading and shook off those negative thoughts, maybe my voice would have just evened out on it's own.

I guess I need to get over things easier. It's so lame thinking for the rest of the day like, "grrr, how'd I screw up like that?" It's just annoying because it feels like no one's even listening to what I'm saying and they're just noticing how weak my voice sounds and they can barely take me seriously whenever my voice shakes badly like that.