Help!! Have to do Presentations on Friday!

[kyle]

I've had social anxiety disorder for years, and my last presentation in front of a class was the fall of 2001. I have 2 presentations to do Friday. I am really nervous, and stressed out. Can anyone give me some advice as to how I can relax? I hate feeling this way. It's my biggest fear.

 

[MsBuzzkillington]

Go first, seriously, go first. Don't give yourself any more time to stress out about it than necessary.

You'll get up there, do great and then you'll get to breathe a huge sigh of relief because it's over.

Take a few deep breaths and realize that it is perfectly normal to be nervous, everybody is nervous before giving a presentation. I bet 98% of your class is having the same fears you are. So you are not alone, you're normal and it's okay.

 

[Aussie_Lad]

It's perfectly normal to get nervous before an event. A lot of presenters and comedians get the same thing, even when they are quite experienced.

Once you are up there, pretend that everyone there are your best friends (or maybe pretend a you are a leader) and talk to them like they are. Maybe throw a few questions to the audience to wake them up and perhaps even give you a chance to get some feedback to see whether the audience is agreeing with what you are talking about.

 

[R3K]

msbuzzkillington had a good idea about going first. if you wait and let other people go ahead of you then you might start feeling intimidated by their performance. taking deep breaths might not help though. it causes your heart rate to automatically increase and then that snowball effect of negative thoughts and biological things might start. i think these situations are different for everybody though, so i might be wrong.

in the last super nervous presentation i had to give in front of a class years ago i was nose-diving right off the bat, mind went blank and voice was breaking on every other syllable. i saw the pity in the students' eyes. then i got pissed and quite literally did a mental reboot and freestyled the rest of the presentation off the top of my head. i probably didn't make much sense in the latter half but i got through it talking smoothly and feeling like a boss. looking back, if i hadn't gone into freestyle mode i probly wouldn't have salvaged the situation and i'd have puked on the front row of students or passed out, or both.

 

[Ignace]

Good tips on here. I have problems with presentations too. It's almost vacation and right before every vacation there are multiple presentations. :: I feel like I'm gonna die when I have to do 1.

 

[Looking_in105]

I've had social anxiety disorder for years, and my last presentation in front of a class was the fall of 2001. I have 2 presentations to do Friday. I am really nervous, and stressed out. Can anyone give me some advice as to how I can relax? I hate feeling this way. It's my biggest fear.

I feel your pain. Doing presentations is one of my biggest fears. In fact, i'm getting nervous/sick just by reading this thread::

A couple of years ago I didn't feel as bad as I do now about them. I have some presentations coming up in a few months and I feel that medication is the only way to get thru it

 

[Iseesky]

Haha...I just had a presentation on monday that I was crazy nervous about. I'm the type of person who works herself up so much I literally get sick to my stomach for days before!

It went very well, though. Some advice...

Nobody cares about your presentation. Seriously. You can have the worst presentation in the history of bad presentations and still nobody will remember the next day...or even a minute later! Nobody cares if you look stupid or sound stupid. When everyone else is doing their presentations, look around the room. Some students will be watching (the keen students who actually want to learn something from you), some will be texting their friends under their desks, some will be sleeping, some will be staring off into space thinking of other things, some will be looking at the presenter nervously anticipating their own presentation.

For my presentation (which was an hour long and in a group of 4), I did the introduction and had a 15 minute break where I just stood and waited for everyone else to say their part. I had nothing else to do but look at the audience. There were no hostile expressions at all. Nobody wanted us to fail...Nobody laughed or even seemed to notice when my group members stuttered or mispronounced a word. Presentations are hard for the majority of people and thus the majority of people know how you feel and want to see you succeed.

Meditation helps a lot. Not eating a few hours before the presentation helps me. Think about waking up on saturday knowing you've done your presentations and don't have to do them again.

Another tip...Know your material well. I always write script and go over it and over it until I've almost memorized it. It makes things easier knowing what you're going to say...Even if you take the notes up with you and read straight off of them. Remember to breathe deeply, doing so tricks your body into thinking you're not nervous and takes away a lot of the nervous symptoms.

 

[R3K]

Remember to breathe deeply, doing so tricks your body into thinking you're not nervous and takes away a lot of the nervous symptoms.

hmmm... that's two people that says breathing deeply helps them before a presentation. i must be the only one who gets negatively affected by this tactic

 

[kyle]

UPDATE:

Ok, my presentations are over for last week. My first presentation went great. I did well, and was confident. Unfortunately, I bombed on my afternoon one. I froze up after a minute and a half. I had a panic attack and thought I was going to faint. Now I have two remaining presentations to do. One on Wednesday and one on Thursday. I am really nervous now that I have shown that I am fearful of public speaking. Hopefully this one goes better. I wish I knew how to conquor this, but I will not quit.

 

[kyle]

I am not going to quit!!!

 

[Looking_in105]

UPDATE:

Ok, my presentations are over for last week. My first presentation went great. I did well, and was confident. Unfortunately, I bombed on my afternoon one. I froze up after a minute and a half. I had a panic attack and thought I was going to faint. Now I have two remaining presentations to do. One on Wednesday and one on Thursday. I am really nervous now that I have shown that I am fearful of public speaking. Hopefully this one goes better. I wish I knew how to conquor this, but I will not quit.

so what did you actually do? did you walk away?

one of my biggest fears

 

[kyle]

YES!!!

I nailed it! I did my best speech in years. I did have a little help from a girl named clonazepam though. Regardless, all my presentations are over for the year. I rock. I did a great job.

 

[Ignace]

YES!!!

I nailed it! I did my best speech in years. I did have a little help from a girl named clonazepam though. Regardless, all my presentations are over for the year. I rock. I did a great job.

You're never going to get a presentation anymore this year ?