theoutsider
Well-known member
I attended a seminar today in which each of us were required to read certain parts of an article out loud. Each of us were assigned a section and instantly my anxiety began to ramp up. I have always been well read and can read and comprehend just about anything. On the occasion when I come across a word I've never seen before, it's usually not a problem. Reading silently is actually an escape for me. This is NOT the case when I have to read in front of a roomful of people. While the others were reading their parts I had to skip ahead to mine to practice reading it in my head beforehand. Even so, when my turn came I stumbled over my words, got ahead of myself, spoke too fast and at one point even skipped an entire line of words and had to start the sentence over. Felt like a complete illiterate! I got through it but I had to really remind myself to take a deep breath and slow down. Often, when I have to read aloud, I start sweating and my heart races. Does anyone else have this problem? How do you get through it?