Performance Anxiety: Why You Dey Freeze When E Count, and Wetin Actually Dey Help

Five minutes before you go on, your hand no gree stay still. Your heart dey beat too fast for person wey just siddon for chair. Your mouth dry and your belle don drop, and somewhere for the back of your mind, one voice don already dey narrate the disaster. You don prepare. You sabi this material well well. None of that be like say e matter to your body right now.

That experience get name, and almost everybody dey get am. Performance anxiety na the rush of fear and dread wey dey show up around specific task wey you care to get am right: talk for work, test, game, solo, first date, job interview. Clinicians for the Cleveland Clinic describe am plain as outsized fear, nervousness, and dread wey tie to completing particular task. E no be character flaw, and e no be sign say you no cut out for the thing. Na stress response wey dey do exactly wetin e evolve to do, just at the worst possible moment.

Wetin your body think say dey happen

The symptoms dey feel random until you see the pattern. The racing heart, the hand and voice wey dey shake, the sweat, the tight chest, the dry mouth, the belle wey dey turn. Na the fight-or-flight response be that, the same ancient system wey for don flood your ancestors with energy to run from something wey get teeth. Your body no fit actually tell the difference between animal wey dey charge come and quarterly review. E dey read "this one matter and I fit fail" as threat, and e dey dump adrenaline accordingly.

Na here the cruel twist dey. The more you care about something, the bigger the alarm dey be. Performance anxiety no dey show for things wey you no send. E dey show precisely where e least welcome, on the stuff wey count, wey na part of why e dey feel so unfair.

E dey also feed itself. The physical sensations dey become their own evidence. Your heart dey pound, you notice am dey pound, you decide say the pounding mean say you dey about to crash, and the fear of crashing dey make your heart pound harder. Break in anywhere on that loop and the whole thing go loose.

Why "calm down" na the wrong instruction

Most of us, and most well-meaning friends, dey reach for the same advice: relax, take am down small, calm down. E rarely dey work, and good reason dey.

Your body don already rev high. To try slam am from ten down to two for the ninety seconds before you start na tall order, and to fail am just dey give you one more thing to panic about. One Harvard researcher wey dem call Alison Wood Brooks test different approach. For one set of studies wey dem publish through the American Psychological Association, she make people wey dey about to do something nerve-wracking, public speaking, math test, karaoke singing, talk one of two things out loud first. One group talk "I am calm." The other one talk "I am excited."

The excited group do better. Dem give speeches wey come across as more persuasive and more competent. Dem score higher on the math. On the karaoke task, the people wey reframe their nerves as excitement average around 80 percent on accuracy, while the ones wey try to be calm land near 70, and the ones wey stay for plain anxiety come in lower still.

The logic under am almost too simple. Anxiety and excitement na nearly the same thing for the body. Both na high-energy states, fast heart, sharp focus, one buzz under the skin. The difference na the story wey you tell about that buzz. To convince yourself say the energy na fuel for something good na much shorter trip pass to try switch the energy off entirely.

So when the surge hit, you fit try name am differently. Out loud if you fit manage am, even quietly: I no dey scared, I fired up. E sound like trick. E mostly na one. E still happen to work better pass the alternative.

Few things to try before you go on

No single move dey fix performance anxiety, and wetin dey help one person dey leave another one cold. Treat this as menu, no be checklist. Pick one or two and practice dem when the stakes low, so dem go already familiar when the stakes high.

1. Lengthen your breath out. You no fit talk your heart rate down, but you fit slow your breath, and the rest dey usually follow. Breathe in for count of four, out for count of six. The long breath out na the part wey dey signal safety. Three or four of these enough to take the edge off.
2. Burn off the adrenaline first. All that chemical energy want somewhere to go. Brisk waka, few flights of stairs, even to literally shake your hands and legs for hallway dey give am exit, so e no go dey siddon for your hands as tremor. The Cleveland Clinic dey suggest this kind deliberate movement to tell your body say the threat don pass.
3. Get specific about the next thirty seconds. Anxiety dey love the whole terrifying future at once. Pull your attention back to the very next small action: open the laptop, find the first slide, talk your name. Small and concrete dey starve the spiral.
4. Get one steady first line. Whatever you dey waka into, know exactly how e go begin, and rehearse only that part until e automatic. The opening na where nerves loudest. Once you don dey move, momentum usually dey take over.
5. Let the audience off the pedestal. The room rarely dey score you the way you dey imagine. Most people wey dey your front dey distracted, sympathetic, or quietly relieved say no be dem dey up there. Dem want make you do well. E lonely for your head pass how e be for the room.

When e bigger than bad day

Nerves before something important dey normal and, to be frank, useful. Small arousal dey sharpen you. The reframes and the breathing na to take the edge off so your actual ability go fit show up.

Sometimes e more pass edge, though. If the dread start to dey arrive days or weeks ahead, if you dey turn down opportunities, dey drop classes, dey dodge meetings, or dey quietly reshape your life to avoid the thing entirely, that one worth to take serious. If e come with full panic, or e tangle up with broader social or generalized anxiety, the in-the-moment tricks no go enough on their own, and that one no be failure of effort.

The encouraging part na say this one dey respond well to real help. One systematic review for *Frontiers in Psychology* wey look performance anxiety find say structured approaches, cognitive behavioral therapy, acceptance and commitment therapy, mindfulness practice, meaningfully reduce anxiety and build lasting resilience. Therapist fit help you change the thoughts wey dey feed the fear and build plan wey fit your actual life. If you be student, your school counseling center na good and often free first door. Doctor fit rule out anything physical and talk through whether medication get place, wey for some people e get.

You no need white-knuckle your way through every high-stakes moment for the rest of your life. The hands wey dey shake no be verdict on whether you belong there. Na just energy, wey dey wait for you to decide wetin e be for.

Sources

• American Psychological Association, Getting excited helps with performance anxiety more than trying to calm down, study finds
• Cleveland Clinic, Performance Anxiety: Breaking the Cycle
• Frontiers in Psychology, Recent developments in coping strategies focusing on music performance anxiety: a systematic review