postr/StutterNovember 13, 2023

Presentation in front of about 45-55 people on Wednesday and I'm freaking out. Could use advice.

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Presentation in front of about 45-55 people on Wednesday and I'm freaking out. Could use advice. My stutter doesn't usually affect my day to day life anymore and whenever I talk to somebody about it they say that they wouldn't have even known I had a stutter if I didn't tell them. I don't worry about it at all when I'm entering a social situation. However presentations have always, always been the bane of my existence in school and I have one on Wednesday. This is the first time I've presented anything in over a year and the last 3 or so times I presented something it was in front of like 5-8 people and this is going to be around 45 students and 10 professors which will be far and away the largest audience that I will have had during presentations. I've always been nervous about them but during my childhood and throughout high school I usually got through them fine. Even in my senior year of high school I got pretty good at it and speaking out in front of the class to the point where I would wing presentations in English class without any nerves. I don't know what happened but something switched in my first year of undergrad. I had 2 presentations in the first semester and one went fine but in another individual presentation I got up on stage, got super flustered, and told the professor in front of everyone that I couldn't do it and wanted to do it in front of him. I started the introduction just fine and probably even sounded confident then just froze. That was over 8 years ago and I still think about it every time I have a presentation. I can't have that happen again, especially not this time. This presentation is in front of my cohort that I'll be stuck with for the next year and a half along with professors from my faculty. I have three partners in this project and it would be extra humiliating to have their grades suffer because of me. In the end part of the reason why I came to this program (it's a masters degree in psychology) was to get out of my comfort zone and face my fears but this is the one thing that just completely alludes me even though I'll only be talking for 5-6 minutes. I hate feeling this way. I really don't miss this feeling. I could go on a first date with a beautiful girl and not feel anything more than a little bit nervous about it. But this I just can't stop thinking about. Does anyone have anything to say that could help calm my nerves or help me succeed?

Themes

Anticipation & AvoidanceEmotional ExperienceSchool & Work

Subthemes

Anticipating StutteringAvoidance & SubstitutionAnxiety & Social JudgmentPublic Speaking