everywomanshero
Master Don Juan
- Joined
- May 2, 2005
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I don't feel approach anxiety is any different than any other type of performance anxiety. Fear produces certain reactions that protected us duing earlier types: your blood is priortised to certain muscles which help you escape danger or deal with it, saliva production is slowed, larger amounts of sugar are produced, sweating is inereased to keep the body cool for peak performance running from a wild animal or whatever, breathing quickens to get more oxygen to certain places etc.
Think about it, isn't that exactly what happens when a guy gets approach anxiety? Sweating, dry mouth, changes in the way muscles feel, shorter-quicker breathing, etc.
Have I ever felt this? Yep, I've had a national sales director listening to my every move and comparing me to the best people in the country. A guy only gets one shot at something like this, unlike with women where we are are lucky and have infinite chances, but nonetheless I can relate.
What about it? First you have to rule out avoidance.
Approach-avoidance is difficult to correct, because humans have a tendency to place greater enphasis on avoiding pain than seeking gain. According to the prospect theory this can be effected by referential information. Ex. Someone with approach-anxiety may approach anyway when he's not finding enough chicks online, then may revert back to avoidance (not "sarging") when he's got a lot of dates setup through online contacts.
If you have any thoughts about avoiding the situation, then that's probably exactly what you'll end up doing. I recommend never thinking about not doing somehting or putting off something important (like approaching a hottie or an acting class or whatever) til later if you're prone to avoidance patterns for that behavior.
Performance anxiety can be predicted according to Leary by the following calculation :
Stage Fright = Importance of consequences of performance
_________________________________________
Prediction of successful performance
If your cognitions see no chance of success and terrible consequences, then chances are it's going to produce stage fright. Notice that if we somehow changed those cognitions, then we could predict the degree of stage fright to go down.
Unfortuantely, us humans are really bad at detecting how much of the anxiety is detected. People consistently state that more anxiety was noticed than what the audience reports having noticed. Furthermore, when a person interprets his nervousness as a sign that he is "warmed up and ready" the same nervous energies that previously were perceived as fear are perceived as a sign of a positive, engagged performer! The whole "whatever you feel inside, shines ******d" kind of thing. It should also be noted that there is a "crossover point" where anxoius signs make the audience uncomfortable as well, but this is something that occurs at really high anxiety levels.
Hatfield, Cacioppo and Rapson suggest that body language is such a powerful form of communication that others literally take on some of the performers internal feelings. That's obvious to anyone who has ever went out in 'poor state', as it's very, very difficult to get a good conversation going under this condition. People are being assualted by negativity even though one might be saying something the same words that would otherwise be well received.
WOW this is getting wordy.
Back to the physical symtoms, there are a couple of things that may help alleviate them besides changing cognitions.
1) Not eating a lot of sugary foods that day since your body is going to amp suagr production through the roof during anxiety. If you get "the shakes" this may help.
2) Drinking some water since saliva production will be slowed to a crawl. This may help with dry mouth.
3) There are different breathing exercises one can do, but if you feel tingly or light headed that means you're taking in too much oxygen (and you shouldn't try taking really deep breaths if you already feel this way).. slow down tonto.
Think about it, isn't that exactly what happens when a guy gets approach anxiety? Sweating, dry mouth, changes in the way muscles feel, shorter-quicker breathing, etc.
Have I ever felt this? Yep, I've had a national sales director listening to my every move and comparing me to the best people in the country. A guy only gets one shot at something like this, unlike with women where we are are lucky and have infinite chances, but nonetheless I can relate.
What about it? First you have to rule out avoidance.
Approach-avoidance is difficult to correct, because humans have a tendency to place greater enphasis on avoiding pain than seeking gain. According to the prospect theory this can be effected by referential information. Ex. Someone with approach-anxiety may approach anyway when he's not finding enough chicks online, then may revert back to avoidance (not "sarging") when he's got a lot of dates setup through online contacts.
If you have any thoughts about avoiding the situation, then that's probably exactly what you'll end up doing. I recommend never thinking about not doing somehting or putting off something important (like approaching a hottie or an acting class or whatever) til later if you're prone to avoidance patterns for that behavior.
Performance anxiety can be predicted according to Leary by the following calculation :
Stage Fright = Importance of consequences of performance
_________________________________________
Prediction of successful performance
If your cognitions see no chance of success and terrible consequences, then chances are it's going to produce stage fright. Notice that if we somehow changed those cognitions, then we could predict the degree of stage fright to go down.
Unfortuantely, us humans are really bad at detecting how much of the anxiety is detected. People consistently state that more anxiety was noticed than what the audience reports having noticed. Furthermore, when a person interprets his nervousness as a sign that he is "warmed up and ready" the same nervous energies that previously were perceived as fear are perceived as a sign of a positive, engagged performer! The whole "whatever you feel inside, shines ******d" kind of thing. It should also be noted that there is a "crossover point" where anxoius signs make the audience uncomfortable as well, but this is something that occurs at really high anxiety levels.
Hatfield, Cacioppo and Rapson suggest that body language is such a powerful form of communication that others literally take on some of the performers internal feelings. That's obvious to anyone who has ever went out in 'poor state', as it's very, very difficult to get a good conversation going under this condition. People are being assualted by negativity even though one might be saying something the same words that would otherwise be well received.
WOW this is getting wordy.
Back to the physical symtoms, there are a couple of things that may help alleviate them besides changing cognitions.
1) Not eating a lot of sugary foods that day since your body is going to amp suagr production through the roof during anxiety. If you get "the shakes" this may help.
2) Drinking some water since saliva production will be slowed to a crawl. This may help with dry mouth.
3) There are different breathing exercises one can do, but if you feel tingly or light headed that means you're taking in too much oxygen (and you shouldn't try taking really deep breaths if you already feel this way).. slow down tonto.