Controlling panic attacks

In a recent interview, Madonna revealed that she still gets panic attacks on stage.

Now, you might be thinking that if a performer with her experience still panics after a quarter of a century of superstardom, then what hope is there for anyone else?

But then we are not performing as part of a multi-million pound tour where we are expected to remember and deliver outstanding songs and dance routines while knowing that every second we are up there, the world's critics are scrutinising us for any sign of weakness as we grow older.

Madonna has her own techniques for dealing with her panic. I am now going to enlarge on one of the suggestions on my Thomas's Twelve Tips for Terrified Speakers web page which can help you if you get really nervous at a speaking engagement. I was delighted when  Liz Fuller recently referred to this list - and this tip in particular - in her highly-acclaimed blog for women entrepreneurs, More Than WE Know.

Between the ages of 15 and 23, my life was blighted by severe panic attacks. As this is a blog and not a therapy session, I have no intention of going into the childhood reasons for these, but I developed a full-blown social phobia which severely restricted my educational, social and working lives. Numerous medications were prescribed, conventional and homeopathic, which had little long-term effect (apart from very unpleasant side effects in some cases). And I was less than impressed by the doctor who felt that he would be able to cure my problem over two years of talking it out - despite the fact that he appeared to speak very little English!

Then, at last, I met a therapist who described all these tablets as 'cr*p' and introduced me to an incredibly fast-working and effective technique. Whenever I felt panicky, I was to give my fear a rating on a scale of 0 - 8.

Of course, if you are feeling terribly nervous, you're naturally going to give your fear a 'score' of 8. Well, if it was 8, you would probably be dead while 6 or 7 would mean you would be unconscious! But psychologists say that actually 8 = avoidance: you simply refuse to undertake the activity you are so nervous about. In public speaking terms, it would be the equivalent of running out of the venue during your introduction.

Realistically, a severe panic attack rates a 4. And the wonderful thing is that once you start giving your fear a score, you start to take control over it. You are treating it as something separate from you; you are acting as its critic. And when you start to do this, the score begins to descend: 4 becomes 3, becomes 2.5, becomes 2...I'm not saying that it will necessarily go right down to 0 straight away but the event will certainly become a lot more manageable.

When you get used to doing this, you will find that your starting point for these scores gets lower anyway: 'How nervous am I on a scale of 0 - 8? Well, I'd say 3. Is it really a 3? Well, no, actually it's more like a 2...'

As Liz Fuller points out, 'it helps you move from right brain emotion to left brain logic very quickly'.

It certainly helped me; within weeks, I was starting to do many things which I had totally avoided for years. It changed my life and I will always be grateful to Peter Henderson and his assistant Arthur Poropat.

As far as public speaking is concerned, this technique alone will probably not be enough to help a nervous speaker; you will need to know and rehearse exactly what you are going to say and you may also need some regular practice in the supportive environment of a class, workshop or club or at least in the presence of a coach at a one-on-one session (I certainly had to join a class to overcome my own fears about public speaking, despite my many years of scriptwriting experience). But when used in conjunction with thorough speech preparation and public speaking practice, rating your fear can be invaluable in helping a speaker to overcome any nerves just as they are about to be introduced.

The tricky part is remembering to do it when you have so many other things on your mind!

On 2 January 2003, after 7 years of relatively fearless public speaking, I began to get very nervous on my way to deliver a speech. There was an understandable reason why I felt a certain pressure that day: the speech was a eulogy at my mother's funeral. But then I remembered the technique - and a fear of 3.5 quickly went down to 0 over the course the last couple of miles of the journey and I was able to deliver this most important address in the way that my mother deserved.

In terms of what I consider to be effective tools for speakers, this technique is right up there with Mind Mapping and commonplacing.

It works; remember to try it for yourself if you need to.

Public Speaking Tip #180: If you feel really nervous at a speaking engagement, remembering to give your fear a rating on a scale of 0 - 8 starts to put you in control of it, instead of it controlling you. Your panic will begin to subside.

The more often you do this, the lower your starting score will be.

And after a while, once you are used to feeling more relaxed before speaking engagements, try to make yourself feel more nervous - you will find that you can't! This is when you know that you are really starting to control your nerves.