These phobias can show up out of the blue and you'll never see them coming. Judith Pearson is an experienced counselor who has seen this happen time after time, and she's got some suggestions on what to do if/when this happens to you.

What is a public speaking fear? One of the big problems that public speakers have with fears or phobias is simply recognizing them for what they are. It turns out that a sudden fear of public speaking can hit an accomplished speaker at any time. If you find yourself with an irrational fear of speaking to a group, then you've got public speaking fear - a kind of phobia.

Pearson says that public speaking fear can be broken down into one of three main categories:

1. "It's all about me"
2. Past disasters
3. Fear of making mistakes in front of an audience

The "It's All About Me" Phobia

In my opinion, this is the most common public speaking fear that can hit an experienced speaker. If you develop this phobia, then all of a sudden you'll find yourself feeling highly self-conscious when you think about speaking in public. The more you think about giving a speech, the more you'll feel as though the audience that you'll be talking to will be sitting there judging you, and disapproving of every word that is coming out of your mouth.

The solution to dealing with this public speaking fear is to sit down and have a talk with yourself. You'll need to realize that ultimately it's really NOT all about you. In reality, it's the audience that matters - not you. They have come to hear you speak in order to learn - in all honesty it really doesn't matter that you will be the one talking to them.

The "Past Disaster" Phobia

I think that we've all been here before: this phobia is created by some sort of traumatic event that has occurred in your past that had an accompanying highly-charged negative emotion. A great example of this would be if something went wrong with a speech and then the event organizer yelled at you about it afterwards.

Once again, the right way to deal with this public speaking fear is to sit down and have a talk with yourself. You need to find a way to make yourself understand that what has happened has happened in the past. You need to realize that it won't happen again and you need to move forward. Acknowledge what happened and convince yourself that you'll do better in the future.

The "Fear Of Making Mistakes" Phobia

If you have to have a phobia, then this is probably the one that you'll want to have. The reason is that the fear of making mistakes is really the other side of the desire to do a great job at something. The phobia stops you in your tracks or makes it hard to get started because you just don't think that you can do a good enough job at some speaking task.

This is the one public speaking fear that you can actually muscle your way though. Ultimately the solution is to practice, practice, and practice. You need to get yourself to a point where you can realize that you are always going to make mistakes (we're all human after all). However, you need to be able to observe your mistakes when you make them, make corrections, and then continue on.

Final Thoughts

Phobias are not just for beginning speakers - they can hit any of us at any time. The key to dealing with a public speaking fear is to realize what it is - a phobia, an irrational fear.

Dealing with the three most common forms of public speaking fear requires you to sit down and think through your fears in order to put them in context. This is the best way for dealing with them. Learn to do this well and you'll be able to intimately connect with your audience and make an lasting impact in their lives.