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Misc How to deal with speaking to a large audience anxiety.

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done juan

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May 6, 2011
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This is the situation Im in: Have been working for the company Im with now for just over 5 months, everything going great, flexible hours, can take work home etc. The thing is at the start of August there is some kind of functional event (ive never been before) which involves presentations, speeches and the like followed by a party afterwards. My boss has said that im to do a speech even though ive told him that im not good at talking in front of lots of people. He just said it will be fine , will fly by etc. The thing is the extent of my anxiety for these kinds of situations is worse than you could imagine. The thought of it makes me feel sick and I just know I will stutter, physically tremble, blush and the rest of it.

Im thinking of taking a large dose of etizolam first, do you think this will help or will I find it hard to concentrate. Also as this is a party afterwards, I would be sort of expected to be drinking (i know i dont have to) but i want to avoid anyone asking me why im not drinking, it might start rumours about being an alcoholic or something.

The other alternative I have is just to drink some spirits first, but again this sounds like the worst of the 2 ideas.

If i was to go down the first route, would it be ok to have a couple of drinks (will stick to beer) after the etizolam. I know ive asked a simliar question regarding benzos and alcohol before but that was a different situation. Hopefully this way i could just drink at a really slow rate and be ok.

Any other ideas?

I might just turn my phone off, not turn up to work that day and come up with some bs excuse.

thanks people
 
I recommend xanax I take 1mg before my public speaking class and it definatly turns the volume down on the anxiety. I also recomend practising your speech so that your comfortable with it. I dont know much about etizolam so I cant comment on that. also I dont think anyone will notice your not drinking just get a beer and carry it around.
 
The main thing is to be prepared. You will be a lot more anxious if you are not prepared.

I had a class where I had to give presentations of stuff that was way above my comprehension, and I had been considering going to the doctor to have them tell my professor I couldn't do it. I figured the hard-ass professor would still make me do it, so I didn't mention it and just did the presentations. I took a small dose of valium beforehand, but it was less than my prescribed dose, so I don't think it helped.

I did a presentation the year before which went horribly. My mind went blank, I started tripping over my words, and it was just a disaster. I took more benzos then than when I did the following year, and my presentations with less benzos actually went better. If it's possible I recommend socializing right before your presentation. My easiest one was when someone was talking to me while I was setting it up, so when I started it the transition from talking to a friend to talking to an audience was alright.
 
if you do take the benzos, please please don't drink. do you want to embarrass yourself in front of your co-workers? it might happen...
 
Ketamine....

...or propranolol. Look it up. This should help with the physiological symptoms of anxiety which (some people find) should indirectly help with the psychological symptoms. The beauty of this is that you can drink comfortably on it afterwards - with benzos you'd have to be very careful.

Whatever you chose, dont do it for the first time, in that dose, on the night. Experiment with compound/dose before the big event.
 
Tommyboy said:
The main thing is to be prepared. You will be a lot more anxious if you are not prepared.

I had a class where I had to give presentations of stuff that was way above my comprehension, and I had been considering going to the doctor to have them tell my professor I couldn't do it. I figured the hard-ass professor would still make me do it, so I didn't mention it and just did the presentations. I took a small dose of valium beforehand, but it was less than my prescribed dose, so I don't think it helped.

I did a presentation the year before which went horribly. My mind went blank, I started tripping over my words, and it was just a disaster. I took more benzos then than when I did the following year, and my presentations with less benzos actually went better. If it's possible I recommend socializing right before your presentation. My easiest one was when someone was talking to me while I was setting it up, so when I started it the transition from talking to a friend to talking to an audience was alright.
Click to expand...

This is by far the best advice.

We don't need to immediately jump to the, "take xanax!"

Benzodiazepines aren't the answer for everything, if you become dependent on using them for certain situations, when those situations pop up again later in life, and they will, you will need a benzo to function and as tommyboy pointed out, "functioning" is really open to definition.

You really would do better learning to deal with this without a benzodiazepine.
 
done juan said:
Im thinking of taking a large dose of etizolam first, do you think this will help or will I find it hard to concentrate. Also as this is a party afterwards, I would be sort of expected to be drinking (i know i dont have to) but i want to avoid anyone asking me why im not drinking, it might start rumours about being an alcoholic or something.
Click to expand...

For my two cents I will just say if you do end up deciding to take a benzo for an occasion like this I don't see any compelling reason a large dose would be necessary. A very small dose combined with the proper preparation and speaking strategies as others have mentioned should be just fine.

And if you do take a benzo, do NOT drink. I don't think anyone will think less of you and if they do just say you weren't feeling well. It's not at all a good or safe combination and combining those two surely will make you look like an ass.
 
Be prepared. Rehearse the speech many times do your comfortable saying your speech. Relax. Speak slowly and have your cards on hand. Look past the audience when speaking and smile. Try not to look down a lot. When talking look like you are making eye contact by looking left to right. Be prepared and relax. Good luck!
 
If you want to find a lot more information on this topic I suggest you type in the term 'public speaking' into the Bluelight Google Search on the top right of the page. There are a number of threads on the topic, both drug related and non drug related.

Good luck.
 
This is silly, a large dose of etizolam before a presentation?? A presentation is not the worst thing in the world.

You don't need a benzodiazepine to speak.. You'd be just fine if you focused more on confidence by knowing your material and studying, rather than relying on some pill to save the day and help you deliver an A+ speech, because that's just not going to happen.

wow KSA, you think he needs a barbiturate to give a presentation? So silly.
 
I want to add that my anxiety was pretty severe, so doing these presentations without taking large doses of benzos (I took 2mg of valium for them, which some would say is below the therapeutic dose for the treatment of anxiety) speaks volumes, no pun. :p

I never could have imagined giving presentations on very difficult material (10 minute presentations with no note cards, while using powerpoint which I could not read off of, but only use to point out charts and such) without taking either 10mg of valium or 1mg of xanax, but I got through them with only 2mg of valium which was my regular daily dose. Sometimes I even took 1.5mg and got by just fine, which again I would have never thought I could have done.

I'm not saying that you shouldn't take something to help a bit, but keep the dose low, and only take something you have experience with. Don't go popping barbiturates or xanax bars. Remember, after or even during the presentation you will probably have to answer questions, so even though being on 'auto-pilot' while giving the speech might not be too bad, it's hard to answer questions like that.

Your presentation seems to be in more of a social atmosphere so it shouldn't be that bad. Mine were in an academic setting surrounded my a lot of people that knew more than me so would know if my info was wrong, which made it a little worse. I'm not even going to get into the subject matter as I barely understood it then and it was way beyond my understanding, but since I was well prepared I just focused on a few things that I understood well, and spent a few minutes on 3 or 4 things that I knew well, and before I knew it the presentation was done.

After that course I had a 30 minute presentation on alcohol abuse, and that was a cake walk compared to advance chemistry. So don't hype it up too much since the anticipation for the speech will probably cause more anxiety than the actual speech.
 
Yeah IMO it's one thing for someone who's already taking benzodiazepines to dose before a presentation, but for a non-dependent person to take a benzodiazepine would probably not be the best idea, especially if the dose was too high. Alprazolam would not be ideal IMO, although YMMV.
 
A beta blocker like propranolol is your best bet. Politicians use them all the time and there is a reason betas are banned in sports: they decrease and steady your heart rate, calming your body and eliminating tremor, panic and anxiety.

I understand the temptation to go straight to benzos, but remember the calming effect benzos have on anxiety is also in effect for all your other CNS functions. You are not as sharp, thought process is slower, your perceptions are degraded. Why risk your job to benzos when the potential for unexpected negative consequences exists. And a "large dose"? Seriously? Sound like a recipe for embarrassment and unemployment if you ask me.
 
Wow thanks everyone for all the replies. I was a bit stupid saying a large dose of etizolam, but the severity of my anxiety in these sorts of situations are REALLY bad, I mean I've been in a situation in the past where I had to leave what I was doing and it fucked things up for me. Seriously a lot of people don't understand (in my social circle anyway) the extent of my anxiety. I usually get patronised or people think im over exaggerating, but yeah it gets so bad that I actually feel like im going to have a heart attack amongst other things.

Of course I dont want to have to rely on benzos (well anything really) for when this sort of thing comes up but I would rather just avoid the situation. I know this isnt the best way of dealing with the issues, but it suits me.

I never thought of beta blockers. I always assumed they were just for people with heart problems, but I suppose it makes sense in a way. I've never had them before, so would my doctor prescribe them just based on this scenario? Would drinking be ok with these? I do actually want to enjoy the after party and mingle with other people.

Thanks TommyBoy will have a search.
 
You'd be surprised, many doctors prescribe beta blockers to those eligible, most commonly something like propanolol, it works really well for physical anxiety.
 
man i dont want to push any drugs on you or nothing but i find a small-moderate dose of opiates dose wonders for anxiety...

Back in high school maybe my sophmore or junior year, i knew i had a speech so what'd i take....

Well being a kid all i had was pot, codeine elixir, and adderall..

i think(if i remember correctly) i had about 190mg cod, and maybe one 20mg adderall...even without the addy it would have worked just fine.
 
I think suggesting a cocktail of drugs to someone who doesn't do them in the first place, and has already resolved a safer way of dealing with the situation offers no good advice or harm reduction value. The ellipsis more or less imply that you are trying to advocate the advice to the OP without actually saying it, and to me it's just a little disturbing.
 
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