Stage fright: what it is, symptoms and how to overcome it

It is becoming more and more evident that the psychological factor has a determining weight in the performance of all those activities that involve achieve a performance level or an external assessment. In sports, artistic or even work or academic practice, an optimal mental state can help, while a poor one will always limit us.

The influence of psychology here is so evident that we have intuitively created certain expressions colloquial to refer to these phenomena: fill up with the ball, go out plugged in, be a pineapple, be in streak... or the famous stage fright.

• Related article: "What is fear for?"

What is stage fright?

Stage fright is a state of high physiological activation that occurs before a performance, or any type of activity. involving the presence or appreciation of an audience. There are artists who claim that it is impossible to make a good representation without that "fear", and it is true that a certain level of activation is required to carry out any task. That is to say, the more activation, the better performance up to a certain point, where performance begins to drop. decrease if this activation continues to increase, drawing an inverted U if it were represented graphically.

This point is known as the optimal activation level., and it is different for each artist. In other words, there will be those who give the best version of themselves at an activation of 80 out of 100, and those who need to not exceed 65. To limit this level of activation, there are different relaxation and activation techniques, depending on the need to be covered.

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relaxation techniques to use

The most useful relaxation technique in these cases is breathing. Executing a controlled breath we can reduce those extra keystrokes that can ruin our rendering, or make us not enjoy its performance. In addition, attending to the phases of said breathing and the movements of the different organs involved in it, we prevent anxiety. cognitive, and we prevent our attention from going to anticipatory or blaming thoughts (“I am going to be wrong”, “this always goes wrong for me”). part, etc.).

Training in breathing in controlled environments (rehearsals, at home...) will help us to automate this technique, being able to put it into practice quickly at any time we might need it, such as before giving a concert or playing a game important.

However, although excess is usually the most common cause of activation problems, it is worth insisting that a defect in it it can be just as detrimental (against a piece that we have always dominated perfectly, or against a match against the bottom of the table), so what it is worth taking into account the existence of activation techniques, perhaps more rudimentary but just as necessary.

However, and honoring the colloquial name of this disease, we must not neglect its most emotional component: fear.

The role of fear

Fear, as a good emotion that it is, is not bad in itself. It is adaptive, selected to intervene in the survival of the species, allowing us to flee or fight against threats to our lives. However, in our species there has been a cultural selection that coexists with the natural one, and now fear is triggered in situations for which it was not designed. A job interview, an exam, a performance...

That is why, although relaxation techniques help, it is usually good to go further, unravel what thoughts, what preconceived ideas maintain that fear. Fear of failure may be related to self-esteem, or it may have a social function (fear of being judged, of being rejected) in which case it is advisable to restructure those ideas, break the relationships between one's self-esteem and the performance of a particular task, between that performance and our place in the society.