Three stages of anxiety applied to public speaking – how you can intervene at each stage to stop the panic.

​I am always looking for new ways to help people reframe their anxiety about public speaking, so I was thrilled to come across this TED talk by Lisa Damour – "3 steps of anxiety overload -- and how you can take back control".

She explains the three stages of anxiety and how we can intervene at each stage to stop ourselves from overreacting. The stages are:

1. Our body reacts – e.g., our heart starts pounding!
2. We give these feelings a label – "I am feeling anxious".  
3. We catastrophise - "Oh no I feel so anxious that I am going to panic and forget everything I want to say!"​

If we can deal with anxiety at stage 1 or 2, we can avoid stage 3 altogether! But if we do get to stage 3, there are still things that we can do.

I apply Lisa's three-stage framework to public speaking anxiety in this article. I look at some things we can do at each stage to prevent or minimise progression to the next.

Read More