The Glossophobia Is the persistent, abnormal, excessive and irrational fear of public speaking. It deals with a specific type of situational phobia that is limited to the actions of public speaking.
People with glossophobia experience high feelings of anxiety whenever they have to speak in public, a fact that in most cases prevents them from performing such actions.
This alteration differs from social phobia through the dreaded element. While in social phobia the person fears any kind of activity that requires socialization, in the glossophobia the feared element is only the activity of public speaking .
At present there are interventions that overcome glossophobia, as well as a large number of formations that can be a great help in losing the fear of public speaking.
This article reviews the main features of glossophobia. Their symptoms, their causes and their diagnosis are discussed, explaining the differences between glossophobia, social phobia and shyness, and postulating the treatments to be performed to overcome the phobic fear of public speaking.
characteristics
Glossophobia is a specific type of phobia. It consists of a anxiety disorder Which is characterized by the experimentation of high feelings of fear when one has to speak in public.
The anxiety response of the person with glossophobia whenever he has to speak in public is extremely high. This fact usually leads to the inability to perform the activity and, in most cases, the escape from the dreaded situation.
Likewise, people with glossophobia have a marked tendency to avoid public speaking activities. The subjects with this alteration are aware that they are in excessive fear of these situations and usually prefer to avoid them to avoid also the discomfort that they experience in those moments.
This fact usually has negative repercussions in different areas of the person. Especially in the educational and labor fields, where such activities often have to be carried out.
However, a person with glossophobia not only fears academic or professional oral expositions, but also fears any kind of public speaking activity, regardless of context.
Glosofobia vs shyness
Fear and / or nervousness when speaking in public is a normal and highly prevalent phenomenon. Likewise, the fear of speaking in public tends to accentuate in those people with greater degrees of shy .
However, to understand adequately glossophobia, it must be taken into account that it is a psychological condition that is markedly different from shyness.
First, shyness is not a psychopathological disorder, whereas glossophobia is. Timidity is a term used to define a series of personality traits of the individual, which are not pathological.
In this sense, glossophobia is a more serious psychological condition than shyness. Timid people may have greater or lesser difficulties in public speaking.
Likewise, shy people may also experience heightened feelings of anxiety before, during, or after the public speaking activity. However, despite the difficulties, they are able to develop the activity with greater or less success.
On the other hand, people with glossophobia have much more pronounced anxiety responses and a much more intense fear of public speaking activity. This fact means that in most cases they are not able to develop this type of activity.
The main difference between glossophobia and shyness, beyond the intensity of anxiety experienced in situations of public speaking, rests with the type of fear that presents itself to these situations.
The fear of public speaking of a shy person is cataloged as normal, while the fear of a person with glossophobia is considered phobic. The main features of phobic fear regarding glossophobia are:
Excessive
The fear experienced by a person with glossophobia towards public speaking activity is excessive compared to the real demands of the situation.
The individual with glossophobia interprets the fact of speaking in public as a highly threatening element and responds to him with the experimentation of extreme feelings of anxiety.
Irrational
The typical fear of glossophobia is characterized by being irrational. The person with this alteration is aware that his fear is disproportionate and incongruent.
In shyness, the person usually associates the fear of public speaking with more congruent thoughts, which is why the anxiety response is usually less and more manageable.
Uncontrollable
Although the person with glossophobia is aware that there is no point in raising such a high fear of public speaking, there is nothing he can do to control it.
The feelings of fear and the manifestations of anxiety appear in an automatic and uncontrollable way. In shyness instead, the person usually presents certain skills and abilities to manage their emotions of fear.
Permanent
The fear of speaking in public of glossophobia is invariably experienced whenever the person has to perform these activities. It is relatively independent of the context and the characteristics of the situation.
Likewise, the fear of glossophobia does not respond to temporal factors or certain stages of life.
In shyness, on the other hand, the fear of public speaking can become more intense in specific situations and can vary over time.
Leads to avoidance
In order to be able to speak about glossophobia it is necessary for the person to systematically avoid carrying out public speaking activities.
In shyness instead, despite experiencing anxiety or discomfort, the individual is usually exposed to these situations when necessary.
symptom
The fear of speaking in public of glossophobia implies the appearance of an anxiety response whenever the person is exposed to such situations.
In fact, at times, manifestations of anxiety may even appear with the simple imagination of public speaking activities.
The anxiety response of glossophobia is characterized by being intense and can manifest in three different planes: the physical plane, the cognitive plane and the behavioral plane.
Physical plane
The physical symptoms are the first to appear and those that cause greater discomfort in the person. The fear of speaking in public means that in this type of situations the brain Of the individual increases his Activity in the autonomic nervous system .
This brain phenomenon related to the fear response of the person implies the appearance of a series of modifications in the functioning of his organism, which are usually very annoying.
The physical manifestations of glossophobia can vary considerably in each case, so they do not usually adopt a unique pattern of presentation. The person with this specific type of phobia may experience any of the following symptoms whenever he is ready to speak in public.
- Increased heart rate.
- Increased respiratory rate.
- Palpitations and / or tachycardia.
- Feeling of choking.
- Increased muscle tension.
- Increased sweating.
- Pupil dilation.
- Dry mouth.
- Stomach and / or headache.
- Nausea, dizziness, and vomiting.
- Feeling of unreality.
Cognitive plane
At the cognitive level of glossophobia, the development of a series of irrational thoughts about the activity of public speaking stands out.
These thoughts can take multiple forms and contents in each case, but they are always characterized by negatively attributing the fact of speaking in public.
The Cognitions Irrational forms of glossophobia are fed back with physical manifestations to increase the person's anxiety state.
Physical symptoms increase negative thoughts by speaking in public, while irrational cognitions increase the physical symptomatology of the person.
Behavioral plane
Finally, in order to speak of glossophobia and, therefore, to differentiate it from shyness or other normal psychological conditions, it is necessary that the fear of public speaking affects the behavior of the person.
In this sense, it emphasizes a behavioral symptom above all, avoidance. A person with glossophobia will at all times avoid exposing himself to public speaking, regardless of the consequences that this may bring.
When the subject with glossophobia is not able to avoid it and is exposed to public speaking, it is usually common for other symptoms to appear.
Behavioral changes marked by anxiety experienced at such times as blockages, inability to speak, stuttering or trembling in speech are often common manifestations.
Likewise, sometimes escape can also appear, a behavior that sets in motion the person and whose sole objective is to escape from his dreaded situation to avoid the malaise he is experiencing.
Diagnosis
Currently, glossophobia is a disorder that has well established diagnostic criteria. These criteria are very useful to determine the presence or absence of the alteration, as well as to differentiate it from other anxious disorders.
In this sense, the criteria that must be fulfilled to diagnose glossophobia are:
- Fear or intense anxiety caused by the activity of public speaking (phobic element).
- The phobic element almost always causes immediate fear or anxiety.
- The phobic element is actively avoided or resisted with intense fear or anxiety.
- Fear or anxiety is disproportionate to the real danger posed by the phobic element and to the sociocultural context.
- Fear, anxiety or avoidance is persistent, and typically lasts for six or more months.
- Fear, anxiety or avoidance causes clinically significant discomfort or deterioration in social, work, or other important areas of functioning.
- The alteration is not best explained by the symptoms of another mental disorder.
Glosofobia vs. social phobia
Glossophobia is a disorder very similar to social phobia that can sometimes be confused. However, it is important to bear in mind that glossophobia is not the same as social phobia .
The main difference between both disorders lies in the feared element. While in the glossophobia the phobic stimulus is only the fact of speaking in public, in social phobia are feared all social situations in general.
In this sense, a person with social phobia may have a phobic fear of having personal conversations, eating in public, writing in public or going to parties.
Thus, glossophobia can be understood as one more symptom of social phobia. A person with social phobia may fear public speaking in the same way as a subject with glossophobia.
However, people with glossophobia do not present phobic fear for any of the other social activities feared in social phobia.
Causes
Glossophobia does not present a single cause but several factors that may be involved in its development.
It is usual that the etiological elements of the disorder are not directly identifiable, since it is postulated that the development of glossophobia depends on the feedback of different factors.
In this sense, some of the elements that can be associated with glossophobia are:
- Experience of one or more personal traumatic incidents related to public speaking activity.
- Visualization of one or more other traumatic incidents related to public speaking activity.
- Progressive avoidance of public speaking activity.
- Negative beliefs about public speaking activity developed during the early stages.
Treatment
To intervene the glossophobia is of vital importance to carry out psychotherapeutic sessions. Exposure to the phobic element is the main element that allows overcoming the fear of public speaking.
The Cognitive behavioral treatments Are based mainly on exposing the subject to public speaking and working in those situations the subject's anxiety responses to overcome the phobia.
On the other hand, there are now multiple training programs to learn how to speak in public that can be useful to control anxiety at those times.
References
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