How to Identify Speech Anxiety Symptoms

Communication involves the most complex thought processes that human beings possess. We constantly adapt, learn, grow in our social awareness. Sensing the anxiety other people feel is more intuitive than based on deductive reasoning. Feeling emotions is more subtle than clearly proven fact.

 Steps

    1
    Know your symptoms.
        stiff posture, quick nervous movements
        tripping over words
        saying "uh, um, er, etc." excessively
        disconnected with the topic being presented
    2
    Relax. As long as the speaker can be confident in his or her presentation, they should have no reason to feel ill-at-ease. How a speaker feels about the speech is most definitely reflected in the tone it's presented.
    3
    Practice. Say the words aloud. Like the speech you wrote is meant to be spoken. Look in the mirror if that helps, but don't go overboard on that.
    4
    Memorize. Already know exactly what you're going to say before you're even on stage. I know for certain that cuts a lot of anxiety out of a speech. Also the audience will appreciate that the person they're focused upon put forth real effort toward the presentation.
    5
    Care. If one can't evoke any emotional response in the audience, then it shows-in a way- that what they're talking about isn't important enough to pull on the heartstrings in some way. Humans connect through beauty and struggle and pain.
    6
    Recognize. Everyone gets nervous. It's best to put focus mainly on keeping the audience as into the subject being discussed as the speaker is. Small mistakes mean basically nothing when people are considering what was said after the speech is over. It's better for the person an audience is focused on to be well-prepared than disinterested, uncertain, and/or somewhat clumsy.
    7
    Research. Look up journals and articles about what interests you most about this topic. Psychologists are just as neurotic as the rest of us, but they like to make their observations published aka "well-known." Learning is fun, because knowledge is power.
    8
    Most importantly, RELAX.

Tips

    Building confidence is part of being prepared.
    Don't take it as a life or death situation. Seems that some people would rather be hidden from all danger than face being vulnerable, on stage, in front of strangers.
    Most adult humans understand that every one of us has certain forgivable flaws.

Warnings

    If the speaker cannot RELAX, surely his or her heart will explode within 2-3 minutes.
    Do not attempt deciphering these symptoms in a serious manner. How a person feels about a particular subject or topic is reflected in the way they choose their words, posture, and effort put forth.