Glossophobia is panic fear public speaking. In some cases, it can appear quite suddenly, but most often it is observed in a person throughout his life. This phobia can be a significant problem for people who have to perform in public. As a rule, a glossophobe cannot express his thoughts normally even with a small number of listeners, not to mention a full hall. Stage fright can be a significant barrier to advancement. career ladder without allowing the person to express himself. In the most advanced cases, even having certain aspirations, the individual tries to hide them in order to avoid the possibility of being publicly ridiculed.

Many people avoid public speaking, but this fear (glossophobia) can hinder career advancement.

Glossophobia (logophobia) is one of the most common mental disorders. The transition from physical labor to mental labor was accompanied by the development of corporations, where public speaking is the basis of managerial activity. Therefore, with a developed glossophobia, to succeed in similar companies almost impossible. Instead of moving towards achieving a specific result, such a person concentrates on the fear of embarrassment.

Stage fright is a serious and severe mental disorder. Dealing with it on your own is extremely difficult and in most cases impossible. If an individual starts this disease, does not turn to a specialist, does not correct the pathology, then this can cause the following unpleasant consequences:

  • development of somatic diseases in a chronic form;
  • the appearance of severe mental pathologies;
  • alcohol and drug addiction.

In some cases, a person makes attempts to deal with the disorder through the development of certain behaviors and protective "rituals". In more advanced cases, people suffering from this phobia begin to take strong antidepressants, various sedatives. However, without addressing the root cause of the problem, such methods will only have a temporary effect.

As a rule, taking drugs contributes to the penetration of fear even deeper into the subconscious of a person. At the same time, his condition is only aggravated, which is why the formation of new phobias is possible, bad habits appear, and personal development and growth stops.

In some cases, "stage sickness" provoked the development severe forms schizophrenia, psychopathy, personality disorders and mental illness. That is why logophobia cannot be ignored. At the first signs of this disease, you need to contact a specialist.

The main causes of glossophobia


People who are naturally shy often suffer from glossophobia.

Logophobia causes a person significant discomfort in Everyday life. To get rid of a phobia, you need to find its true cause. The most common causes of this condition are:

  1. Negative experience. If a person has ever had to face the disappointment of an unsuccessful performance, then the fear of being disgraced will again arise in him at every need to say public speech. As a rule, negative impressions quickly crowd out positive ones from a person's memory. Therefore, even one major failure can provoke a similar disorder of the psyche. Very often, the cause of glossophobia is long-forgotten childhood psychological trauma, when the child endured ridicule from peers, speaking in front of the class.
  2. Fear of failure. In this case, a person may not have had a negative experience of previous performances, but self-doubt makes him afraid to fail. And if an individual cannot cope with his fears, then this first performance in front of people can provoke a strong glossophobia in him. Sometimes people are so afraid of failure that they stop short of reaching their goal. They become stupor and lose control over their own actions.
  3. natural features. Some people are naturally shy. Such a person has difficulty even talking with one interlocutor, not to mention a whole group of people whose eyes are turned to the speaker. In such situations, we can talk about congenital glossophobia, when an individual is afraid of speaking due to his character traits. Modest people often let forward more purposeful and efficient colleagues, considering themselves incapable of great accomplishments.

Signs of glossophobia


Strong anxiety and fear of failure if necessary to speak in front of a certain number of people - these are all signs of glossophobia

Unlike a number of other panic fears, logophobia is fairly easy to diagnose. To do this, one should only take a closer look at the behavior of a particular individual when public speaking is necessary. Very often, people with this phobia consider themselves unworthy of victory, subconsciously recognizing their lack of demand and squalor.

The main signs of glossophobia are:

  • The presence of strong excitement when necessary to speak in front of a certain number of people. Even we are talking O small message, the individual will experience severe anxiety. This occurs against the background of palpitations, tremors of the limbs and trembling of the voice. The level of training and the status of a person in this case do not matter. Due to strong excitement, the glossophobic loses control over his own emotions, begins to get lost, and the fear of making a mistake leads him to a complete stupor. Perhaps even the appearance of a gag reflex at the mere mention of the need to speak in front of people.
  • avoidant behavior. Fear of speaking in public often provokes a person to defensive behavior. A person may try to subconsciously avoid unpleasant situations so as not to face disappointment. In the most advanced cases, it is possible to simulate an illness or invent false pretexts, due to which a person cannot perform a performance. At the same time, the glossophobe hides the existence of a problem in every possible way and denies its existence. For the most part, this is due to the fear of losing a job or not having career prospects.
  • Low self-esteem. Often, logophobia occurs in people who do not believe in their own strengths and consider themselves in many ways worse than others. They constantly compare themselves with others, and each time not in their favor. Often the individual wants someone else to take the necessary steps for him. He can also shift his responsibility to those who were nearby at the time of any action.
  • Diffidence. Ultimately, the glossophobe can absolutely withdraw into himself. All public failures are deposited in the subconscious of such a person and will certainly remind of themselves in those situations when it becomes necessary to make a responsible decision. For insecure people, any reason for action is a big shock. It seems to such a person that he is not ready or not good enough for the stage.

Diagnostics

An experienced specialist can easily distinguish the usual excitement before a speech from glossophobia. This condition can occur at an unconscious level, when a person does not give an account of his actions. However, any attempts to calm down are in vain.

As a rule, to identify this deviation, the following activities are carried out:

  1. Communication with the patient. During the conversation, the specialist asks glossophobic leading questions, the purpose of which is to establish the severity of the pathology.
  2. Psychological tests. If the patient is not able to give an accurate answer to some of the specialist's questions, then testing is the way to establish the truth.

Features of treatment


Professional hypnosis is very helpful in overcoming stage fright.

How to get rid of glossophobia? Depending on the severity, logophobia can be treated in two ways:

  1. Professional help. An appeal to a psychotherapist is necessary only for those patients in whom stage fright turns into obsessive-compulsive disorder.
  2. Self help. You can fight the manifestations of a phobia on your own, using specially developed techniques.

professional treatment

The therapist may prescribe the following types of treatment to the patient:

  1. Modeling the situation. The psychotherapist creates situations in which the patient has attacks of phobia, and discusses them with him. The purpose of such classes is to show the glossophobe that public speaking does not carry anything terrible.
  2. Symptomatic therapy. If the pathology is significant, then it is possible to take sedatives to suppress panic conditions.
  3. Hypnosis. In the most severe cases, the patient is put into a hypnotic state. This technique allows you to deal with the root cause of the development of a phobia.

self help

Logophobia responds well to self-treatment. Before overcoming the fear of speaking, the patient will have to follow these recommendations:

  1. Regular practice of public speaking. If speaking in front of a large group of people is difficult, then you should start with small meetings - 3-4 people each. It is necessary to analyze the situation, work out its details and gradually increase the number of listeners.
  2. Recording victories. Each, albeit small, victory over oneself must be recorded. Keeping track of achievements is the best remedy to fight the phobia.
  3. Confidential conversation. By starting to openly express your feelings, you can become more an open person which will later come in handy in public speaking. For a heart-to-heart conversation, it is better to choose a close friend.
  4. Training of voice and facial expressions. Practicing in front of a mirror will give you the confidence you need. By practicing for half an hour daily, you can achieve significant heights in oratory.

Has options: fear of speaking at all or with strangers, fear of public speaking Peiraphobia) and stage fright, with stuttering ( lalophobia), fear of individual words ( verbophobia).

The phobia can be partial, in which case it is called selective mutism. For example, a person suffering from logophobia speaks fluently with a loved one, experiences logoneurosis with less close ones and cannot speak with strangers, avoids them and duties that require verbal contact with them.

Consequences

The consequence of logophobia is usually social phobia, self-doubt and reduced self-esteem, avoidance of responsibility, public places, duties that require speaking, refusal of prestigious work and a decrease in the standard of living. The social circle is gradually narrowing, the comfort zone is limited. This, in turn, is a factor in psycho-emotional stress, which can both increase stuttering, logophobia itself, and cause other disorders of the neurotic circle.

It also increases the risk of various addictions, bad habits and mania. For example, tobacco smoking, alcoholism or drug addiction "for courage". Or the habit of doing preventive rituals, such as signing the cross, praying, etc., turning into obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Phases

Experts distinguish three main forms of stuttering. The first is neurotic. It stems from logophobia and neurotic disorders and "flows" into logoneurosis. The second form is the syndrome of neurosis-like speech disorder. The third form is mixed. It manifests syndromes of both the first and second forms.

Possible reasons

Psychological:

  • fear of responsibility, unpreparedness for the reaction of others, chronic fatigue syndrome, complex guilt and shame, low self-esteem, expectation of a negative assessment by others, negative self-hypnosis;
  • psychotrauma, fear, a decision fixed in the subconscious mind to remain silent - which is a personal decision or someone else's suggestion (for example, commands inspired in childhood “shut up, shut up, no one asks you, disgraced - be silent”, etc.);
  • poor knowledge of the local language, terminology, local norms of behavior.

Physiological:

  • speech disorders;
  • halitosis.

Treatment

Combinations of different methods are used:

  • Physiological (speech therapy massage, breathing exercises) - to get rid of the habit of clamping the muscles of the neck and mouth in anticipation of a situation when it will be necessary to speak.
  • Affirmations (option - prayers) to calm, increase self-esteem and responsibility for your opinion.
  • Autogenic training. Mental regular concentration on the level of the mouth and neck, with the suppression of the emerging desire to be distracted by other thoughts, due to the mental discomfort that appears during this auto-training, memories of insults, etc.
  • Work in groups with a psychologist, speech therapist, linguist, orator.
  • Antidepressants may be used.

It is also necessary to eliminate the causes of the appearance

IN modern world to achieve success, move up the crankcase ladder, you need to communicate a lot, interact with huge amount of people. If a slight trembling, feelings and emotions disappear quickly and the person returns effortlessly to habitual state- this is the usual "response" of the body to an emotional shake-up. Constantly arising strong experiences with detrimental consequences for the human psyche and health give rise to the establishment medical diagnosis"glossophobia", meaning panic fear of public speaking.

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Features of appearance and manifestation

Not just fear of the audience, but real panic “covers” a person at the mere thought of speaking. The completely natural experience of the upcoming oratory in the case of a phobia is replaced by an uncontrollable protracted attack, when it is impossible to resist the incoming horror.

The fear of public speaking is manifested by external characteristic features.

Glossophobia (among specialists, another term may be used - " Peiraphobia”) is noticeable to others by several signs:

  • Gestures, facial expressions unusual for a person;
  • Voice features: change in timbre and sound strength;
  • Increased perspiration;
  • Muscular overstrain, up to the "jamming" of movements;
  • Increased dryness in the mouth ("dry throat").

In addition, temporary dumbness, fainting and an attack of “bear disease” (uncontrolled urination) are possible. Man literally falls into a severe stupor. The severity of these symptoms depends on several factors:

  • The general state of the human psyche;
  • The presence of negative emotional states;
  • Personality traits;
  • Goals of the upcoming speech.

In the latter case, glossophobia can manifest itself both with low and high self-esteem, when too high expectations from reaching the audience are not justified.

Watch a helpful video on this topic

root causes

Appearance to a large audience always accompanied by excitement However, this phenomenon can have various causes and manifestations. Psychologists distinguish several possible causes formation and presence of phobia in the human psyche. Glossophobia can have social or hereditary roots.

Genetic or hereditary phobias are very difficult to overcome, since a special, “alarming” program is embedded in the psyche.

Psychologists say that increased anxiety, unreasonable feelings, the presence of fears can be inherited.

Another reason for the emergence of stage fright lies in social prerequisites, these are:

  • Painful perception stressful situations, their artificial exaggeration;
  • Excessive susceptibility of someone else's opinion;
  • Negative experience "from childhood": fear of ridicule, protrusion of shortcomings, experienced ostracism of peers, identified in early age logophobia;
  • Perfectionism.

The last cited basis for the fear of footlights may indicate unreasonably high demands on oneself, which the individual simply cannot match due to personality traits.

Where are the origins of the phobia?

Most phobias are based on childhood fears. Adults themselves often "help" the child to become insecure with their reproaches, ridicule, even threats. The fear of not meeting the expectations of parents, of being unsuccessful, of not being liked by others is fixed in the child's subconscious.

Very useful and detailed material from an expert:

Fear of speaking, communicating often entails:

  • mutism - a neurotic reaction of the body to dissonance with the environment. If the situation “I'm afraid” is repeated and not corrected, prerequisites are created for the formation of speech phobias - glossophobia and its varieties (lalophobia, verbophobia). On the fixed fear, stuttering “grows”, from where logophobia develops. As a result - problems with studies, difficulties in communicating with peers.

Diagnosis

To cure something, you must first carry out an appropriate diagnosis of the problem case. Obsessive fear of communicating with people in the upcoming performance exists in several versions, has some special features. To study phobias, tests specially developed by psychologists are used.

Several professional types of assistance are known for problems associated with speech disorders. For example, IELTS testing, with passing the Speaking test, to check oral speech and identify speech problems.

This diagnostic has been successfully tested in student groups where logophobia was observed in 96% of students.

How to treat "conversational" fear?

Methods of assistance with persistent speech phobia are aimed at eliminating the fear of talking, communicating in an unusual, unfamiliar environment. According to psychologists, almost all people are afraid of public speaking, but not everyone has a phobia as a result of such a stressful state. Treatment, depending on the degree of complexity of the manifestation, is variably selected individually, from several methods:

  1. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy;
  2. medicinal effect;
  3. Autogenic training;
  4. Specialized speech therapy massage;
  5. Singing classes, training of the respiratory apparatus;
  6. Individual and group work with specialized specialists.

Psychology offers several types of special treatment, for example:

  • Yu. Ogarkova-Dubinskaya's technique for overcoming fear of public speaking
  • Development Yu.M. Orlova is a special scientific direction in psychology devoted to sanogenic thinking.
  • 12 exercises for the normalization of speech A. and G. Gutsmanov (restoration of normal speech in stuttering).
  • Healing may require not only strength of character, but also significant time and resources.

Useful video from professional psychotherapist:

Popular drugs

Logophobia requires admission medicines soothing, relaxing effect. Appointed:

Neutralizes anxiety, helps in the treatment of mental disorders. The cost must be clarified in the regional network of pharmacies.

Zoloft. It is indicated for panic disorders of the psyche, phobias of social origin. The cost ranges from 350 to 450 rubles, depending on the region of sale.

Means of neuroleptic influence for the treatment of fears, borderline conditions. Cost: from 600 rubles.

Phenazepam. Stops panic disorders, has an instant effect, a short-term effect. Price: within 80-130 rubles.

Logophobia, or fear of speaking, is obsessive fear to speak with severe speech disorders, usually with stuttering. The patient feels a sense of shame in front of his speech defect, he is worried about what impression he will make on others, he is afraid to stumble when talking.

The development of logophobia entails the formation of self-doubt, a decrease in self-esteem. For such people, the circle of communication narrows, the comfort zone is limited, which, in turn, is a factor in the emergence of psycho-emotional stress, which can either increase stuttering or logophobia itself, or cause other neurotic disorders.

The stages of development of logophobia are as follows:

Fear when speaking (in a speech situation),

Fear when approaching a situation (expectation of failure),

Fear at the thought of the situation (the situation is only probable, but the fear is already there).

Logophobia takes certain place in the clinical picture of stuttering. There are three main forms of stuttering, for each of which logophobia has its own meaning.

1. Neurotic stuttering (logoneurosis)

The causes of such stuttering are psychogenic in nature. In this case, the fear of speech is one of the main mechanisms that support speech impairment. Caused by psychotrauma, logoneurosis forms a fear of speaking, which is a secondary factor in the appearance of stuttering in a situation of excitement. And the more fear a person has, the more he stutters, and vice versa - the more he stutters, the more he is afraid. Thus a vicious circle is formed. In this case, in a familiar environment, at home, with loved ones, a person stops stuttering. Communication with strangers, speaking in public provokes stuttering.

2. Neurosis-like stuttering

The causes of this type of stuttering are vascular, organic and other lesions of the central nervous system. This form of stuttering also provokes logophobia, which will make it difficult big picture and reduce the effectiveness of treatment. With prolonged development, such stuttering can develop into the next, mixed form.

3. Mixed stuttering

This is stuttering "two in one": primary stuttering was diagnosed as neurosis-like, but over time, when exposed to additional stress factors, a weakened nervous system there was a neurotic "layering". This stuttering has characteristics of both forms and is more difficult to correct than the first two. Certainly, important role in the formation of such a dual nature of stuttering, logophobia plays.

Treatment of logophobia

Since there are two components of stuttering - the emotional reaction of a person to a speech defect and the speech defect itself, then therapy should be carried out in two directions:

Normalization of the pace, rhythm and fluency of speech, reduction of speech convulsions. In this case, a speech pathologist-defectologist will help, and if necessary, a neurologist will join.

Children's fears, as a rule, are quite specific and for the most part are related to what threatens the life of the child or someone on whom his life depends, for example, parents. With speech, the child develops more complicated relationship. Since speech is not given to a person along with life, the child cannot feel the loss of what else; does not own or owns only to a small extent. In addition, the quality of speech has little effect on the ability to satisfy his vital needs. Only as new, purely human needs are formed, including the need for communication, in obtaining new knowledge, the value of speech increases significantly.

The emergence of feelings about the quality of one's own speech can be detected already in young children.

But even those who do not have speech impairments may be concerned about the quality of their speech.

Anxiety about one's speech can change in stutterers depending on various circumstances. So, for example, with increasing age, it is observed; growth, however, as well as the growth of general anxiety.

The severity of speech anxiety depends on the severity of the speech disorder: the more pronounced the stuttering, the higher the anxiety.

Many stutterers, as they develop anxiety about their speech, begin to identify this anxiety with stuttering itself. But with additional questions, it usually turns out that fear is not caused by stuttering itself, but by a possible attitude towards them due to bad speech. Therefore, the degree of experience is largely related to who is the communication partner. And here fear can be very selective, individual.

There is a classification of stuttering according to the degree of fixation on its defect. Fixation on its defect; this is a reflection of an objectively existing speech defect ( speech stutters) in all psychological activity stuttering person. This is the result of the processes of obtaining and processing information about speech difficulties and related troubles, transformed in the mental processes, states and properties of a stutterer and manifested in his interaction with the surrounding social environment.

There are three degrees of painful fixation on your defect:

(null) An indifferent attitude to one's defect, combined with a lack of strong-willed efforts in the fight against it.

At this degree, they do not experience infringement from the consciousness of their inferior speech, or even do not notice this inferiority at all. These stutterers willingly come into contact with acquaintances and strangers.

There are no elements of embarrassment, resentment for their wrong speech.

(moderate) A moderately restrained attitude towards one's defect, combined with the presence of strong-willed efforts in the fight against it.

At this degree, unpleasant experiences are experienced in connection with stuttering, stuttering is hidden, compensated by speech tricks.

However, awareness of one's own shortcomings and experiences do not translate into a constant painful feeling of one's own inferiority.

(expressed) A hopelessly-desperate attitude towards one's defect and the presence of such strong-willed efforts in the fight against it, which develop into obsessive actions and states.

With this degree, stutterers constantly focus on their speech failures, deeply and for a long time experience them. These stutterers make all their activities dependent on speech failures. For them, it is characteristic to go into illness, self-abasement, morbid suspiciousness, intrusive thoughts and marked fear of speech.

With age (or with the experience of stuttering) in stutterers, the degree of fixation on their defect tends to become more complicated.

Positive results speech therapy work with stutterers are naturally inversely related to the complexity of their fixation on their defect (the greater the fixation, the lower the result). It is the different degree of fixation on one's defect, and not the experience of stuttering, not its severity, that determines the different results of speech therapy work.

The severity of stuttering is adequate to the degree of fixation on one's defect.

Fear speech communication with an obsessive expectation of speech failures - logophobia.

A kind of vicious circle is formed, when convulsive hesitations in speech cause strong negative emotional reactions, which enhances speech disorders. In the end, for most stutterers, speech becomes a source of constant mental trauma. All this causes increased exhaustion (both mental and verbal), fatigue and contributes to the development of pathological character traits.

Gradually, some stutterers begin to avoid speech loads, sharply limit speech contacts (passive form of compensation), while others, on the contrary, become aggressive, obsessive in communication (the phenomenon of hypercompensation).

With age, logophobia in some cases acquires a particularly significant place in the picture of stuttering, is of an obsessive nature and arises at the mere thought of the need for verbal communication or with memories of speech failures in the past. In this state, stutterers often do not say what they would like to say, but only what is easier to say.

Sent by Natalia Bakumova.