For many of the people I see for hypnotherapy for performance anxiety in London or online the key issue is being faced with a high pressure situation. London is home to many multinational organisations and delivering executive presentations can make or break a career, even the most experienced professionals can feel anxiety from time to time. It’s the same with performers; anxiety or a feeling of low-confidence can creep up on professional actors, artists or musicians. so you’re not alone.
Some of the common reasons for performance anxiety can be broken down into:
1) Cognitive performance anxiety; and
2) Behavioural performance anxiety.
Cognitive performance anxiety relates to beliefs and thoughts. Some examples include:
- Having a low self-image e.g. “I’m not good enough to do this”
- Self evaluation e.g. “This is not going very well”
- High expectations e.g. “This has to be perfect”
- Blaming yourself e.g. “I will let everyone down if I don’t get this right”
- Doomthink e.g. “If I fail I will never live this down”
- Overgeneralisation e.g. “They all think I can’t do this”
Behavioural performance anxiety is more concerned with how people cope with anxiety. Examples include:
- Avoidance e.g. Directly avoiding a situation so to not confront the problem head on
- Perfectionism e.g. Becoming so obsessed with something to the point where it leads to fatigue
- Procrastination e.g. Keeping yourself busy with indirect areas that then builds up the pressure on the avoided problem
- Withdrawal e.g. Completely removing yourself from social interaction
