Any public speakers?

[Boglin]

I get nervous in large groups of people. I freak out in crowd places and I don't like being the center of attention. In class, I sit in the back of the room because I don't like the idea that someone may be sitting behind me and looking at me.

However, I don't have any problem with public speaking. I can stand in front of a large group of people and talk with any level of preparedness without serious problem. Yet, ask me to sit in that very same group or simply talk with a bank teller and I fall apart.

This feels so paradoxical. It seems that the most common problem that people have is public speaking, yet that's the one thing I can handle. Is anyone else like this?

[glenn miller]

i cant talk in big groups.

[moogle]

i don't mind public speaking, especially if i'm just reading something, but i still get nervous.. does that make sense?

[Boglin]

Moogle:

I understadn what you're saying. Actually, you brought something to mind. I was wrong when I said that I wasn't nervous with any level of preparedness. Actually, if I try to give a prepared speech, I do staert faltering. Basically, if I need to give a good speech, I have to do it off the cuff. If I have some prepared speech or something to read, I start getting really nervous about what I'm saying and will start stutterring (which is really funny because I don't actually have a stutter.)

I guess it just comes down to the classic thing of not thinking. When I'm up there just making stuff up, I'm too busy to think about what the audience is thinking, but when I'm reading, my mind is free to dwell on it's mistakes. I guessing that, for you, it's nice to just have the text to concentrate on, but it's worse if you when you have to fake it. Or am I totally off base?

[moogle]

i just don't like feeling like i'll end up tongue-tied or saying 'uhm' a lot while trying to think of what i should say next.