I just finished my last presentation for the semester, and all of them went horribly. But the thing is, I never really knew I had troubles with public speaking. Maybe it’s because I haven’t done it enough or it’s been a while because of covid, but going into my first presentation, I wasn’t nervous at all. But AS SOON as I started speaking, I started heating up, my heart raced, my voice got shaky, and I could barely speak. It was completely involuntary, not based on a lack of preparation or anything like that. It really felt biological if that makes sense, like a switch flipped and I couldn’t control it. And as a result of that, and knowing I get uncontrollable physical reactions as soon as I speak, I was nervous going into the rest of my presentations and it made them all a lot more difficult

So I’m not sure what to do, because throughout all of my presentations I haven’t improved. That switch just flips every time now that I know it exists. I’ve read that these physical reactions can be normal and could just be a cause of a lack of exposure, but why am I the ONLY one in any of my classes that had reactions like that? I’m planning on talking to my doctor about beta-blockers but I guess I’m just wondering, if this is my anxiety kicking in, will exposure ever completely relieve it? Or is it something that I’ll just have to learn to live with and move past?