Overcoming crippling performance anxiety

[AllegraMayz]

Hello, this is my first time posting so I hope I’m doing it correctly.

I recently sent a video application for a dance competition and I’ve surprised myself by getting in. I genuinely did not think i would and was hoping a bit that wouldn’t. When I received the acceptance email I had a panic attack and have been struggling with overwhelming anxiety surrounding the performance ever since. It has become so bad that I i don’t enjoy dancing anymore and dread practicing my routine which in turn is making the anxiety worse as I feel less prepared for the competition. When I do practise I find that simple moves I used to feel confident with now feel extremely difficult and scary. I’m suddenly terrified of falling despite never having this fear in the past. Every practise session the anxiety surrounding falling, being unprepared and just performing in general slowly builds to the point I’m on the brink of a panic attack at the end of every session and actually cried in the middle of a class 2 nights ago.

I’ve never experienced anxiety this intense and frustrating and have no idea how to overcome it. I’m hoping some of you may have experienced it and have some strategies to help.

[Alexlisa]

Hello AllegraMayz,

Welcome to the forums ☺️ Congratulations on getting accepted into the competition, no matter what happens now you’ve already made a great achievement. I totally understand that feeling that part of you wanted not to get in so that you could avoid the anxiety. I do that too and more often than not it stops me putting myself out there at all. So, good for you in being brave enough to take the chance and follow your heart rather than your anxiety.

Performance anxiety can be so overwhelming, I know, I’m sorry you’re going through this. It can start off small and then become something we ruminate on, which only makes it worse. There are a couple of basic things first of all that can help you make sure you’re at your best mentally. The first is making sure you’re getting enough sleep and also that you’re eating/drinking well enough. Without these basics anxiety can be triggered so easily.

You might want to consider doing some mindfulness or breathing practices regularly, and also just before you perform. There are a couple of great apps out there. One is Smiling Mind and another is Insight Timer. They have heaps of different types of exercises to choose from. It will be especially helpful to do some that will help you to focus on your breathing, because when we’re anxious if we can slow and deepen our breathing it can have a great effect on our ability to calm ourselves.

Focusing on releasing the tension in our body can help too, because we become very tense when anxious and might not even notice. If we consciously focus on releasing our muscles, it’s telling the body that everything’s actually ok. You can look up Progressive Muscle Relaxation for some guided videos.

Something that is really helpful to remember is that anxiety and panic comes like a wave. It will build, peak and then drop down. The body won’t maintain panic. You can try to picture it like surfing a wave. Rather than fighting against it (which will only make it worse), you allow it to rise and fall, knowing that it will soon ease.

There’s some great resources for anxiety, panic and rumination at:

https://www.cci.health.wa.gov.au/Resources/Looking-After-Yourself

They have fact sheets and workbooks with lots of information so that you can better understand what you’re experiencing, and also lots of skills to practice.

I hope this helps. Good luck with your performance. Remember, you’re already doing amazing by facing your anxiety.

Take care,

Alexlisa