STAGE FRIGHT

Dubbed famously by Laurence Oliver as the Actor’s Nightmare and Stanislavsky referring to the audience as the ‘black hole’, stage fright is considered one of the worst fears an actor can face. There are many stories about actors fleeing, collapsing, vomiting and feigning illness just as they're about to go out on stage. Some actos have been known to refuse to return to the stage or perform live for many years because of stage fright.

Stage fright isn’t just felt by actors and performers but can affect anyone who has to speak to a group of people, managing a team to teaching. It can affect actors, performers, teachers, lecturers, lawyers, barristers, scout leaders, community leaders. In fact it can affect anyone at any time.

What is Stage Fright?

Most describe it as abject fear to the point of feeling physically ill. However, stage fright is a fear, and this fear is made up of a package of responses. When you fear something you experience it physically, emotionally and cognitively (Thought processes).

What are the symptoms of Stage Fright?

The physical symptoms may include one or more of the following:

Clammy hands

Trembling

Butterflies in the stomach

Diarrhoea or a sense of urgency

Shortness of breath

Shallow breathing

Fainting or passing out

Dry mouth

Seizing up - the inability to move

Heart beats faster

Palpitations

Vomiting

Crying

Peeing yourself or wanting to go for a pee

Flatulence

The emotions you may feel, maybe one or more of the following:

Extreme fear or fright

Sadness

Panic

Dread

Anger (either against yourself or someone else)

Disgust (either against yourself or someone else)

The cognitive element may include one or more of the following:

Have the urge to runaway

Shutting yourself in the dressing room

Thoughts of suicide

Not being able to think straight: Everything becomes ‘woolly’ or ‘Fuzzy’

Feelings of having a heartache

Feelings of passing out

Feelings of hopelessness

Feeling of looking foolish

Feeling of looking a fraud

feelings of being a failure

Feelings of letting parents, partners and friends down

Feelings of letting fans and colleagues down

Feelings of drying during the performance

Feelings of wanting to give up your career

The list can go on and you may be able to add more. Further, you may experience different symptoms depending on the medium you are performing to i.e. performing in front of cameras opposed to stage to singing or dancing instead of playing a character.

What is important to realise is that you are not alone and that the above symptoms are all what some of us may have felt from time-to-time, but perhaps to lesser or more degrees. It is important to know how to harness and reduce these symptoms. This is where hypnosis can help you. Before I go more into this further I want to first describe what the body does whilst it views a perceived fear.

As you can see fear is made up of the three elements the physical, emotion and cognitive (the thought processes of something is going to happen). Fear can reach such significant proportions that it may interfere with our ability to concentrate, and distort our view as to what is happening, and thus affect our performance and our mental health. As we repeat the experience and it creates a vicious cycle. It is the same each time although it can get worse. To stem such feelings you may look to reduce them by using alcohol, drugs (prescription - beta-blockers are popular), masturbation (Yes, a lot of actors swear by this), pain (clenching open safety pins or putting a drawing pin in your shoe) or aggression. Whilst these coping mechanisms may help temporarily, they may cause self-defeating behaviour in the form of habits and addictions.

What is happening when we experience fear?

When we view something as fearful our body’s autonomic nervous system (ANS), which is the extensive network of nerve fibres that connect the central nervous system i.e. the brain and spinal cord to the other organs of the body, activates causing your body's organs to work faster.

When our brain sees a situation as fear our bodies excites a special group of ANS fibres that quickens up our physiological responses i.e. heart beats faster, perspiration is more hence clammy hands and we experience shallow breathing. These fibres are known as the sympathetic nervous system. This system is more commonly known as ‘fight or flight’ system, precisely because it prepares us for some kind of action in response to danger. This is the evolutionary part of our body which prepares us for battle or to flee if danger is upon us.

When the perceived danger passes, our functioning returns to normal and our fear reduces, thanks to the action of a second group of ANS nerve fibres known as the parasympathetic nervous system. This system is responsible for returning our heartbeat and other body processes to normal. Both these systems are needed for our survival. We need the ANS to alert us to danger and prepare us but at the sametime we need the parasympathetic system to bring us back down to normal functioning. The body is like a car you cannot keep it in a high gear and high speed all of the time or else it will damage the engine.

How can hypnosis help?

Hypnosis can help you by harnessing the fear you feel before going on stage, performing or public speaking. We need a certain amount of stress to motivate us and especially when a role is physically demanding, stress does help. However, it is the amount of stress that’s crucial. An optimum level that allows you to function but at the same time not make you freeze with terror, or cause distressing physical, emotional or cognitive symptoms.

This can be achieved by relaxation. When you are relaxed your body cannot be in a fear state as the parasympathetic system of the ANS is predominate. Fear, stress and tension comes into play when the sympathetic nervous system activates. Thus, when you are relaxed you do not feel fear or tension. Relaxation can be practised on a number of sessions in order to get you used to the feelings of relaxation and you will be taught self-hypnosis to bring about relaxation.

What if I cannot relax?

I hear this a lot from clients and when you ask someone to relax the opposite may actually happen. In order to assist I use a number of methods. We can use the Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR), whereby you are asked to visualise or feel your muscles smoothing out and unwinding. This works for a majority of people. There are other methods that can be used - fixed point - getting someone to concentrate on a verbal cue or visual cue. Could be a light or told to concentrate on the sun in the horizon or a sphere or a soothing noise. We can use guided imagery or confusion techniques which confuse your conscious mind and lets your unconscious mind to take over. The latter normally involves counting down in multiple numbers whilst being instructed to do something else.

What tools can I be taught to reduce the feelings of stage fright?

Relaxation is one of the most effective to reducing your stage fright. Other methods which are equally powerful is the dial method to turn down your fear response. The dial method is used in pain management and whilst under hypnosis you will be asked to visualise a dial and to turn it down to a more manageable level. This is extremely effective to reduce stage fright.

Other methods which are equally effective are guided imagery and distraction techniques. I will discuss the different techniques at the initial consultation with you.

When the fear has been present for so long and is causing a great deal of distress, hypnosis can help tackle the unconscious memories that may be causing and thus fuelling the stage fright. These memories which may stem from childhood or years back, and which have gone deep into your unconscious mind and activate each time you experience stage fright. We use hypnoanalysis or regression for this type of therapy.

How many sessions will it take?

I normally recommend at least 4-6 sessions. For severe stage fright I usually recommend a two hour session for the first couple of sessions as I find it helps the client get to a good level of relaxation. I also offer intensive sessions for acute stage fright i.e. two sessions within 48-72 hours coupled with self-hypnosis and mindlfulness meditation.