What Is Performance Anxiety
In simple terms, performance anxiety is excessive fear or worry about your ability to accomplish a specific task.
Performance anxiety can be triggered by just about anything, and the effect can range from mild to severe. Usually, it is an intense apprehension that comes up in anticipation of a specific task or activity.
There are a few different types of performance anxiety in addition to generalized anxiety, including:
Business As Usual In 2021
Business as usual is no longer a term that can be used. Change has occurred on such a large scale that businesses and the employees that work for them have the potential to succumb to the strain. Contracts have been canceled, expectations are shifted, and while many employers have risen to the challenge to pivot for the customer, theyve forgotten about the mental strains placed on not only themselves but also their employees.
Consumers have lost trust in the brands they frequent and are taking it out on employees who maintain the companys front lines. They are not shy about demanding more regardless of whether or not those demands are even possible.
Whether in person or virtual, the consumer expects to be placated and wowed. This can lead to a significant increase in anxiety at work.
Eat Foods That Help Stabilize Blood Sugar
So far, Ive discussed how to break the cycle of performance anxiety using tips that might seem unrealistic to some people.
Its okay if relaxation techniques or the power of excitement feels too out there for you. Heres something a bit more hands-on: limit sugar, caffeine, and any food capable of triggering anxiety-like symptoms.
Anxiety is connected to increased blood sugar levels due to the increased release of cortisol, the stress hormone.
Interestingly, certain foods can mimic physical symptoms of anxiety, turning your nervousness into intense and persistent anxiety. This is why choosing foods that help lower or regulate blood sugar is important, as it can help reduce jittery and nervous feelings associated with anxiousness.
This lifestyle change might be a bit tricky for people who cant do without coffee or are addicted to sugary foods and drinks.
However, it is worth the effort because cutting off or minimizing these foods wont only help to stop a recurrence of anxiety symptoms, but it will also improve your overall physical and mental health.
Include well-balanced meals in your diet to help regulate your blood sugar, which reduces anxiety. Instead of highly processed foods and refined carbs, it is more helpful to eat whole, unprocessed foods as a major part of your diet.
Some foods that may help regulate blood sugar include:
- Leafy vegetables
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Eliminate Negative Thought Patterns
The first step is to eliminate any negative thought patterns contributing to your anxiety. For example, if youre constantly telling yourself that youre going to fail or that youre not good enough, then its no wonder youre feeling anxious! Instead, focus on positive affirmations and self-talk. Tell yourself that you can do it and that you are capable of succeeding.
Sports Psychology For Performance Anxiety
Do you perform well during training or practice but choke in competition? If feelings of nervousness, anxiety or fear interfere with your sports performance, learning to use a few tips from sports psychology may help you get your anxiety under control and reduce game-day nerves.
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Performance Anxiety Has Increased With Online Meetings
A survey conducted by Doodle found that 34% of employees put in more effort for virtual client meetings than in-person, 46% are dipping into their personal time to meet the higher demands created by virtual clients, and 55% are overcompensating for the lack of in-person contact.
Nearly a third of those interviewed by Doodle admitted that their new realities and performance anxiety at work have led them to engage less with the client.
Employees are feeling the pressure and its leading to exhaustion, anxiety at work, burnout, and the Great Resignation.
The answer doesnt lie in canceling virtual meetings or doing away with remote work. The truth is that the new business as usual includes these dynamics. There is simply no way around the benefits remote work and online conferencing have brought to the workplace.
Break The Cycle And Challenge Your Unhelpful Thoughts
After a week or so of doing the thought log, it’s time to go a step further. You are now proficient at recognizing your unhelpful thoughts. You are ready for battle.
Once you recognize that a thought contributes to your anxiety, challenge it by asking questions like: “Do I have evidence that supports this thought or am I jumping to conclusions? Do I have good reasons to feel like this?”
In reality, challenging your long-held beliefs is often extremely difficult. You can try to ask yourself this serious of questions to slowly chip away the power of your limiting beliefs.
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When Anxieties Seem Out Of Your Hands
The many different anxieties that can pull the support out from under your tent are, at times, easy to spot and tackle such as through working out or getting the right haircut.
For self-critical thoughts about who you are, how well you can perform in bed or even how long you can perform, there are still options to help reverse the years of you telling yourself you arent good enough.
Taking the opportunity to indulge in hobbies and friends, sexual or otherwise, can help you find what youre all about in life.
Once you do this, you can often feel more confident because youve done something you enjoy with your time which takes the pressure off of how well the sexier times of your day end up going.
If youve turned every stone in your mind and burned every bridge connecting negative thoughts to your performance, it may be time to get a helping hand and not the one you may have just thought of.
Use The Power Of Excitement
Excitement or eagerness is different from being anxious or nervous. The former means looking forward to something, while the latter means dreading it.
Although you might experience performance anxiety with tasks you really enjoy and look forward to, you can use your excitement to overcome the anxious feeling.
One way to harness the power of enthusiasm and excitement is to remind yourself why you enjoy a particular task or activity. Ask yourself why you look forward to performing and what aspects of the performance excite you most. You might even choose to write them down and read them to yourself when you feel anxious about your performance.
Once you have your answer, nurture the feeling of excitement for as long as possible to help overcome performance anxiety, even if it is only temporary.
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Overcoming Performance Anxiety: Tricks Of The Trade
There are also mental tricks you can play to help you perform with less anxiety. These include:
- Focus on the friendliest faces in the audience.
- Laugh when you can, it can help you relax.
- Make yourself look good. When you look good, you feel good.
These tips should help reduce performance anxiety. But if they don’t, talk to a counselor or therapist trained in treating anxiety issues. You may benefit from more intensive therapy, such as cognitive behavioral therapy, to help overcome performance anxiety. In addition, beta-blockers such as propranolol that lower the heart rate and block the effects of adrenaline are sometimes used by people with performance anxiety.
Confronting your fears and learning ways to reduce and manage them can be empowering. Not only will it make you feel good about yourself, you may discover that you are a more confident performer, too.
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What To Do When Your Boyfriend Has Performance Anxiety
The best thing you can do is to let your man know its not a big deal.
Tell him that theres no rush to get to full penetration. Show him you love it when he pleasures you in other ways. Let him know that there will still be another date in the future .
When you do this, youll be surprised how often he relaxes and you end up having a successful sex session shortly afterwards.
The worst thing you can do is ask questions or make statements that fuel his anxiety.
Whats wrong with you?
Hurry up.
Is it broken?
Women typically do this because they think they are to blame for his sexual dysfunction and become defensive.
Hopefully, now you understand the link between performance anxiety and ED a little better, youll choose to be supportive instead.
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Work On Your Low Self
Those with low self-esteem may be more likely to fall into the trap of thinking they need to perform well to keep a woman interested in them.
Those with high self-esteem might be able to relax, knowing they deserve a beautiful woman and that shell enjoy spending time with him regardless of his sexual prowess.
Stress Sleep And Anxiety: How To Break The Cycle
We all know that Stress, Sleep and Anxiety dont mix. High levels of stress and anxiety can wreck our chances of getting quality shut-eye by keeping our bodies wide awake and prolonging the time it takes to fall asleep. However, many people dont realize that the inverse is also true. Insufficient sleep can contribute to stress and anxiety. In fact, research shows that a sleepless night can reduce our ability to cope with stress so when we dont get a good nights sleep, were likely to feel even more anxious.
This loop leads to a vicious cycle that can have dire consequences for our health and well-being, putting us at an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, psychiatric disorders and countless other health problems. Not to mention the negative effects it can have on our work performance and personal relationships.
The good news? You dont have to be stuck in this vicious cycle indefinitely. From improving your sleeping environment to de-stressing with a weighted blanket, here are a few ways you can break the stress-sleep cycle and take back control of your health.
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Speak Professional Help From A Therapist
Sometimes, sexual performance anxiety is linked to a traumatic event. In this case, it can be particularly difficult to overcome by yourself.
If overcoming performance anxiety alone is a struggle, I would urge you to seek professional help from a therapist.
A sex therapist specialises in mental blocks linked to sexual problems. However, any accredited therapist will be aware of how to help a client overcome the causes of sexual performance anxiety and prescribe the correct treatment plan.
Hypnotherapy is a particularly useful therapy technique for healing men with performance anxiety and erectile dysfunction or any generalized anxiety disorder.
How To Break The Cycle Of Health Anxiety
Have you ever experienced the physical symptoms of anxiety in your body and not known how to get rid of them? Dont worry. You are not alone. Experts say that one out of 20 people experiences anxiety at one time or another in their life.
It may often include anxiety about your health, where you may misinterpret normal bodily functions as dangerous signs that threaten your health. In this article, we will take a closer look at how to help people with health anxiety to overcome their health worries.
If you want to know how to win the struggle against anxiety symptoms, keep on reading and find out.
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Take A Break From Hook
As long as youre taking care of your sexual health, theres nothing so bad about hooking up with someone you just met. It can be a lot of fun.
In fact, its common to feel more anxious sleeping with people you just met. In these types of encounters, there tends to be less focus on intimacy and more on performance. This can fuel the cycle of performance anxiety which is so hard to escape from.
To overcome sexual performance activity, youre probably better off developing a relationship with a partner who you know cares about you.
Youll find it easier to communicate honestly and focus on intimacy with a partner like this, safe in the knowledge that this person likes you for who you are.
Lead A Healthy Lifestyle
If your lifestyle isnt healthy, your mental and physical health might suffer. In turn, you might start feeling stressed out, anxious, and on edge all of which might eventually lead to the development of performance anxiety.
Start by eating more wholesome, nutritious food, exercising more , and cutting down on alcohol and caffeine. In just a few weeks, you will begin to see some improvements in how you feel inside and out.
The only way to keep your health is to eat what you dont want, drink what you dont like, and do what youd rather not. Mark Twain
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What Are The Symptoms Of Health Anxiety
It is essential to know the symptoms that go with the anxiety cycle to recognize them when you see them. There are several common symptoms of this medical condition, and the following is a list of them.
- The person is worrying that normal bodily sensations are symptoms of serious illnesses. A good example is when people think they have heart attack symptoms when they are out of breath.
- You are preoccupied with getting sick or developing a severe illness, and nothing can convince you otherwise.
- Another symptom can be that you are easily alarmed and worried about your health
- If you avoid places where there are many people or just try to avoid all contact with other people.
- When test results come back negative to say that you have nothing to worry about, you are not assured.
- If you are repeatedly checking your body for signs of illnesses and other symptoms.
- Constant talking about an illness and even making appointments with the doctor so you can be assured.
Treatments For Sexual Performance Anxiety
To confirm whether or not you are suffering from this sex-related psychological condition, healthcare providers or mental health experts can help you diagnose. Furthermore, their role also adds significant assistance to your treatment development.
Fortunately, sexual performance anxiety can be treated with medications and psychotherapy.
- Psychotherapy: As the first treatment for the condition, a certified sex therapist can help you address the sex-related issues youre going through by practicing Cognitive Behavioral Therapy . From there, CBT can help you understand your feelings and thoughts about your body image.
- Medication: The doctor may prescribe medicines for erectile dysfunction and alleviate performance anxiety. A few medications used to treat erectile dysfunction include: Sildenafil, Tadalafil, and avanafilall of them can boost confidence in men with sexual performance concerns.
In case of low hormone levels, testosterone replacement therapy may also involve your treatment with gels or injections.
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Wind Down With A Weighted Blanket
Whether you struggle with occasional middle-of-the-night worries or a full-on anxiety disorder, a weighted blanket is a must-have in your relaxation toolkit. Weighted blankets deliver firm, gentle pressure that calms the central nervous system, triggering the release of feel-good hormones that reduce stress and ease the mind. Scientists say that deep touch pressure, like that produced by a weighted blanket, may alleviate anxiety symptoms and promote a calmer nights sleep.
Note that weighted blankets arent the only weighted product that can help you relax and get a better nights sleep. For instance, weighted eye masks produce the same relaxing effect on the body and come with the bonus of blocking light in the evening, which can make it harder to fall asleep. Experiment with different weighted products and find what works best for you.
What Happens To The Male Body: The Link Between Performance Anxiety And Ed
To overly simplify it, anxiety is essentially being overwhelmed with negative thoughts.
When this happens, an overflow of blood rushes to the brain.
The end result tends to be erectile dysfunction or premature ejaculation.
Anxiety attacks are also during extreme cases of sexual performance anxiety, which will surely leave men in no state to perform sexually at all.
To achieve and maintain the strongest erections during a sexual encounter, the male body has to be relaxed.
When youre overwhelmed with fear or anxiety, your body is in an extreme state of stress management.
In such cases, the key to solving your sexual dysfunction is reducing stress. The guide below is packed with ideas to help you reduce stress, no matter how high your anxiety levels currently are.
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When To Seek Help
If performance anxiety is negatively impacting important areas of your life, you may benefit from professional support.
Cognitive behavioral therapy has been supported by scientific research, says Tholen. CBT works because it is the most efficient method of challenging the dysfunctional thoughts that underlie performance anxiety, and the most efficient form of CBT is focused positivity strategy.
Focused positivity is a solution-based therapeutic approach that encourages you to focus on flourishing and achieving goals rather than fixating on weakness and the obstacles they create.
Identifying Sexual Performance Anxiety
Sexual performance anxiety is sometimes misdiagnosed as erectile dysfunction. While the condition could cause erectile dysfunction, these are two different conditions.
Sexual performance anxiety is not a recognized medical condition, which often makes diagnosis and treatment difficult. The shame usually attached to sexual dysfunction conditions also prevents people from seeking help from a doctor or healthcare provider.
For a diagnosis of sexual performance anxiety to be made, any other reasons for your diminished sexual performance, such as other medical conditions, will have to be ruled out. A psychotherapist typically makes a diagnosis of SPA.
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