Performance Anxiety: 15 Symptoms, Causes, and Treatments – We typically think of performance anxiety as being associated with sports: an inability to sink the putt or take the kick in the final playoff.However, stage fright can happen anywhere, from the boardroom to the bedroom (Biswal & Srivastava, 2022; Kochenour & Griffith, 2020).

Performance anxiety can surface before any situation we feel anxious about or during a demanding activity. While moderate levels of stress can enhance our performance, too much can derail it (Angelidis et al., 2019).

This article explores the fascinating subject of performance anxiety: its symptoms, causes, and potential treatments.

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What Is Performance Anxiety in Psychology?

“Performance anxiety refers to the anxiety that people experience in anticipation of and/or during important tasks, resulting in impaired performance” (Angelidis et al., 2019, p. 2).

Sometimes referred to as “stage fright,” performance anxiety can affect everyone from public speakers, musicians, and athletes to someone giving a speech at a wedding (Marks, 2021).

And it is common. According to research, 10% to 40% of students experience test anxiety, and it’s even higher within subgroups such as students with disabilities, women, and ethnic minorities (Angelidis et al., 2019).

Psychology tells us the following (Kremer et al., 2019):

• Whether anxiety helps or hinders performance is related to how we interpret it.
• Anxiety isn’t all or nothing; it affects us at different levels.
• We each have our personal zone of optimal arousal: “the range of physiological arousal within which an individual can perform at the peak of physical, mental, and skillful ability” (American Psychological Association, n.d.).

Therefore, balancing enough anxiety to energize performance versus too much that crushes it is challenging.

Performance anxiety at work

In the workplace, performance anxiety can surface when employees perceive themselves as being scrutinized — in the spotlight for doing something they believe they could fail at (Biswal & Srivastava, 2022).

For the employee, this could be public speaking or delivering a crucial report on time; their “worry system” is in overdrive, and their performance suffers (Angelidis et al., 2019; Laguaite, 2021).

Performance anxiety in music and sports

Sports psychologists have suggested that when faced with a competitive sporting situation, “an individual will make cognitive appraisals of the perceived imbalance of the situational demands, resources, consequences, and the ‘meaning’ of consequences” (Ford et al., 2017, p. 206).

If too great, anxiety that could have been performance boosting becomes damaging or even debilitating (Kremer et al., 2019).

Performance anxiety is also found in musicians. Researchers refer to it as “music performance anxiety” and estimate that it is experienced by between 15% and 20% of students and professionals (Juncos et al., 2017)

5 Symptoms of Performance Anxiety

Clients may present with a wide range of symptoms that suggest performance anxiety, including (Forsyth & Eifert, 2016; Laguaite, 2021; Ford et al., 2017; Marks, 2021):

• Emotional symptoms
  Clients with performance anxiety may experience a wide range of emotional symptoms, including fear, worry, apprehension, embarrassment, and self-doubt. They create significant distress and negatively affect an individual’s ability to focus on tasks.
• Cognitive symptoms
  Performance anxiety can lead to negative thought patterns, including excessive self-criticism, unrealistic expectations, and a heightened focus on failure. Such thinking contributes to the cycle of fear and reduces an individual’s self-confidence.
• Physical symptoms
  It can also manifest as various physical symptoms, such as increased heart rate, shortness of breath, trembling, sweating, dry mouth, gastrointestinal issues, and muscle tension. All of these can further worsen the emotional and cognitive symptoms.
• Behavioral symptoms
  In response to the emotional, cognitive, and physical symptoms, clients may display behavioral changes, including avoiding situations that trigger anxiety, withdrawing from social interactions, and displaying impaired performance.
• Interpersonal consequences
  Performance anxiety can strain relationships with colleagues, friends, and family members. The affected individual may seem distant and uncooperative, leading to further social isolation and increased pressure.

While the list is not definitive, it highlights several aspects of a client’s response to their existing and anticipated environments that should be monitored and discussed.

3 Common Causes of Performance Anxiety

Sports psychology offers valuable insights into the causes of performance anxiety that are equally applicable across other settings.

Three of the most important include (Kremer et al., 2019; Angelidis et al., 2019):

• Fear of failure
  Humans are prone to “what if” thinking. We spend much of our time asking ourselves, “What if I fail? What if I let others down?” Our fear of failure leaves us uptight and focused on what could go wrong — and what we need to avoid — rather than on getting the job done.
• Unrealistic expectations
  We are prone to perfectionism. We set ourselves unrealistic expectations and then judge ourselves harshly when we don’t deliver. Such all-or-nothing thinking, where we are either successful or a failure, results in anxiety in competitive and challenging situations.
• Lack of confidence
  Our belief in our ability to be successful or achieve specific goals impacts our degree of anxiety. Too little, and we can become stuck, expecting failure and unwilling to try.

Performance anxiety can cause “choking” — the sudden deterioration of performance (in sports, the workplace, educational settings, and beyond) under conditions of perceived pressure. “The more effort you put into your performance when you’re extremely anxious, the worse it gets” (Kremer et al., 2019, p. 47).

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