Performance anxiety could be a form of situational anxiety that shows up when someone feels pressure to perform well in front of others or under evaluation. It may closely be related to Social Anxiety Disorder, but it may also occur on its own in specific contexts (like sports, public speaking, or sexual performance).
What it feels like
It’s not just “nerves”, it could be a whole-body response:
- Rapid heartbeat, sweating, shaky hands
- Mental blanking or difficulty concentrating
- Overthinking or self-monitoring (“Don’t mess up”)
- A sense of being watched or judged
- Urge to escape the situation
Common triggers
- Public speaking or presentations
- Athletic or artistic performance (golf, music)
- Test-taking or academic evaluation
- Workplace evaluations or high-stakes tasks
- Intimate/sexual situations
What’s actually happening (psychologically)
Performance anxiety could be driven by a mix of:
- Threat perception: The mind treats evaluation as a potential threat
- Attentional hijacking: Focus shifts from the task, to the self (“How am I doing?”)
- Working memory overload: Overthinking interferes with automatic skills
- Fear of negative evaluation: A core feature of social anxiety
In high-skill activities (like sports), it may often lead to “choking”, where conscious control disrupts automatic performance.
A useful way to think about it
It’s less about lack of skill and more about interference.
You already know how to perform, but anxiety inserts noise into the system.
Evidence-based ways to manage it
1. Shift attention outward
- Focus on the task or environment (ball, audience message, rhythm)
- Reduces self-conscious monitoring
2. Normalize arousal
- Reframe anxiety as activation rather than danger
- Physiologically: (CONSULT WITH A NEUROLOGIST), anxiety and excitement are very similar
3. Pre-performance routines
- Consistent rituals (breathing, visualization, cues)
- Stabilize attention and reduce variability
4. Breathing regulation
- Slow exhale breathing (4–6 seconds out) calms autonomic arousal
5. Cognitive defusion (from ACT)
- Notice thoughts (“I might mess up”) without engaging them
- Treat them as mental events, not truths
6. Gradual exposure
- Repeated, controlled exposure reduces the anxiety response over time
A quick practical protocol (you can use immediately)
- Take 2 slow breaths (long exhale)
- Pick one external anchor (the ball, your voice tone, a single cue)
- Give yourself a simple instruction: “Just do the next step”
- Let the rest run automatically
- Shervan K Shahhian
LIBERTY PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION 