Famous Performers Use Anxiety Medication To Ease Performance Anxiety

It's easy to feel like you're the only one feeling anxious in performance situations, whether it's giving a speech in front of a few people or performing in front of thousands. Even experienced and famous performers like Barbra Streisand are not immune to severe performance anxiety and social phobia--Streisand gave up performing live for 27 years after forgetting the words to a song during a concert in Central Park.

An interesting article published at The Sydney Morning Herald explores the use of beta-blockers among musicians as a way to control performance anxiety. Professor Dianna Kenny, of Sydney University, surveyed 357 musicians for top Australian orchestras and found that 106 of them use beta-blockers as a way to get through every concert in which they perform. Professor Kenny says that performance anxiety is more acute in musicians than in other performers, and has written a book entitled The Psychology of Music Performance Anxiety.

Whether you use beta-blockers, psychotherapy, or other methods, it's important to remember that performance anxiety and social phobia can be overcome. Streisand, for example, returned to live performances in 1994, embarking on a successful comeback tour after nearly 3 decades of avoiding such situations.

Source: The Sydney Morning Herald
Photo: Pexels

More Articles

Food for Thought

Scientists, nutritionists, and accountants agree that creative and clear thinking depends on having a well-nourished...

A team of scientists from UCLA has concluded a study in rats that suggests that trauma to the brain can lead to an increased susceptibility to...

Anxiety levels can be affected by a number of different physiological disorders, including the common sleep disorder known as sleep apnea....

During the winter months, when it’s always raining, my yellow Labrador has fairly constant anxiety. The sound of thunder breaking outside is...

Specific phobias are the most common type of anxiety disorder that is defined as an irrational fear of or aversion to a situation or specific...

SITEMAP