Performance anxiety

Performance anxiety

Performance anxiety is the kind of anxiety that comes when "others" can ‘’ judge’’ our work, they do not need to be present at the time of performance, sometimes they are simply "others" present in our head.

For someone they could be their parents, for other friends or acquaintances, for others still strangers, people of the opposite sex, and so on. The others can also be virtual, that is a kind of mental representation, mostly unconscious, that each of us has inside ourselves.

Any situation in our daily life could become a cause of performance anxiety: work, school, travel, sex, sport.

Anxiety at work

Anxiety at work can arise when, for example, you start a new work experience or when the task assigned is very important or complex. The symptoms of work-related anxiety are the fear of being judged and not appreciated in the workplace and generally it results in anxiety and feelings of inability, which sometimes result in real panic attacks.

School performance anxiety

School performance anxiety embodies the fear of failure, of negative judgment, of being ridiculed, of not being up to the expectations of parents and teachers. This results in dysfunctional strategies and behaviours, but also in physical symptoms such as headaches, tremors, crying, insomnia, panic and sometimes even fever and nausea.

Sexual performance anxiety

By sexual performance anxiety we mean all those psychological and physical difficulties, when we are aware that we will meet a sexual act.