How someone's worst fear could save their life? I'm here to tell you it can happen, and it happened to me. 15 million Americans suffer from social anxiety, and nearly 90% of all people feel stage fright, these fears come from evolution. Before the modern era living as a group was a basic survival skill, and separation of any kind was a death sentence, this fear of being separated may have evolved into the fear of public speaking. This makes sense, because when you get anxiety from put in a room full of people but being forced to stand alone and talk to these people, on a deeper level you most likely are afraid of the audience rejecting you. A study done in 2009 by psychologist Matthias Wieser also shows that when you enter a state of social …show more content…
I am one of the 15 million Americans that suffer from social anxiety and an extreme fear of public speaking, however this is the exact thing that saved my life. My family has been involved with life theatre for as long as I can remember, my father went to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, my uncle helps run a theatre troops, and I starred in my first show at the age of four. Naturally, the "theatre bug" bit me as well and I started really getting into it at the age of 13. Now, we all have our niche, mine is theatre, literature, and music, yours may be sports, drawing, dancing, playing an instrument, writing, or anything that makes you feel good, I didn't fit into any of those categories, I played soccer and I was good but it didn't feel like my home, I tried band and found out I can't play an instrument to save my life, I was great at singing, in all-state chorus, tried to start a band (that went over horribly), I was good at drawing but not great and there wasn't any kind of art outlet available to me, so I went searching for something that called to me and my father suggested that I audition for Annie The Musical at our local theatre