I know exactly how you feel, been there a few times. the metaphor is perfect. i avoid almost any kind of public/group speaking at work. and it's a shame because i would like to be a successful business person. I know that i may never get the chance because of this. good luck with your fight!
Please allow me to provide a rather crude metaphor for how this condition makes me (and maybe even all of us) feel.
imagine you're standing in front of a group of people giving a presentation. For a moment everything seems to be going well. Now imagine if you will, that every time you become nervous, embarrassed, angry, tipsy, too hot, too cold, out of breath, perfectly relaxed, laughing, frowning, happy or sad, a penis (yes, you heard me a real penis) begins growing out from the center of your forehead. Now picture we're back at this speech you're giving in some over-heated office with 15 people waiting impatiently for you to come to a point. Suddenly, you feel IT coming on. Gently at first. Almost imperceptibly. A tiny tingling sensation. But you know from experience there's nothing innocent about it. Oh no, the penis from your forehead is coming.
It's little more than a nub now, but already you can see everyone's eyes begin to move up to your forehead and you know exactly what they're staring at and it's not your beautiful new hairdoo.
But here, ladies and gentlemen, is where it gets worse, much worse: the more self conscious you become about that hunk of meat now protruding from your forehead, the bigger, fatter and veinier it grows, until before long you look like some sad 1950's atomic experiment gone horribly wrong. At this point every eye in the room is burning into you and inside your now misshapen head a single painful thought is resonating over and over again. "Please let me wake up from this nightmare. Please oh please!" But you can't. And by this point your head feels like it's about to explode.
There's no escape.
So you soldier on, feeling like a freak, you finish up and when it's all over and done with and you've licked your wounds and 'gotten over it,' then you know you should get home and rest, because you have tomorrow's speech to look forward to.
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I know exactly how you feel, been there a few times. the metaphor is perfect. i avoid almost any kind of public/group speaking at work. and it's a shame because i would like to be a successful business person. I know that i may never get the chance because of this. good luck with your fight!
Parent comment
Please allow me to provide a rather crude metaphor for how this condition makes me (and maybe even all of us) feel. imagine you're standing in front of a group of people giving a presentation. For a moment everything seems to be going well. Now imagine if you will, that every time you become nervous, embarrassed, angry, tipsy, too hot, too cold, out of breath, perfectly relaxed, laughing, frowning, happy or sad, a penis (yes, you heard me a real penis) begins growing out from the center of your forehead. Now picture we're back at this speech you're giving in some over-heated office with 15 people waiting impatiently for you to come to a point. Suddenly, you feel IT coming on. Gently at first. Almost imperceptibly. A tiny tingling sensation. But you know from experience there's nothing innocent about it. Oh no, the penis from your forehead is coming. It's little more than a nub now, but already you can see everyone's eyes begin to move up to your forehead and you know exactly what they're staring at and it's not your beautiful new hairdoo. But here, ladies and gentlemen, is where it gets worse, much worse: the more self conscious you become about that hunk of meat now protruding from your forehead, the bigger, fatter and veinier it grows, until before long you look like some sad 1950's atomic experiment gone horribly wrong. At this point every eye in the room is burning into you and inside your now misshapen head a single painful thought is resonating over and over again. "Please let me wake up from this nightmare. Please oh please!" But you can't. And by this point your head feels like it's about to explode. There's no escape. So you soldier on, feeling like a freak, you finish up and when it's all over and done with and you've licked your wounds and 'gotten over it,' then you know you should get home and rest, because you have tomorrow's speech to look forward to.