Does anyone here tend to freeze in work situations that require them to be the center of attention? This is likely to be more common in ADD Inattentive types.

Oh my. I crashed and burned so badly today. I had to help with a meeting and loused up things so badly that others had to step in and rescue me with something quite simple. It's not that I didn't know it, but rather that I couldn't remember it. I just went blank and everyone's eyes seemed to slice me into slivers as I sat there wanting to dissolve into a vapor.

It was absolutely horrible. I'm ashamed to admit it but I came home and actually shed a tear over this. :( I'm so tired of feeling like such a failure.

I have a horrible time with being at the center of attention. I must do something about this job quickly.

Does anyone else here suffer with Performance Anxiety at work?

Yes Overload, especially when I am doing the performance for the first time....I mean first times for everything are anxiety provoking....but after awhile once confidence builds up and there has been some repitition with the same type of "performance", the anxiety starts to lift......and THEN being the center of attention can be fun. Because we know what we're doing by then...and things are a bit more predictable....and I understand your total embarrassment today....I would have wanted to crawl into a little hole myself...and have been there many times...

I forget things too....like recently I actually did not attend the last meeting of one of my classes....I forgot about it...and facing the teacher after it was horrible:(

Hang in there Overload....:)

I agree with Joan, being the center of attention can be fun.

But I feel for you. No one likes THAT kind of attention.

I suggest you look for a new job because, in my personal experience those folks that witnessed your freeze and the ones that rescued you , have all formed an opinon of you. It will be more difficult to improve their opinon then to start fresh some place else.

Thanks joan and Barbette.

Joan, you're so positive and all. I wish I could take it all in stride the way you seem to. I guess I'm just not there yet. I struggle to think of any case where being the center of attention is fun. Must be my social anxiety.

Barbette, I wish you weren't right about this. I tried to say, "Oh screw them. Who are THEY that you should feel embarrassed in front of them?" I even laughed at them the next day because of the pompous self aggrandizing postures they assumed. As if YOU have never been embarrassed, I thought as I looked at them. Then I thought, who am I kidding? I DO feel horribly embarrassed and they all avoided me like the plague for the rest of the week.

I'm outta there. I just can't cut it; there are too many varied tasks. My mind works better when it's focused on one or two things and that's it. When I have to manage several unrelated things, it's disastrous.

Overload: I'm not ALWAYS positive...:) Some things are easier to be positive about than others..:) and to take in stride....I like being the center of attention because it's just about that: GETTING ATTENTION...which I love:) but I can understand the total opposite viewpoint as well....

Now that you know exactly what you're looking for in a job, you can work on finding it....:)