LucidDreamGod wrote:
Also lots of moments talking to large groups and sometimes strangers where my voice would get broken up and my hands would start shaking. I have trouble with my hands in large groups of people, I can never do things that take lots of careful hand work in front of large amounts of people. For example I will be holding out a cup walking through a group of people, and I have to hold my cup against my stomach because if I extend my arm it will shake, and when it starts it gets much worse.
This has always been a problem for me, too. I thought I had gotten over it, but once in a while it pops up when I least expect it. Like, last year, I found out that one of the teachers at my kids' school was MY first grade teacher, back in 1973! I walked up to her (outside before school) and introduced myself. Next thing I knew, my hands were shaking and my voice was going all wonky. I HATE it when that happens. I like to think I've pretty much gotten past the point of embarrassment; I'm old enough to know that these things happen, and people generally understand. And if they don't, it's not the end of the world. But even aside from the embarrassment issue, it makes it physically impossible to continue talking in a reasonably sane way. There's not much you can say when your throat is closing up and your mouth is so dry you can't form words properly.
I couldn't give oral presentations in school. I simply could not do it. In elementary school, I just got up there and shook like a leaf, and say "Abadabadababububbub!" and then sit down and want to puke.
In high school I learned that no one would notice or care if I just cut school that day and took an F for the assignment.
In college, I dropped out of classes that required oral presentations.