Love me some Jimmy Scott.
Jerry Seinfeld once had a joke, based on truth. He said that the #1 fear of Americans was speaking in public. #2 was death. "So you'd rather be in the casket than giving the eulogy."This isn't a hypothetical. In 2006, Kansas City Royals pitcher Zack Geinke was diagnosed with Social Anxiety Disorder. And on June 29th of this year, St. Louis Cardinals shortstop Khalil Greene was placed on the 15-day disabled list with the same thing. Each player deals with the disorder differently. In Greinke's case, he said performing in front of 30,000 people isn't the hard part. "Talking about it is."
When they don't have a handle on their minds and emotions, they can't perform. They can't do what they've trained themselves to do for 20+ years. They can't throw. They can't hit. They can't catch. Greinke's teammate Brian Bannister suggested, half-jokingly, that Greinke might have pitched badly sometimes just so he wouldn't have to deal with the pressures of success.
So how do you get better? How do you overcome this? First, you need time. It can take years to change the way you think; the way you deal with certain situations. You need counseling and time to talk (ironic that you may have a fear of speaking yet that's one of the only ways to cure yourself). You could take medication too. The most important thing, however, is time. Zack Greinke was diagnosed in 2006 with Social Anxiety Disorder. It took until the end of the 2008 season for him to finally start to master his game. For Greene, it's likely going to take a lot longer than 15 days.
