Unnerved : The Performer's Guide to Managing Anxiety

A relatable and practical roadmap for combating each performer’s unique brand of performance anxiety by discovering and managing root emotional drivers—this resource is designed to uncover what makes each individual performer “tick.”

Melissa M. Plamann provides an engaging and humorous book, chock-full of data, for anyone who experiences performance anxiety in any performing arts discipline at any age. After defining “performance anxiety” and exploring the fight-flight-freeze response, she examines treatment options, including medication and several types of therapy. Utilizing the Enneagram system as a tool to define personal drivers for anxiety, she examines fear, shame, and anger, and then suggests how performers can address and manage their unique brand of performance anxiety based on these emotional reflexes. Chapters deal with myriad other elements impacting performance anxiety, including the mind-body connection, suggesting that emotional turmoil and stress cause physical ailments and exacerbate the somatic expressions of anxiety. Also addressed are miscellaneous issues that predispose performers to increased anxiety: educational settings, hierarchical relationships, hormonal shifts, gender, and even the pandemic. Finally, she offers practice and performance strategies designed to prevent and interrupt performance anxiety when it attacks.

This book offers practical advice and insight for performers, gleaned from the author’s lifetime of personal performance as well as hundreds of interactions with students navigating their own performance anxiety.