Performance Anxiety
A resource sheet for artists navigating nerves, fear, and the weight of being seen
What Is Performance Anxiety?
Performance anxiety is a near-universal companion in the lives of artists — but it’s rarely discussed in depth, and even more rarely understood.
It’s not just nerves, not just butterflies… for many artists, it is a full-body, full-psyche phenomenon: a fear that settles in the gut, clutches the throat, trembles the fingers. And behind it, a more existential fear:
What if I fail? What if I’m found out?
Performance anxiety is not a personal flaw or weakness. It’s a systemic, physiological, and often deeply embedded response to the demands of visibility, perfectionism, and cultural conditioning.
Beyond Tips and Tricks
In performance circles, anxiety is often addressed with surface-level solutions: breathing exercises, visualization, “power poses.” While these can be useful, they rarely touch the deeper layers — the accumulated experiences, traumas, and expectations that give anxiety its shape and weight.
Performance anxiety can be:
Contextual: a high-stakes moment that naturally brings nerves
Social: tied to fear of being judged or humiliated
Systemic: rooted in chronic pressure, perfectionism, and learned shame
Physiological: a fight-flight-freeze-fawn response from the nervous system
Psychological: shaped by early experiences, relationships, and messages about worth
Often, it’s all of the above.
Why It’s So Common in Artists
From an early age, many artists learn that worth is tied to performance. Rehearsals are not just for the music — they rehearse an identity. When that identity is at stake, the threat of failure doesn’t just mean playing the wrong note. It means disintegration.
You might not just fear making a mistake — you might fear being exposed as not enough. This is not irrational. In an industry that often says, you’re only as good as your last performance, anxiety becomes a survival response.
And because few people talk openly about it, anxiety can become even more isolating.
What Anxiety Might Be Trying to Say
Rather than treating anxiety as an enemy to conquer, we might approach it as a protective (if outdated) companion — a part of the self that’s trying to help, even if the help is clumsy or painful.
Performance anxiety may be a younger part of you saying:
“Don’t mess up — or you’ll be rejected.”
“Be perfect — or you’ll be exposed.”
“Stay safe — don’t take up too much space.”
What if this part isn’t malicious, but scared? What if it needs attention, not eradication?
Quotes from Artists
Even the most renowned performers are not exempt:
“Nerves and stage fright have never left me... The thought of a public concert always gives me a nightmare.” – Pablo Casals
“If I hit one wrong note, I’ll die.” – Martha Argerich (age nine)
“I get shitty scared. One show in Amsterdam, I was so nervous I escaped out the fire exit. I've thrown up a couple of times. Once in Brussels, I projectile vomited on someone.” – Adele
How Artists Cope (and Sometimes Suffer)
Some artists hyper-control: over-practicing, over-preparing, clinging to perfectionism. Others dissociate, disconnect from their bodies, or seek pharmacological solutions (like beta-blockers).
Beta-blockers can be helpful and even necessary for some. But when they become the norm — when silence, shame, and systemic perfectionism drive widespread use — we need to ask harder questions. What kind of system makes so many feel they need to medicate just to walk onstage?
What Helps
Reframing and Inner Dialogue
What if the part of you that panics before a performance isn’t out to sabotage you? What if it’s a younger or more vulnerable version of you — one that needs recognition, care, boundaries?
Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy, ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy), and compassionate cognitive work can help shift the relationship from combat to curiosity.
Body-Based Grounding
Anxiety lives in the body. Often, it can’t be talked away — it needs to be felt, moved through, and grounded.
Practices that support this include:
Somatic mindfulness: tracking sensations without judgment
Orienting to the environment
Grounding exercises (feeling feet, breath, or support surfaces)
Gentle movements to counteract freeze
These are not quick fixes. But they are real practices that build capacity over time.
Rethinking Preparation
Anxiety often arises when something isn’t fully integrated — when a piece is memorized by muscle, but not by meaning or structure.
Try working with:
Multiple kinds of memory (aural, visual, analytical)
Improvisation (to build flexibility)
Playful disruption of routine
Imagining recovery, not perfection
On Beta-Blockers
Beta-blockers can reduce adrenaline and make performance feel possible. But they can also flatten emotional nuance, disrupt breath control (especially for singers), and contribute to dependency. Use only in consultation with a trusted physician — and alongside exploration of other supports.
At The Green Room
At The Green Room, we work regularly with artists navigating performance anxiety. Whether your anxiety is new, chronic, or secretly shaping every performance, you're not alone — and you're not broken.
We offer:
Individual psychological counseling in English or German
Therapeutic support online or in-person (Köln or Düsseldorf)
A non-judgmental space to talk about what really happens backstage — in your body, in your mind, in your sense of self
Final Thought
Performance anxiety is not a flaw in your character.
It is not something to “conquer.”
It is something to meet — with presence, compassion, and curiosity.
Sometimes, the most honest art is made not in spite of anxiety, but with it in the room.
More information can be found here:
https://www.heatherodonnell.info/musicmind/10-music-mind-the-nervous-elephant-in-the-room
Author: Heather O’Donnell - psychologist, artistic-systemic therapist and founding director of TGR The Green Room