Many people dread speaking in public and hence associate with panic attack. It is possible that they might have had an anxiety-producing public speaking experience. It has been noticed that people who frequently have to speak in public, suffer from panic attacks.

Here is a very interesting story about a girl named Amber. Amber, when entered into high school had many risk factors for panic attacks. Until her final semester, Amber was somehow successful at avoiding a speech class. But to graduate, she was supposed to take a speech. Amber was always dreading the idea of taking up public speaking class, though she had never received any diagnosis of panic attacks or anxiety disorder. Even the idea of standing up facing a class full of her peers was enough to make her feel dizzy and nauseous.

Even the teacher could see how very nervous Amber was, as she walked into her first day of the public speaking class. He approached her after the class and conversed with her about her obvious discomfort. Amber elaborated her physical reaction to her teacher, in regard to public speaking. She explained to the teacher how she gets extremely anxious and feel nauseous and dizzy even at the idea of speaking in front of her peers and becomes short breathed.

The teacher recommended her to visit the school counselor before coming to their next class. This made Amber feel embarrassed and she became even more anxious at the thought of meeting the counselor.

However the school counselor was very much familiar with the symptoms of panic attack and knew well that the students feel uncomfortable to discuss about it in front of their friends. In order to make Amber face her next day of speech class, the counselor advised her to stand up in front of her family whenever she wanted to talk.

Amber told her family what she was trying to do to overcome her fear of speaking in the public. That night at dinner, every time Amber wanted to have an item passed to her, she stood up. Speaking in front of her family was a lot different than speaking in front of her peers, but that practice enabled her to get through her next class without any full blown panic attack.

One night before she had a big speech due, Amber asked a few of her friends to come to her home. She wanted to practice her speech in front of them and her family until she was sure to get through it sans any amount of anxiety. This technique is called systematic desensitization. It is indeed one of the most widely used techniques to get people rid of panic attacks.