c/anxiety·Posted by u/lila_nguyen·1h ago

Why does my mind go blank in presentations even when I rehearsed the slides?

I know the material. I practiced in the bathroom mirror. Then I stood up in the conference room on the 4th floor, looked at slide 2, and my brain handed me a blank page. Not a stumble. A full empty. I stared at the little clicker in my hand like it would speak. Someone coughed. I found a sentence eventually and faked my way through. Afterward people said it was fine, which somehow made it worse because I know what happened internally. I can talk in hallway conversations no problem. It's the standing-up-with-slides version that wipes me. I've tried notes, no notes, more practice, less practice. Blank still shows up. What do you actually do in the second when the words just vanish?

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