
Anxious about a speech? A startup wants you to pop a minty cardiac drug - petercooper
https://www.statnews.com/2017/10/25/anxiety-performance-propranolol/
======
eesmith
The title itself shows the worry. "Anxious about a speech" is not the same as
social anxiety.

For me, if I'm anxious about a speech then I practice it. For a talk at a
conference I usually practice about 10 times.

It's a lot more work than taking a beta blocker.

But notice that "Kick wants to become a telemedicine platform that makes it
easy for nearly anyone who needs a confidence boost — before a first date,
perhaps, or a big work presentation — to get a prescription for propranolol."

The reason I'm anxious is because I need to figure out how to piece everything
together, and practice saying the words so they come smoothly and coherently.
This sort of anxiety isn't fixed with a chemical confidence boost but by
practice.

Certainly there are people with social anxiety where a drug helps. A friend of
mine took beta blockers before a big test because they stressed him out so
much.

The company which sells the drug also wants to be the company which provides
tele-medicine services to people who want the drug; it will surely be hard to
resist the inventive to work with doctors who over-prescribe.

"He envisions reaching not just people nervous about public speaking, but
those who are shy. Or who fear going to the dentist. Or flying on a plane."

Movies and TV shows have taught me that the traditional self-medication for
the last case is alcohol.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_courage](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_courage)
. :)

