From Panic to Progress: The Secret of How Reframing Helps Master Presentation Nerves

Years ago, at the start of my career, I had to give a talk during a training course, and I was dreading it. My slides were ready, my shirt was ironed, but my brain?  Absolute chaos. I over-prepared, overthought every sentence, and then panicked that I’d forget it all. By the time I stood up, my heart was hammering and I couldn’t remember my own name, let alone the clever opening line I’d practised.

The turning point? I realised I was making it bigger in my head than it actually was. It wasn’t a TED Talk. It was ten minutes in front of a small group. That moment stuck with me, and it’s something I now help clients with all the time.

So to illustrate how this plays out in coaching, I’ve created a fictional client called Alex. While he isn’t real, his experience is based on countless sessions I’ve had over the years with adults navigating ADHD and performance anxiety.

Alex had a work presentation coming up and was caught in a spiral of overthinking and dread. He’d convinced himself he was going to freeze, forget everything, and fall apart.

But here’s how we took him from panic to progress.

Why Presentations Can Trigger ADHD Panic

For many adults with ADHD, speaking in front of others can feel like juggling flaming swords on a tightrope. The pressure to perform, the fear of forgetting, the dread of being judged, all of it turns up the volume on anxiety.

In Alex’s case, the build-up was overwhelming. His presentation on ethical marketing practices had been shuffled to the final slot of the day. He spent two hours watching other presenters go before him, thinking to himself how confident they looked, and as each one spoke, Alex felt  the knot in his stomach tighten another notch.

By the time his name was called, his nervous system was running the show. But just before he stood up, Alex remembered something we’d practised: zooming out. Reframing. Seeing the task differently.

The Reframe That Shifted Everything

Instead of telling himself this was a huge, defining moment, and that he was going to embarrass himself, Alex whispered: “It’s just ten minutes. Ten minutes and it’s done, I am going to follow my process, treat it as a conversation, and the presentation will speak for itself.”

That small change pulled the task back into perspective. It didn’t erase his nerves, but it gave him just enough space to take a breath,  literally. He grounded himself with a re-grounding technique we’d practised in coaching.

With a calmer body and a more manageable mindset, Alex began. And once he was speaking, something shifted. He found flow. The words came. He remembered his points. He finished with a sense of pride and surprise at how capable he felt.

Why Reframing Works for ADHD Minds

ADHD brains are wired for intensity. We feel things deeply and think quickly, which is brilliant for creativity but tricky under pressure. When something feels high-stakes, it can tip us into fight-flight-freeze. That’s when our prefrontal cortex (the logical part of the brain) checks out, and we go blank.

Reframing helps us step out of that fear spiral. It reminds the brain: “This isn’t life or death. You can handle this.” It creates enough emotional distance to access our tools, our words, and our courage. For reframing to be effective, it has to be based on evidence, which often appears in a structured coaching conversation like moonlight in the dark, something which was there all along but was hidden in plain site.

4 Practical Tips to Reframe Performance Panic

1. Zoom Out the Lens
   Ask yourself: How big is this really in the grand scheme of life? Zooming out calms the amygdala (your brain’s alarm system).
2. Name the Fear, Then Shrink It
   “What if I mess up?” becomes “If I mess up, I can recover.” ADHD minds often catastrophise. Reality-checking the fear shrinks it back to size.
3. Use a Breathing Pattern
   Scan your body, and describe to yourself what physical sensations you are feeling, then try 4-6 breathing: in for four, out for six. It tells your body, “You’re safe,” which helps your Brain’s Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex (DLPFC) come back online.
4. Practise the First 30 Seconds
   Memorise just your opening line, perhaps have it written down. Once you get going, momentum carries you. It’s the starting that’s the hardest part.

Coaching Can Help You Reframe in Real Time

What Alex did in that moment wasn’t just luck. It was the result of learning to notice his internal dialogue and shift it on purpose. That is a skill we built through ADHD coaching, and now he has techniques he can use again and again and again. Because for many of us, it’s not the task itself that derails us. It’s the story we’re telling ourselves about it.

Here’s a little of what we actually did in our session:

• We named the challenge and unpacked the emotional response.
• We identified the unhelpful story and replaced it with a more supportive one.
• We practised calming techniques that work with (not against) the ADHD nervous system.
• We captured what helped so he could repeat the success next time.

Coaching isn’t about cheerleading,. It’s about learning how your own brain works and building strategies that stick, based on evidence.

One thing we often see with ADHD is a tendency to overthink and cram in too much detail. That adds pressure to ‘get through it all’ and can overwhelm your audience. Instead, stick to your main points. Be clear about the one message you want people to take away, and what action you want them to take.

So here’s the message: You’re not broken. You’re wired differently. And with the right tools, you can thrive under pressure.

If you’re tired of feeling hijacked by nerves or pressure, let’s chat. As a UK-based ADHD coach (accredited with ADDCA and ICF, and a former Chartered Financial Planner), I help adults move from paralysis to progress in work, study and life.

Click here to book a discovery call and let’s explore what a calmer, more confident you could look like.

See here for ADHD Imposter Syndrome: 7 Ways to Turn Self-Doubt into Strength.