[dredmorbius]

Or to find a position in which such performance is not required.

Adaptation only goes so far. More training won't turn a dwarf into a basketball centre, or a heavyweight bodybuilder into a champion marathoner. Sometimes you've got to work with what you have, both in terms of abilities and limitations.

Intellectual and psychological limitations may be less manifestly visible but are no less real.

[WalterBright]

Performance anxiety goes away with repetition. I have plenty of personal experience with that and so do many others I know. This is not a special skill. You don't have to be a champion. You just get used to doing the performance and the anxiety goes away.

Just like if you're nervous about driving on the freeway, or flying in an airplane.

Heck, I remember buying my first phone answering machine. I froze up repeatedly trying to record the message. After a while, that problem went away.

[astura]

Only if your anxiety is reasonable in the first place and your emotional regulation is normal.

I've been driving more than 20 years and almost none of the anxiety I experience because of it ever went away. If I know the roads already it's a little better, but every single day I have to power through the anxiety to get to where I need to be going. It doesn't get better.

Hotels give me anxiety even though I actually lived in a hotel for six months.

My husband developed anxiety later in life doing things he has done for years.

What you're talking about is just normal human emotions, when people refer to "performance anxiety" they are usually referring to an anxiety disorder. Crippling anxiety that doesn't spontaneously resolve.

[dredmorbius]

If you're in your 20s and experiencing this, perhaps.

If you're in your 50s and it's still a constant problem, quite possibly not.

Again, people aren't infinitely malleable, and don't all fit in standard packages.

Even seasoned stage performers often face crippling anxiety before performances late in their careers. Others take their own lives, often at a young age. Dick Cavett is among those who've suffered crippling depression and taken extended leaves due to it.

[WalterBright]

Depression is a different problem from performance anxiety.

[dredmorbius]

I'd appreciate seeing your sources on that.

[WalterBright]

They're distinctly different emotions. You might as well ask me for a cite that being angry and being happy are different emotions.

[dredmorbius]

That's an assertion, not a source.