Hi Wendy,

At it's roots, stage fright has to do with the basic human reaction of fight or flight. Practice will help but will not cure it. Basically your brain is attempting to "protect" you from a situation you are not (or feel you are not) completely comfortable with. If it repeats itself over and over, the neurons are (temporarily) "wired" to generate this reaction. Ergo you would have that "oh no here we go again" type of Groundhog Day experience. It is not a disorder in that performers, students before a test, athletes ... any performance-based activity can set this off. I am more familiar with it through my business work and some sports involvement, but musical performing would be the same. (I could tell some amazing stories). Point is, it can be very powerful and even shut you down, which sounds like you came close to. The good news is that there are exercises you can do if interested that would change how you approach performing very quickly. Email me privately and will shoot a couple over that will help you out for your open mic or next performance.

Psaul Ryan
www.ryantunes.com