How do i manage anxiety when everyone's cameras are on?

the cold open: laptop fans, sweaty palms, fifteen little squares

Your laptop sounds like a jet, Slack is dinging, and the calendar reminder just screamed at you: “ALL CAMERAS ON.”

Heart rate? Hammering.

Thoughts? Racing.

Somewhere between “I should’ve gone audio-only” and “maybe my wifi will ‘mysteriously’ drop.”

Yup, I know that exact dread. Let’s hack it.

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understanding the camera fear

Before we throw tricks at the wall, quick gut check on why this even feels life-or-death.

1. Instant mirrors. Seeing your own face in a tiny box all meeting long is basically holding a mirror while public speaking. Weird and exhausting.

2. Judgment roulette. Every blink or eyebrow twitch might be screen-grabbed in someone’s head forever (spoiler: it won’t, they’re staring at themselves too).

3. Control panic. In-person, you can look away, fidget under the table, take micro-breathers. Webcam steals most escape hatches.

Naming the monster shrinks it. Cool, on to action.

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pre-call rituals that shave off 50% of the panic

These are two-minute moves. Stack a couple before “Join Meeting” and you’re already lighter.

• Change the visual rules. Turn on “hide self-view” (Zoom), “pin participants” (Teams), or just slap a sticky note over your self-box. No mirror, less self-critique.

• 4-7-8 breathe while your coffee loads. Inhale 4, hold 7, exhale 8. Do three rounds. Heart rate drops, shoulders unclench.
• Micro-stretch. Roll shoulders, neck circles, wiggle toes. Tells your nervous system “we’re good.”
• Set one micro-goal. Example: “I’ll ask one clarifying question.” Tiny focus that isn’t “don’t look weird” redirects mental bandwidth.
• Light. Face a window or lamp so you’re not a shadow. Clear picture means less subconscious “do they see me okay?” chatter.

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  mid-call moves for when the adrenaline spikes anyway

Because even with rituals, the host might say “let’s popcorn around” and boom - pulse spike. Keep these in your back pocket:

1. Ground with object contact. Keep a textured item - stress ball, smooth stone, fidget cube - under the desk. Grip it when your name approaches. Tactile signals pull you out of the swirl.

2. Reframe the gallery view. Instead of “fifteen judges,” rename them in your head: “someone’s dog dad, a person who loves K-pop, the coworker who microwaves fish.” Human, not jury.

3. Talk to the lens for five-second bursts, then glance away. Eye contact illusion achieved, social pressure lowered. No one counts your micro-breaks.

4. If voice quivers, slow your exhale mid-sentence. Airflow steadies the pitch. People hear confidence you’re still borrowing.

5. Chat fallback. If words freeze, type a quick line in chat: “brain lag, finishing thought.” Buys you seconds, keeps the floor.

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after-call decompression so tomorrow isn’t worse

Anxiety lingers if we never close the loop. Give yourself a mini-cool-down.

• Two-line journal: “What freaked me out?” / “What actually happened?” Reality check trains the brain to update its fear file.

• Victory screenshot. Note one tiny win - held eye contact for 30 seconds, un-muted smoothly, whatever. Stack these, confidence compounds.
• Body reset. Five push-ups, wall sit, walk to kitchen. Burn off leftover cortisol so it doesn’t haunt the next meeting.
• Boundaries. If you run back-to-back meetings, schedule a five-minute “off-camera buffer” every couple hours. Calendar it like a dentist appointment.

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  wrap-up: cameras on, power on

Cameras aren’t going away, but the doom-spiral can. Anxiety shrinks when you give it fewer hiding spots: hide self-view, breathe like a chill sea otter, grip a fidget stone, exit with a victory note. Stack little moves, the fear math changes. Next time that all-hands pop-up flashes, you might still feel the jolt - adrenaline’s stubborn - but now you’ve got levers to pull. And who knows? One day you’ll wave at your own thumbnail and realize the sweaty-palms era ended somewhere along the way.