If you’re an an active cam model who’s never had a bout of intense, almost crippling anxiety before or during a camming session, then you must be from planet Krypton or something. Everyone — and I mean EVERYONE – who performs in front of a webcam suffers from anxiety of some sort, at some point. It’s not something that you should feel ashamed of in the least, and it’s also not something that you should allow to tank your webcam modeling dreams. Good camgirls know how to lessen and mitigate their anxiety so that they can still function and have fun during sessions. This is an issue that is totally manageable, and I’m going to show you how it’s done.
Before a camming session, I always engage in a bit of meditation to help center myself and build my confidence to go on cam. I’ve really found this to be amazingly helpful, and it makes logging in so much easier. After a solid 10 minutes of meditating, I feel like I could take on the entire world, so entertaining a chat room full of cam viewers is pretty much a cinch. I don’t just meditate, though, I also throw in some positive affirmations that I repeat to myself again and again. I’m not going to reveal exactly what I say to myself, because the line I formulated is admittedly a little embarrassing (it contains more than a couple swear words, lol), but you can easily come up with good, confidence-boosting lines if you give it a little thought. Something simple like “I’m a confident, and outgoing cam girl.” should get you started. Add to it whatever fits your personality best.
The other thing I do before logging on to cam is some slow breathing, which is actually a common anxiety-reducing technique that many people, including soldiers, use to force themselves to relax before doing something stressful. The way you do it is, just breathe in nice and slow for about 4 seconds, hold it for 4 seconds, then slowly exhale for about 4 seconds. Do this three times and you’ll see that those knots in your stomach will begin to loosen up, and you’ll feel much less anxious about going on cam. The breathing actually triggers a physiological response that calms you and beats down any urge to panic. You should always do this right before you logon to cam, but you can also do it maybe 20 or 30 minutes before the session to begin the relaxation process. Just make sure you also do it right before you turn on that webcam.
One of the other effective ways to combat camming anxiety is alcohol. Now, I’m not a big drinker, but I have been known to sip a glass of wine during sessions on cam. It’s called “Liquid Courage” for a reason, and it can really help you relax and lower inhibitions. Some girls go overboard with alcohol and get totally shitfaced drunk during shows, which I personally think is a mistake. If you’re totally bombed, you can’t really execute your camming strategy correctly, and you’ll miss critical opportunities to make serious money by taking advantage of certain events that will happen in your room. But yeah, a bit of booze can really help with anxiety, so if you’re over 21, you might want to give it a “shot.”
Probably one of the easiest ways to conquer your camgirl angst would be to go on cam, at least the first few times, with a girlfriend who’s also a cam model. I did this early on and it definitely helped me, but some girls may not be comfortable with it. It’s a personal thing, so you have to decide if it’s something that you could do. For those who are cool with it, having a gal pal there can be super helpful and can cut deep into the anxiety beginner cam models typically face.
Finally, if you have any online friends who you wouldn’t mind watching you cam, you could invite them into your chat room to help give you moral support. In the past, it has certainly been a great help to have friends I know personally in the chat room with me. Just having a friendly chat with them can help you to feel at ease and make you feel more like somebody having some fun online, rather than a “performer” who’s doing a job and has the responsibility of being interesting. They can also add a lot of energy to your chat room and contribute a lot to the activity in the public chat, which is always welcome. There’s nothing worse for a cam girl’s anxiety than for her chat room to be completely silent and uneventful. It’s gives you a creepy vibe.
So, I hope you realize now that having anxiety as a cam model is totally normal, and it should NOT be allowed to derail your camming career. All of us have had to deal with it, to one degree or another, and it’s something that you will learn to conquer or control. Then there’s the fact that, the more experience you accumulate as a cam girl, the less anxiety you will generally have when broadcasting. So the answer is definitely to just keep going, no matter what, and slay this obnoxious fear beast once and for all!
XOXOXO – Aria
