I find that after the experience I have absolutely no fear of speaking in front of a crowd. It's wierd getting up in front of people and not feeling nervous at all but that's the way it is for me now.
Telperion, It's possible for most people to become comfortable addressing groups of strangers, regardless of their present discomfort.
In my 20's I was terrified of public speaking. I didn't return to school until my middle 20's and put off speech class as long as I could. When I finally signed up, I got strep throat and postponed once again!
In my 30's I was fortunate to receive training for public speaking as part of a program for something else.
At first I was uncomfortable and the training was brutal: we'd prepare 15 minute talks and never got past the first 2-3 minutes. The trainer would take us apart in front of the group of 300 or so trainees.
I'd start and within 20 seconds the trainer would sing out to the group, "Look at his hands, or look at how he's standing," or speak louder, matis, we're not gonna kill you!" We never got very far with our speeches, but the training "cleaned us up" immensely.
In an earlier phase, we started out divided into groups of 15 or so, standing in a circle and each one in turn would address the others. The assignement might be to induce an emotion in the others: sadness, anger, etc. . The speaker's turn would end ONLY when the rest of the group agreed that they'd felt the emotion.
If we failed, we'd have to do it in front of the whole 300. The trainer would say, "matis, you can do it in front of 15; or you can do it in front of 300! Worked like a charm to motivate us.
In spite of what this may seem like, we knew we were safe there, that the criticism was directed against our mannerisms and not at us. And we made huge and rapid progress.
As 280plus wrote above about himself, I've been a ham ever since. Makes little difference to me whether I'm addressing 5 or 500. And I enjoy speaking.
This program is no longer available. But I believe there are other programs that work well, too.
Combining the suggestions above, if I were doing it today, I'd find a Toastmaster's group and have them video-tape my speeches. They critique you, I believe, as part of their procedure. And in that setting a much gentler approach would be appropriate.
It's certainly not necessary to become comfortable speaking in front of groups in order to be happy.
But the value of learning to do so supports immensely whatever endeavor you're involved in.
All the best to you in your endeavors.
matis