Hey all,
I've played golf practically my entire life. Started young, played through high school at a relatively high level but never good enough to play past that. I've never had a great short game, but over the last 5-7 years, I've developed crippling performance anxiety, especially around the green. I can go out and hit crips chips and put fine, but as soon as I step onto a course to play a round with other people, my body literally will convulse. When chipping I either skull it across the green or chunk it one foot. Every time. When putting, my hands will flinch when I am about to contact the ball. It's like I'm scared of making contact. The annoying part is that as soon as I throw down a second ball to hit it again out of frustration, I'll swing it smooth as butter and hit a great shot or putt. It's 100% mental . I am desperate. It has taken fun out of a game that i've loved for my entire life. Instead of looking forward to rounds, especially at nice courses, I'm nervous and dreading getting out there and embarrassing myself. To be clear, I don't want to play well in tournaments, I just want to be respectable when playing with friends and strangers and bring the fun back into the game.
If I start drinking, my body loosens up and I'll play fine. My brain shuts down and I just play nice and easy. But obviously this isn't a long term solution.
I've seen a doctor and they've prescribed Propranolol 10mg for performance anxiety. They didn't really give any guidance on dosage other than to just try it out and gradually test to see what works. Taking about an hour before my round starts, I started with a couple and didn't really notice anything. Even at 70-80mg I feel like there's little to no impact. I guess I could try taking more but wanted to hear from you all
- I know everyone deals with this to some extent, but for anyone that's had it as crippling as me, how did you overcome it?
- For anyone that uses propranolol, any tips? How much do you take how often during a round? I'm 6'1 185lb and feel like 70-80mg is doing nothing.