Mel Toy has been researching anxiety in performers for several years now. She is keen to differentiate between the various experiences of anxiety, and how they may manifest throughout performers lifetimes, both on and off the stage. We will be discussing how all aspects of an individual’s life experiences  – their social, physical, cultural, sociological, and psychological worlds – merge to collectively influence performance anxiety; and why this may mean that bandaid approaches to soothe anxiety symptoms in brief moments are unlikely to eliminate performance discomfort in the long run.