Raising your hand to volunteer for the speech you dread is how the dread shrinks.

Avoidance feels protective and quietly makes the thing bigger. Every time you dodge, your brain files it as evidence that the danger was real, so the next chance arrives with more weight attached. Going first interrupts that loop, because you collect the one experience that argues back. The fear does not vanish, but it stops growing in the dark.

Volunteer early rather than waiting to be called, since most of the dread lives in the waiting. Pick the short version first, two minutes in front of a class you already know. Do it again within two weeks, before the memory has time to turn back into a theory.