8. Thomas Jefferson suffered from social phobia and was so terrified of speaking in public he would pretend to be ill if invited to give a speech
Thomas Jefferson was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. He was also one of the key authors of the Declaration of Independence, plus he served with distinction as first the Vice President and then the President of the new country. He was a highly principled man, with strong ideas and beliefs. But while he could write eloquently on a range of issues, not least on the ideas of personal freedom and liberty, he was truly terrified of being asked to speak aloud. Indeed, given the extent of his anxiety, it’s even more remarkable that Jefferson rose above his fears to become one of the greatest Americans of all time.
Jefferson was proud to have helped pen the Declaration of Independence in July of 1776. However, he was petrified that somebody would ask him to read the document aloud. For this reason, he is believed to have carried a copy of the Declaration on his person at all times, with accents marked above certain words to help him read it out loud if called upon to do so. Not that he needed to use it much, for Jefferson was adept at ducking out of public speaking engagements. On several occasions, he faked illness in order to avoid giving speeches or addressing crowds. Indeed, John Adams famously claimed that he never heard Jefferson mutter more than two full sentences in all the time the two men worked together in Washington.
In recent years, psychiatrists have argued that Jefferson most likely suffered from an acute social phobia. And it wasn’t just speaking aloud that the President was afraid of. He was also terribly uncomfortable with writing about himself. So much so, in fact, that by the 20th page of his autobiography, Jefferson has already expressed his worry that he has talked too much about himself!