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You are absolutely right! I do not know what my IQ is, but I did graduate Magna Cum Laude with a 3.87 from the University of NC at Greensboro - not exactly a party school. It takes a 3.9 (with no rounding off) to graduate Summa Cum Laude, so if I had made one less B, I would have received the highest possible honors. I was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, etc. IOW, there is no problem with my intelligence.

I have been teaching for 25 years and I have no difficulty talking to friends or even strangers. Yet, there are many times (more so since I am now 56) when my mind goes completely blank when speaking to a group and I can not think of a word that I want to say. A lot of times it has to do with whether or not I am a little nervous or under stress for some reason, but you would think with 25 years of teaching experience I would not have any problem with nervousness.

I also speak without thinking. One of my former bosses liked to call me "spontaneous" - a nice way of saying that I put my foot in my mouth a lot. If I have something important to say to a supervisor, I will often send them an email because it forces me to organize my thoughts and say what I really want to say, rather than what just happens to come out of my mouth.

Maybe that's why President Bush's lack of skill in oratory is one of his most endearing qualities to me (see my post #39 above).

I greatly respect your candor (and your credentials). I would guess that you also had a problem that I encountered 'way back when' and that is that I was always about two steps ahead of my parents and teachers when I was a kid - they all hated that! :)
Now for a suggestion for you that, unexpectedly, really helped me when I, for reasons I won't go into, tried something an expert suggested. Namely, every morning I started getting up BEFORE anyone else was awake (yeah, it's still dark) and would sit quietly by myself and really focus on my breathing and my body, mentally calming my mind and everything else. After some months I found that I could 'do that' mentally when I was standing in front of a group, in a circle of strangers, anywhere. It has changed my life because I have used it to 'slow things down' so that I don't outpace everyone around me, or my own ability to form words etc. It changed my life socially and has helped me professionally more than I can say.