> I was just thinking today about what I do when I'm VERY nervous about something. I shiver like crazy. Seriously...like when I was at the DMV a few weeks ago to take my permit test (finally) I was shivering uncontrollably. I wasn't cold or anything; it's all nerves. Whenever I go to a doctor or dentist I get the same way. It's not like shivering when you're cold exactly. It's worse...I can literally feel my insides shivering and my teeth chatter a lot. I just wanted to know if I'm the only person here with a bizarre reaction to nerves.
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> ~Den-"it's cold in here"Kara

It's adrenaline. When you get nervous, the body dumps adrenaline into the bloodstream. That's because way back before civilization was around you got nervous when the predator was about to kill you. Adrenaline gives you extra energy to fight the predator or to run away from it.

Since nowadays when you're nervous you can't run away or beat anyone up, you now have all this extra energy that has to be bled off, so you shiver, which consumes a lot of energy.

there's not a whole lot you can do about it really. Those of us who have the big adrenaline dumps usually learn to channel the energy - - -i always get it when i'm about ot give a speech, so i channel all the energy into my voice and I wind up giving a better speech than i would w/o the dump.