Anxiety can be understood as, ‘feeling of uneasiness and discomfort pertaining to uncertain outcome’. It is our body’s natural response for future concerns. It is a feeling of worry or apprehension oriented to future like- ‘what will happen’. It is common to experience it on occasions like: before an important exam such as board exams, semester exams, university entrances or other competitive exams. Adolescents may also feel this way, while going for an interview, delivering a speech and other similar experiences.
This feeling of anxiety is a signal from our internal warning system to our mind and body for being prepared to face unpredictable/unplanned or dangerous situation.
Similar to Eustress (positive stress), optimal levels of anxiety is essential or helpful as it encourages us to do well in exams and make us mentally prepared for taking the exam. However, anxiety turns to be problematic when it starts negatively impacting our studies, relationships and even health.
Usually anxiety is resultant of internal factors such as brain-chemistry and irrational thoughts or fears. Though there is no particular external cause of anxiety, it is very subjective i.e. vary from person to person.
Following are few general factors that may cause exam anxiety:
· Academic or work related stress
· Previous performance
· Less preparation time
· Parental expectations
· Lack of schedule
· Future association
· Societal pressure
Following are few ‘Warning Signs’ that reflect if an adolescent is experiencing high-level or prolonged anxiety. It is essential to recognize these signs in order to manage this feeling before it gets out of control and may take shape of Anxiety Disorders (link).
· Worrying excessively
· Avoiding things that trigger anxiety
· Feeling a sense of impending danger
· Often feel restless
· Needing reassurance, more than usual
· Difficulty concentrating or being attentive
· Withdrawing or cancelling plans
· Getting easily irritated
· Increase in heart rate and difficulty in breathing
If you feel like you are at a point where, your exam anxiety is just not going away and is significantly affecting your performance in exam or interfering with your routine activities, we highly encourage you to seek help.
Handling Anxiousness
Different people handle anxiety in different manner. While some methods are healthy others may not be healthy. A particular method can provide a long term relief while another may be effective only for a short period of time.
Avoidance oriented- It refers to ‘leaving it’ or to the act of ignoring the existence of the problem. Here one tries to reduce the anxiety by distancing self from the trigger. Being hopeful that things will be fine eventually.
Task oriented- It refers to focus on working and indulging in regular tasks or having interventions that will help you being functional superficially.
Emotion oriented- It refers to focus on feeling or lifting mood these strategies or activities that are employed to divert attention away from anxiety triggers and toward other thoughts or behaviours that are not related to the anxiety. Such as binge watching a series/movie or hanging out with friends or doing anything that makes you feel good.
Frequently Asked Questions
In counselling, students may learn effective ways to deal with their stress and anxiety while studying, how they can divide their task in hand in small steps, ways to avoid procrastination.
No, it's not a disorder. It is natural to experience anxiety during exams.
Through counselling, students can discover productive strategies to manage their tension and anxiety while studying, how to break a task down into manageable pieces, and how to stop procrastinating.
You can talk to them, just be there with them, console them, keep a check on their health, ask them to take a break in between studying, help them to make a plan for study.
You can ask them to take a break from studying, talk to them, just be there for them, comfort them, monitor their health, and assist them in creating a study plan.
You can ask them to take a break from studying, talk to them, just be there for them, comfort them, monitor their health, and assist them in creating a study plan.
Any qualified and skilled mental health professional can help you to deal with anxiety. A therapist can teach you relaxation exercises to handle a stressful situation.
Knowing what the trigger of anxiety are helps in preventing them further. Doing breathing exercises everyday helps to minimize the intensity and frequency of anxiety symptoms. Regular exercise and maintaining a healthy lifestyle contribute to the prevention of anxiety.
You can ask them to take a break from their studies, speak with them, just be there for them, console them, keep an eye on their health, and help them make a study plan.
You can help them to learn how to relax and distress when they are feeling tight or anxious. This can entail teaching some individuals a basic breathing technique. When they frequently practice breathing techniques (when they're not stressed out), their body learns to interpret them as a call to relaxation.
Yes, there are some standardized scales and questionnaires which are made to rule out the presence, intensity, frequency and severity of anxiety symptoms.
Counsellors conduct an interview with the client in which they take the detailed history of the symptoms, family background, past physical or psychiatric illness, treatment history. Counsellor administers a psychological assessment and interprets it. Then the results are discussed with a Clinical Psychologist following which a diagnosis is given.
The assistance of a therapist in identifying anxiety triggers aids in their prevention. The client is taught breathing techniques that reduce the severity and frequency of anxiety episodes. Anxiety can be avoided by engaging in regular exercise and leading a healthy lifestyle.
Performance anxiety, which some people experience in situations where success is at stake or when there is pressure to perform well, includes test anxiety.