Meena would get anxious before her exams. She would get headaches and at times even start vomiting. She had palpitations and was unable to focus. She managed to write her exams with great difficulty. The problem intensified prior to her Board exams. She would get fearful thoughts like: “What if I do badly?
What if I do not get even 80 per cent?” Her parents reassured her that it was perfectly fine, but she felt very apprehensive.
Anxiety is a normal physiological reaction in response to a situation or an upcoming event. Some degree of anxiety is normal or expected before exams, a public-speaking event or an interview etc. However, it needs attention when it becomes excessive or maladaptive and interferes with the ability to appear for an exam or an interview. We live in times when there is a lot of competition between children and often pressure from parents and teachers who focus on academics excessively. This is to the detriment of the overall personality growth of the child. So judgements from others such as parents and /or teachers can cause stress as does linking one’s self esteem with good marks. For instance, a child thinking — “I’m a failure if I don’t do well” is linking his/her self esteem to marks.
Fear brain & endless worry cycle
Basically, when we are overtaken by anxiety our fear brain takes over. It begins to anticipate the worst or ‘catastrophise’ — that is to think about the worst that could happen. Feelings that recur are:”I’ll do badly, I will not get into a good college. I will let my family down. All my friends will look at me and wonder what happened to me...” So on and so forth. It leads to an endless cycle of worry and self doubt. It is these catastrophic negative cognitions or thoughts about oneself that make the anxiety spiral out of control. Here’s a list of ‘Unhelpful’ and ‘Helpful’ thoughts.
— The writer is a psychiatrist based in Chandigarh
Red thoughts unhelpful
Green thoughts helpful
Signs of anxiety
Physical
Emotional
Cycle of avoidance
1
3
6