Tips for Overcoming Exam Stress

Exam Stress:

Lots of things can trigger feelings of anxiety and stress, especially during exam season. However, there are ways to deal with stress and anxiety using these tips on keeping calm under pressure. Stress and anxiety are normal responses to a perceived threat – real or imagined. Everyone gets anxious. It's the feeling we have when faced with something we're frightened of, though usually in response to a perceived threat in the future e.g. I am going to fail my exam, I am going to disappoint my parents, I am not going to be able to get a job.

Although, this perceived threat is usually disproportionate to the reality. And this fear triggers our ‘fight and flight’ response which is a physiological response in the sympathetic nervous system - triggering hormones like adrenalin and cortisol, which increase your heart rate, making you sweat, tremble and leading to a shortness of breath. Exams are a good example. We all worry about them, we tell ourselves "I know I'm going to fail", our heartbeat and breathing speed up as we walk into the hall to find our seat. This makes our thoughts race ahead of us; seeking out the signals for danger. When these aren’t found because there are no immediate signs of danger (e.g. a lion attacking me, an imminent disaster), our brain goes into a cycle of negative thinking and anticipates the worst possible outcome without relief.

A low level of stress is sometimes helpful – when it used to motivate us to meet a deadline or to predict and problem-solve. But sometimes anxiety becomes a problem. If you answer yes to any of these, you may be suffering from anxiety:

Do you get into a cycle of worry a lot of the time?

Do you feel constantly on edge?

Do you get shortness of breath or panic attacks?

Do you start to sweat or tremble?

Do you have nervous tics e.g. tapping your foot?

Do you feel tense in your back, neck and shoulders?

Do you get anxious about stuff other people are relaxed about?

Have you started to avoid situations that cause anxiety?

Is it starting to get in the way of your life?

These are symptoms of anxiety. Don't beat yourself up or get angry – this increases anxiety. Sometimes anxiety is triggered by stressful and difficult events in our lives: Family break-up. Death. Illness. Bullying. Distressing experiences that puts us on our guard and makes us get anxious about other things.

Tips to help deal with anxiety:

Deep breathing - simple but effective because it uses a physiological process to relive the physical symptoms of anxiety and stress hormones in the body. Breathe in and out slowly; find your own rhythm; three seconds in through the nose, three seconds out through the mouth. Pause momentarily, then try again. Try breathing using your tummy to extend your diaphragm and not your chest - it will encourage deeper breaths. Keep at it for 3-5 minutes.

Ditch caffeine, alcohol and cigarettes. Detox your mind with enough water and even camomile tea, which has a calming effect. Drugs will also mess with your mind so steer clear.

Exercise. Go for a sauna. Get a massage. The biggest chill out remedy out there. Go get sweaty to release the stress hormones and lactic acid that has built up in your muscles, keeping them tense and strained. 

Try to stop fixating on the bad stuff. For every negative worry or thought: "I am useless at maths", chuck in a positive one "But I am amazing at art". 

Make a list of all the things you're stressing over. With immediate issues, prioritise and solve them as you go throughout your daily routines. Take your time, go slow. If you rush you will increase anxiety levels. With medium term problems; put down a date and time when you can solve them. With problems where there are no clear solutions, physically tear them off your list and discard them in the bin, as it is pointless worrying about them. Be disciplined and don’t let your mind wander back to them.

Is Arguing Good or Bad?

We have recently learned from research that an unhappy marriage, where conflict and frequent arguments occur between couples, can triple the chances of a man having an early death due to stress and anxiety related illnesses.

A landmark study, by Professor Rikke Lund, into the health hazards of conflicted families and private lives has found that endless fighting with a spouse can in fact be the death of you, especially if you are out of work - and riskier still if you are a man. Women reported much the same stresses from a demanding spouse but it was less likely to kill them. The Danish study tracked the family relationships and health patterns of 10,000 men and women aged between 36 and 52 over 10 years. It found 6 per cent of men and 4 per cent of women went to an early grave.

The main cause, according to the study, was the risk of death by cancer, followed by heart disease, stroke, liver disease, and suicide. However, the researchers say at least 50% of the deaths could have been prevented if the person had not also been suffering from the added burden of a hostile marriage, difficult relationships with their children and often very little freedom to avoid arguments after a job loss, when men became isolated in despair.

Professor Lund claims: ‘not all arguments will end up having this deadly end, but in general if you have these stressful relations, very frequently it will lead to an increased risk of terminal illness brought on by stress’ Arguments can lead to healthier relationships if there is resolution and they are framed in a constructive way in order to renew and regenerate deteriorating relationships. The research contradicts other studies that find married men fare better, live longer and are healthier. Professor Lund says that may be true generally, but it depends on the relationship and whether couples can repair the rift after conflict in meaningful and constructive ways.

As mentioned already, unemployment was also found to be a factor. Lund says: ‘What we were able to identify were that people who were unemployed were more vulnerable to these kind of stressful relationships, as were men who had these worries and demands from increasingly hostile partners.’

http://www.counselling-directory.org.uk/counsellor-articles/how-to-argue-guidance-from-couples-counselling-and-relationships