Exam related Anxiety/Panic

[StudentAnx]

Hi,


Background:
student at university. In my third year, with no obvious trigger, I suffered my first panic attack in a lecture. I thought little of it, until the next day, I found myself experiencing these symptoms when approaching the same building. As it often does with panic disorder, I begin fearing this situation and avoided it.

From this I failed my third year, resat, and now find myself in my final year exams of a batchelors degree. I had a horrible job which lead to further panic attacks and with me living away from home and no-one to properly check up on me, I found myself hiding more and more about how bad things actually were.

This made things more difficult this year as my friends have all graduated and moved on, and it was difficult to make new friends whilst I was worrying about my panic;

ie sitting myself at the end of aisles,
worrying about how close i was to the exit. (someone asking me to move in a seat absolutely terrified me at my worst)

The panic has lead me to miss ALOT of lectures.

I now spend soo much time alone in my flat, when I am not visiting home more and more regularly. It is sort of a self imposed exile but it just makes me feel like crap. I did have what i would call mild agoraphobia at one stage which I have overcome over the last 18 months.

I am beginning my final exams at the end of my degree this week. I am finding myself feeling SO dejected about it all.

What terrifies me the most is that I have spent all these precious years to get this degree, and now if I fail I am burdened with these debts with not what i want to show for it. It's hard to accept when you see people with jobs, families etc.

I am now on betablockers which have helped my panic like i never thought possible which is amazing. I have explained to a few people some of what i am feeling but nobody knows the full extent which is hard.

I feel like so much of my anxiety/panic will subside once I finish in three weeks. But each day feels like a week at the moment.

I guess I just wanted to talk about it. Is anyone else going through this in education? If so Please respond! x

[bkn]

Yes I am suffering from GAD and I am a medical student. My attendance is suffering quite a bit because I'm dizzy most of the time. I don't get panic attacks but I'm dizzy 24/7. Its hard but I'm trying to get by. This will pass. Keep telling yourself that

[StudentAnx]

Yes I am suffering from GAD and I am a medical student. My attendance is suffering quite a bit because I'm dizzy most of the time. I don't get panic attacks but I'm dizzy 24/7. Its hard but I'm trying to get by. This will pass. Keep telling yourself that
cheers. I am just hoping to get by the next few weeks as much as possible and look to the next chapter. It has not been easy.

I can't wait to leave, move back to my home city and close the book on this!

[Riley20]

Hi,

I struggle with anxiety/depression and I'm also a university student. Luckily for me though I chose a university close to home knowing I wouldn't be able to really manage away from home and my family so I decided to stay.

My attendance suffers too as my anxiety gets worse in stages and at a bad stage my attendance and work does suffer.

You just need to remind yourself that you've got to do it and you'll get there in the end, it's hard to find the motivation I know as I'm currently struggling to find the motivation to submit my final assessments. If you need to chat to anyone in a similar position feel free to drop me a message. Just try to remember through it all what you're aiming for, I don't really think there's much that can improve the situation but you're almost done now!

[annakatarinas]

Of course you should work with it and try and get over it, but maybe you could also talk to some authority at your university and explain to them what's going on and that you're not slacking etc....? And then maybe you could work out a solution for this last months.

[StudentAnx]

Of course you should work with it and try and get over it, but maybe you could also talk to some authority at your university and explain to them what's going on and that you're not slacking etc....? And then maybe you could work out a solution for this last months.
Hi, yeah I have done that. I have spoke to them about it in February and seen someone about it. Im actually sitting my exams in a smaller room since the big halls with no place to escape seem to make me anxious. hopefully these things make a difference, atleast since the turn of the year I have actually started taking steps to deal with this!

[StudentAnx]

Hi,

I struggle with anxiety/depression and I'm also a university student. Luckily for me though I chose a university close to home knowing I wouldn't be able to really manage away from home and my family so I decided to stay.

My attendance suffers too as my anxiety gets worse in stages and at a bad stage my attendance and work does suffer.

You just need to remind yourself that you've got to do it and you'll get there in the end, it's hard to find the motivation I know as I'm currently struggling to find the motivation to submit my final assessments. If you need to chat to anyone in a similar position feel free to drop me a message. Just try to remember through it all what you're aiming for, I don't really think there's much that can improve the situation but you're almost done now!

sorry to hear that! yeah I feel like now that Ive handed in my dissertation that should be me finished! Hard to accept there is still exams to come. cheers for that.

[Ritch]

I never usually say just push through it and try to cope to anyone because it sounds do easy. But on this occasion my thoughts echo rileys, you just have to force yourself to prepare as much as you can and to sit the exams. These remaining weeks will feel as if they last a decade, but I promise they will be over before you know it.

[annakatarinas]

I agree with Ritch above. I'm currently struggling with very depressive/anxious patterns, and I just take it day by day. And also, you should allow yourself to have "bad days". For instance, the first week after I had an appointment where my teacher told me I HAD to be in school every single day for four weeks since my attendance was suffering (except for if I called in sick), I gave myself two days to call in sick if I couldn't manage to get out of bed. The other three days I just forced myself through it. The following week, I called in sick only one time, and so on.

[StudentAnx]

I agree with Ritch above. I'm currently struggling with very depressive/anxious patterns, and I just take it day by day. And also, you should allow yourself to have "bad days". For instance, the first week after I had an appointment where my teacher told me I HAD to be in school every single day for four weeks since my attendance was suffering (except for if I called in sick), I gave myself two days to call in sick if I couldn't manage to get out of bed. The other three days I just forced myself through it. The following week, I called in sick only one time, and so on.
yeah thats a good way to look at it. I did find it overwhelming not that long ago, where they were sending me emails saying IF YOU DO NOT ATTEND THE NEXT LECTURE YOU WILL BE WITHDRAWN FROM THE COURSE. I tortured myself for a while finding it harder and harder to go without panic attacks. Luckily I explained what was going on and they took away that pressure.

[StudentAnx]

I never usually say just push through it and try to cope to anyone because it sounds do easy. But on this occasion my thoughts echo rileys, you just have to force yourself to prepare as much as you can and to sit the exams. These remaining weeks will feel as if they last a decade, but I promise they will be over before you know it.

Yeah cheers its hard to say more at this point, but my panic attacks are mostly situational 99% of the time it is going into/at uni, or in places i have no escape.

The thought of the anxiety etc transferring to my next job or whatever is what worries me. I dont know how I will react to it.

[Ritch]

Yeah cheers its hard to say more at this point, but my panic attacks are mostly situational 99% of the time it is going into/at uni, or in places i have no escape.

The thought of the anxiety etc transferring to my next job or whatever is what worries me. I dont know how I will react to it.

Try to think about the present moment because that is what matters at the moment. If we worry about the future that will just cause anticipatory anxiety and half of the things we worry about never happen. Lets finish the task in hand before we address the others :)