Anxiety

What is anxiety?

Anxiety is feeling nervous or excessive and constant fear or worry about something. Anxiety could be anything, it could be worried about school or social anxiety or even having anxiety about the future.

I will be talking about anxiety in school and social anxiety.

School anxiety is fear of not doing well or just that you are burdened with too much work. In most cases, your anxiety builds up due to the change in the atmosphere around you. It could be anything like going to a higher school, studies, or even often fear of not pleasing your friends. Sometimes you feel that you are so caught up in your work and you are not spending enough time with your friends and you keep feeling the need to ask them if they are still your friend. You also have his constant need to please all the people around you, that’s called being a ‘people pleaser,’ in some way it could be good but it is very unhealthy because you teach people to put themselves last and put others first. You must always remember, you come first!

An example of school anxiety is waking up at hours like 3 am to study because you feel unprepared when you had already studied enough. You must remember, this whole scenario is in your mind. This will cause you unnecessary stress and this could lead to damage to your mental health.

The question arises, how do you cure anxiety? I asked around and the best answer I received was to find a balance or use a schedule. Finding a balance is very important, you must learn to manage your work but still find time for yourself. Following a schedule is the best, you learn more about time management. It is a crucial aspect of your life in school. Most importantly your mental health comes first.

Then there is social anxiety. Social anxiety is the fear of what other people think and their thoughts about you. For example, presenting something in front of someone you barely know. For social anxiety, you have to be very careful because the trigger can vary from absolutely nothing to everything.

I asked a friend and they were kind enough to educate me about social anxiety.

There are stages, you go from having jitters to a full-blown panic attack. You find it hard to breathe and concentrate.

Her advice for you all was, the main thing- catch it as soon as you can, don’t let it escalate! Go tell anyone who is near you at that moment to stop it from escalating. Once you do try distracting yourself, like watch something else try not to think about whatever bothers you.

There can be a worst-case scenario where no one is in the room, then what you have to do is count to five and name five things you see in the room. You can also try taking paper and scrunching it up or chewing on something to make yourself feel more in control. Just try to keep as calm as you can.

Remember this is all in your mind, make mental health your priority. Remember never to let your anxiety get the best of you, you are stronger than that.

Thanks for reading

Xx Mahika

DISCLAIMER: THIS IS MY PERSONAL OPINION, PLEASE DO NOT TREAT IT AS PROFESSIONAL MEDICAL ADVICE