[Anonymous]

Hey everyone, I'm looking for some advice regarding exam related anxiety. I've always been a pretty confident and optimistic person and I thought anxiety is something I'd never suffer from, but for the past week or so I think I've started having anxiety attacks, and I think it's related to exam stress.

I'm in year 13 currently doing my final A-level exams and I have a university offer riding on the results of them, so they're very important. Now the strange thing is I didn't start feeling like this until last Thursday - the day after what has probably been the most stressful day for me where I had two important exams. The anxiety seems really irrational because the only exams I have left are not particularly difficult or don't require me to score highly unlike my previous exams which is why I hate this feeling. I don't really have much of a reason to feel like this anymore as most of my exams are done, but I still do

I've been having this feeling every day since last Thursday, it's usually worst in the morning - I shake, I feel sick, I get an unsettled stomach, I lose my appetite completely and I clench my jaw a lot which causes my face to ache. The weird thing is I have definite periods of feeling like this, and definite periods of feeling completely normal, and I randomly move in and out of them. I generally find that if I do something distracting like watching some TV or going for a walk or playing a game, it goes away. I actually feel better when I go into school and talk to people and do some work than when I'm at home doing nothing. I've tried relaxing - taking baths, lying down etc. but they just make me feel worse.

I'm just looking for some advice on how to stop feeling like this. Consciously I don't feel worried about anything, so I don't know why I'm having this irrational feeling, but it's horrible and it's making me physically ill. Is it possible I've overworked myself? What can I do to shake this feeling?

Thank you in advance

[Krov]

The fact that you're bothered about anxiety being irrational tells me you don't like losing control.

Just get a **** happens attitude going on, before and after the exam (in between, it's a fight for your life).

Try to relax : get laid, drunk, high...

[Anonymous]

(Original post by Krov)
The fact that you're bothered about anxiety being irrational tells me you don't like losing control.

Just get a **** happens attitude going on, before and after the exam (in between, it's a fight for your life).

Try to relax : get laid, drunk, high...

Maybe you are right, I've never really felt like I haven't been on top things before, but I think my geography exam really messed me up, I felt so underprepared going into it and no matter how much I crammed in the days leading up to it nothing would go in. I think I scored the marks I needed to in the actual exam, but maybe it's the fact that I felt like that which is causing it. I started getting these feelings the day after. I can't say that helps though.

[ABCI23]

Short term, go to your GP and request anti-anxieties. Furthermore, you can burn excess adrenaline with short intense bursts of exercise. Long term, you're going to have to learn to control your anxiety, google mood gym.

[Anonymous]

bump

[lil-mazie]

I know exactly how you feel but the difference is I’m doing my GCSE exams, I know you’re doing much harder exams but I can totally relate, I have to get two A* to just be in a chance of getting into my chosen sixth form. I was slacking before but I started to pick it up however my worries of where my future is going is making me anxious so I don’t revise that much. And the funny thing is the reason I slacked before was because of games, internet ect. Now playing on those things just makes me feel like ****. I guess I just lost my passion to work hard due to the fact this is one on my last exams which is pretty sad because this is the time where I’m supposed to work my hardest.
I can’t really give you advice because I’m younger than you and I haven’t experienced the hard work you have, my best advice is to exercise so you can get your mind off things do something like yoga.
All the best in the future and I hope you get in the uni of your dreams