Can you learn how to handle stress with time?

Just finished my GCSEs which i wasn’t necessarily stressed for, but felt extremely anxious for the 3 week period, I couldn’t eat and only slept about 7 hours a night which was completely different to beforehand. I then had a job interview which on the day I felt sick and couldn’t eat. I know this may sound normal but I’m just wondering, as I’m starting A Levels will I be able to cope with stress abit better because I’ve experienced it before? Also as I was only extremely anxious during exam period will this be the same for A Levels or will I be like this for the whole 2 years as A Levels are made out to be even more stressful than a degree :/

Reply 1

Anonymous #1

Do you learn how to cope better with stress because you experienced it at GCSE? I’m really contemplating what to do because I really want to do A Levels and study neuroscience at university however I don’t want to feel anxious like I did in the exam period again. If it’s just in the few weeks of exams then that’s okay but if it’s for the whole two years I may have to do something else. That amazing well done!! I want to do Biology, English Literature and Psychology

Thanks!!

Original post by Anonymous

Being stressed during the two or three weeks of GCSEs is sadly relatively normal. Being anxious the whole of A-levels 24/7 is possible, but is more likely to mean you have a mental health condition like GAD or something else. Being stressed substantial periods of A-levels is probably somewhere in the middle.

Dwelling on whether you can do A-levels or a degree I would say is a dangerous thought that might turn into a habit. If someone did have anxiety and thought like this it could end up plaguing the whole of their studies and hampering grades.

I would say you can't really reduce the stress in the sense that most humans are wired up for a stress response for exams, interviews, public speaking. You can change your response to the stress (feeling excited, meditation, mindfulness, breathing etc) which changes how harmful the stress is. I wish someone had told me about Mindfulness before as I found that helped a lot.

I have done dozens of university exams and yet I get very stressed from about 2 months out, very low mood, lethargic, wretchedness, pessimism, self hate, before I wrestle myself out of this, buckle down and get good routines and habits and work, momentum is built up 2 weeks to 4 weeks before the exam, get into good habits, feel high. Stress builds massively a week before the exam, usually I have 1 or 2 nights without sleep, think this is it that's completely blown my revision. Work through it. Carry on. Get through the exam. Feel exhausted and low for a couple of weeks after.

For me one of the keys to resilience to survive things like A-levels and degrees is what psychologists call a growth mindset. Their reaction to failure.

Reply 4

marinade

P.S. there is research about stress, whether our beliefs about it actually influence how healthy it is. Some psychologists think that people that believe that stress is bad for them have quite a different reaction to it than others that believe stress is normal or a positive thing.

Can you learn how to handle stress with time?

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