I feel sick to my stomach the day before and the morning of testing. I only test once a week right now. I struggle to sleep the night before, and the anxiety eats me up. I felt like this at uni too, but with pre-reg, it feels amplified because there’s even less support.
I’ve only tested five days so far, but the fear hasn’t eased at all. I’m still just as terrified. I still don’t have my basics down, like subjective and Volk and retinoscopy even though I’ve practised on nearly all my colleagues and had others watch me. I freeze when unexpected patients or questions come up because I just don’t know what to say. How are you supposed to remember everything?
Deep down, I don’t want to admit it, but I know this career isn’t for me. Even when I see anything optometry-related,like a reel,I feel anxious and just skip past it. Im so close to having a panic attack every morning before i have to test. i genuinely feel like i dont know what im doing. It's just getting a bit too much for me.I have never felt so on edge and miserable in my life. But I feel like I’m too far in now to turn back.
Is this normal? Will it get easier?