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Mental Health Awareness: Anxiety & School

Olivia Bielaczyc, Senior Writer
December 15, 2022

Anxiety and School-Life

Olivia Bielaczyc

It can be incredibly overwhelming to be stressed from schoolwork, upcoming exams, and extracurricular activities. An overabundance of stress can cause a lot of anxiety in a person. However, what’s the difference between stress and anxiety? Well, stress and anxiety are the same strained, on-edge feeling, but while stress is over rather quickly, anxiety can last for weeks, months, or a lifetime.2 Anxiety can hinder a student’s ability to participate in class and homework—especially if this student has other activities other than school going on. And since school is always recommending such activities for college applications, it can lead many students to constantly feel the extra pressure is necessary to guarantee their success in life. This, of course, is irrational—anxiety doesn’t have to be rational.

Regardless if you are stressed or have an anxiety disorder, it’s important to know where it comes from to be able to cope with it. These reasons can be very specific to every individual, but generally speaking, they can be3:

Social media

Our happiness-centered-society

Parents/Family life

Peer expectations

Nobody has taught you how to deal with your fear

No time for relaxation

The list could go on and on, depending on the person. But it’s important to know you’re not alone in these fear and stress markers. Everyone struggles, and everyone is capable of helping each other. Find good people that support you as much as you support them. Ditch friends who only perpetuate cycles of stress and toxicity.

Some ways to help cope with this unwanted anxiety are1:

Take a break

Schoolwork is important to stay on top of, but when something becomes too overwhelming, then trying to force yourself to work through it will only harm you—and besides, you won’t get your best work done under such stress.

Do what you can

Sometimes, you just might not know things. An important part of learning is failure, so don’t be scared to get a few things wrong. There’s no point in aiming for perfection when your best is all your teachers could ever ask for. And for those who are struggling with breaking cheating habits, this also applies. Cheating only begets cheating, as you continuously learn nothing while also needing said knowledge to progress. Focus on what you can do, and get help for what you can’t. Nobody expects you to know everything perfectly right off the bat—that’s why you’re in school in the first place.

Get sleep

This is self-explanatory and overdone, but important nonetheless. A good sleep routine can make or break your learning experience. Everyone knows the struggle of trying to stay awake and attentive in class when you had a terrible night’s sleep beforehand. Remember to go to sleep earlier than you think, and wake up only at a necessary time.

Eat and drink well

A good breakfast—without caffeine—can do wonders for a person. Caffeine is addictive, just ask your teachers! Ideally, you shouldn’t need caffeine with a good night’s rest, but even with a shaky sleep, one should not reach for a cup of their favorite caffeine latent drink. Caffeine is the most widely used drug in the world. In the United States, it is estimated that 80% to 90% of children and adults consume caffeine regularly, with a mean daily consumption of 280 mg in male consumers 35 to 54 years of age.4 Being that caffeine is not the best thing for a person, try to limit your daily intake every day or so. As for breakfast options, a well balanced

meal as any other will significantly benefit one’s capacity to learn. Following the food pyramid, fruits and vegetables are a priority when it comes to a healthy diet. Protein and grain are also important to get into your system. Some recommendations for breakfast meals are: eggs (scrambled, boiled, etc.), oatmeal, yogurt with nuts and berries, fruit smoothies (100% fruit juice), toast with desired toppings such as fruit, and french toast.

Talk. To. Someone.

Bottling things up may seem like the easiest option, but it is not healthy for one’s mental and emotional state. Negative thinking can be addicting; staying sad and always in need of a pick-me-up is easier than confronting and processing those emotions. Talking to someone thoroughly about your mental state, what stresses you, and what you’re going to do to get better is a good way of helping yourself connect and lay out the path in your mind for taking steps toward self-betterment.

Let yourself be happy

It may sound strange, but it’s important to remind yourself to be happy. Sometimes, when you’re overly anxious, you can be extremely hard on yourself. It’s important to let yourself have fun, enjoy things you usually do, and laugh a little at yourself. A positive attitude can make or break one’s mood, and it can certainly break your train of thought away from a constant downward spiral. It’s easier to think negatively than positively, so a few things to remind yourself5:

Don’t dwell on the future; focus on the present and work through that anxiety. Tell yourself “I’ll deal with that when it comes up.” Ask yourself “What am I doing now? What can I be doing now?”
Fighting back against it will only make it worse. Let yourself be anxious in this moment and continue to do what you are doing. Tell yourself, “I can do this and be anxious,” “It is okay to feel anxious, it is okay to not feel in control.”
Don’t add on fears unrelated to what you were originally anxious about. A linger anxiety of being lonely, fearing death, or anything you may be scared of can sneak its way into your anxiety of a completely unrelated topic. Tell yourself, “I may be uncomfortable, but I am not in danger,” “It is just what-ifing.”
Try not to avoid such feelings. Bottling up those anxieties only leads to scenarios as previously stated: bringing up old and unresolved fears that worsen your current state even more. It reinforces the idea that your thoughts are genuinely dangerous. If the thing you are avoiding seems too big, break it down into steps that are more manageable. Tell yourself “Face the fear and fear will disappear,” “I can be here (do this) even with panic.”
Breathe. Do breathing exercises that slow your heart rate down as stress and anxiety cause it to rise, which in turn causes adrenaline to flood your body.6 That anxious feeling is your body preparing for action when it is not needed. You don’t necessarily need to breathe deeply, as is often advised, just breathe slowly and rhythmically. Focus on those two things and make them constant, focused and calm. Tell yourself “Breathe and accept,” “Small breaths.”
Growth isn’t linear and improvement is difficult. You may think at first that counteracting anxiety is easy, but that will only cause you to be upset when you slip and fall. Remember that the path to a better mental state lies within you, you just have to be patient. Tell yourself, “I can do this,” “It took time to get this way, it will take time to recover,” “It’s okay to make mistakes. I will just try to not make them again repeatedly,” “The more willing I am to have symptoms, the more the symptoms will subside and the more I’ll get my life back.”

To conclude, just remember that you are you—no matter what your mind will tell you as it spirals seemingly out of your control. People are there to help you, not hinder you, so drop those deadbeat friends and take the steps to betterment. Remember that it’s not necessarily easy to do, and that getting better means taking it one little step at a time. After all, high school is only a fraction of your life. There is a whole world waiting for you outside of it, so don’t get into the headspace that your life is ruined when it hasn’t even begun. Take your time and focus on what is important to you. Treat yourself how you would treat others.

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About the Contributor

Olivia Bielaczyc, Senior Writer