Mental health awareness for students

Students are currently united by stress because either of their exam results or because of the upcoming examinations. Staying in lockdown and attending online classes and homework makes them continuously feel the pressure to perform better which can trigger stress and anxiety amongst them. How should a student cope up with such stress?

Dr Rakesh Shah who is a Psychiatrist at the Hospital for Mental Health, Karelibaug shares a few tips.

ACCEPTANCE
For those students who are stressed because of their report card should first accept their own results. The percentage is the overall performance of your academic year and is not the ultimate result of your life and future. Life is not just about a few numbers.

For those who are yet to appear for their exams have already had a great chance to study during the lockdown. Take this time into a positive account and make it count. Staying in has been saving them a lot of time which means there are more hours to learn and revise, look online, and seek guidance.

DO NOT FEAR THE RESULT
Students should not fear exams as such. To drive away from the fear, ensure you are studying regularly. The more unprepared you are, the more you will fear the exams.
And don’t fear the result. Your ultimate goal should be to study and work hard and accept the outcome. A drastic change in your lifestyle, staying up late to study, and waking up late can cause problems too. Make sure you sleep and wake up on time. Students should get six to eight hours of sleep to recharge the brain and help it function properly. Don’t indulge in any kind of drugs, like cigarettes or tobacco products. Try to avoid extensive use of social media or watching Tv for long hours.

ANXIETY AND PANIC ATTACKS
Anxiety can be caused due to apprehension of a situation. A little anxiety is normal as it will motivate the students to study in the first place and prepare for the exam. But when one is unable to cope up with anxiety and it starts causing disturbances in one’s life, it creates a disorder. One of the disorders is Panic Disorder. When anxiety levels increase all of a sudden in a few minutes and subside after some time it is considered an episode.

ROLE OF FAMILY
Parents should ensure that they make their children maintain a routine and not force them towards the end result of the exams. The capacity of every student varies, their IQ varies, their interest
A student’s capacity, IQ, interest vary from others which impacts their overall performance and results.
Don’t get your hopes high with the results, instead keep working hard towards the goal.
In the case of Panic Attacks, remember to calculate in reverse order. Subtraction and multiplication help you to stop your train of thoughts which was triggering a panic attack and lets your brain think of the answer. Any palpitations, tremors, anxieties, restlessness will subside.

Students should have open-dialogues with teachers or parents. And they should look into the matter and figure out why a child is feeling so stressed, ask them about their thought process, and what they fear. The student can then be given a clear picture of reality which might help them calm down.
Being apprehensive of exams is quite normal as it acts as a motivating factor to focus on and prepare for it.

ROLE OF WELLWISHERS
Sometimes neighbours and relatives also enquire about the child’s performance out of curiosity and in those situations, the child should face the questions instead of dodging it. End of the day s/he is responsible for her/his result whether good or bad. And if someone is indeed a well-wisher and knows that the child has not performed well, they would instead avoid discussing their result. Instead, they can talk about how life is not about just good grades.