How To Manage Your Anxiety (School Related or Otherwise)

Although it may seem like it was just yesterday that you filled in the last scan-tron bubble of your final exam and subsequently began a happier, simpler time commonly referred to as summer break, its not. Its been three months. This means for all us students tests, quizzes, homework, school sports, club meetings, early mornings, and late nights. School is stressful. Especially because even though we are still kids, our performance in high school is truly one of the first moments in our lives that has a ripple effect on our futures. Even before high school, I struggled with anxiety. The most trivial things would trigger an anxiety attack. I'm serious- loose strings made me so nervous that I would hyperventilate because the possibility of them getting tangled with other objects - or worse... other strings- would cause the world spontaneously combust. Strings no longer put me into crippling shock, but sometimes high school does. However, I've learned to manage my school related anxieties and I really hope that this might help anyone who reads this and has similar struggles. I know anxiety isn't easy to manage, but it's also not easy to have an anxiety attack, to constantly be worrying about things, to hyperventilate, or to experience any of those other terrible symptoms.

1. Know Your Triggers
This is the most important part. You can't fix the problem until you identify it. Once you've done this, you can take the precautions to avoid situations that will cause you to panic. Even if you can't avoid these situations you can come prepared.

2. Find Things That Calm You Down
If you feel an anxiety attack coming on, find somewhere to be alone and calm yourself down. Things that work for me are inhaling for ten seconds and then exhaling for ten seconds to decrease my heart rate, putting cold water on my face, punching the air for a minute if I feel an adrenaline rush, and making lists to organize my thoughts. The latter works especially well at night when you have nervous thoughts bouncing around your head.

3. Take a Run
In the event that you have a full blown anxiety attack, take a run. Or at least do something that requires vigorous movement. This helps because your body equates an anxiety attack(at its most extreme) with a life threatening situation. Then your body goes into fight or flight mode which basically converts all your energy from bodily functions (like digestion) to either attacking or running away from the danger. Whether you're a fighter or flight-er doesn't matter. What matters is that you're nervous and adrenaline is coursing through your veins (which heightens the nervous feeling quite a bit as well). An outlet for this adrenaline -like running- helps tremendously to calm your system down and have it function as normal human being, not an animal being stalked as prey.

4. Accept That There Might Not Be Anything You Can Do About It
Zen prayer dictates "Change the things that can be changed, accept those that cannot, and have the wisdom to know the difference." This thought has helped me let go of my after-worries. If your anxiety roots from doing well on a school assignment -or anything- and you have put forth your absolute best effort, then you have nothing left to worry about because the matter is out of your hands. And even if you haven't tried your hardest, there's still no need to worry because, again, the matter is out of your hands. The sooner you can accept what you have done, the sooner you can let go.