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Coping with Exam Panic Attacks?
UniGirlBot asks: "I am a distinction / high distinction student who normally doesn't have any major levels of stress during exams. Today I managed to have a major panic attack during an exam on databases and ended up leaving the room in tears about halfway through a 3-hour paper. This panic attack was an absolute first for me and I now have to begin the special consideration procedure, which I am grateful exists. For the record, I did study enough and the course was something I enjoyed doing. Does anyone out there have any advice on what I could do stop this from happening again, please?" If you've been in this position, how did you recover?
Simply stop caring.
Just smoke a joint before your exam. Works for me :)
No single test is going to make or break your career/future. It may mean that you don't get your first choice of college or job, but that probably won't matter 10 years from now.
If there is a company that won't look at you because you have a 3.9 GPA instead of a 4.0, you probably don't want to work there anyway. Far more important are the projects and activities you do outside of class. I know I would rather hire someone with a 3.0 GPA and open source development on their resume, than a 4.0 student who hasn't done anything outside of class.
Now, I'm not saying that you should blow off exams, but it is just a test. You will have many more of them in your future. If you blow this one, you can try a bit harder on the next one.
Reading code is like reading the dictionary - you have to read half of it before you can go back and understand it.
Yep been there too under similar circumstances. I feel your pain. Unfortunely, at least in my case, the first panic attack meant that next time I was in a similar circumstance I was worried more which seemed to help induce another panic attack.
I did a bunch of research online to learn about Panic Attacks. I asked my doctor about them. My doctor offered medication which I declined. In the end I just suffered through so many panic attacks that after a while a panic attack became somewhat anti-climatic. Almost routine. At that point they dissapearred almost overnight.
Your experiences may vary of course. Good luck to you.
whj
P.S. Worse thing though is don't be ashamed or embarrased. That'll make it all worse.
I have no specific advice for your situation, but there are a few possibilities.
The most general is to talk with a psychologist about your experience. It's not a panacea, but you may gain some insight into what led into the attack, and how to cope with the situation if (when) it occurs again.
Next up - make sure you're taking time to relax in your daily routine. It's easy to fall into a pattern of overwork that becomes counterproductive, especially when the situations get grim, like exam time tends to be. Even a simple thing like taking a daily hour long walk can go a long way toward relieving any stress you're feeling.
Also, if you aren't already following a good nutrition plan with attendant exercise, consider starting. Feeling good physically is the first step to feeling good mentally.
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If this is the first instance of you having a panic attack like this without ever having been a "worried" person in the past, then you want to make sure you don't have a diagnosable problem. Personality changes generally aren't so sudden without an underlying pathological condition.
You can read about other people experiences at http://www.panicsurvivor.com/
The flushing of all the chemicals in your system will help loads. The extra sleep will give you energy through the dull test, and the OJ will give you a morning brain-kick. All natural even.
Good luck and have fun!
LOAD "SIG",8,1
LOADING...
READY.
RUN
As someone who has been there, I would suggest talking to your physician first. He/She can then help you figure out a plan of attack. My Panic Attacks stemmed from basically the same problem as you. Mine became so bad I got caught up in a feedback loop. I would have an attack, then get so worked up about having another, it would lead into one. It became so bad I became EXTREMELY agoraphobic. Not something I would reccomend to anyone. I finally went and got help from my Dr and a mental health professional. I am now on medication and have been attack free for over a year. The medication I would suggest is Paxil or the generic equivalent, but your doctor would be the best one to check with. Hope this helps and good luck!
I'm at a very different moment in life than you are, but several years ago I had a severe panic attack "out of the blue" while managing a large project. Once I'd understood what was going on, I responded like a good little geek and checked out the research on panic attacks.
While you should definitely seek the help of a professional, as you can dangerously misdiagnose yourself, the most likely cause is a high level of stress that you haven't been managing. Anxiety disorders in general become progressively harder to treat the longer you live with them, so don't try to just tough this out.
If you need it, a psychiatrist may be able to prescribe medication which can provide short term relief. Far more effective over the long term will be to engage in some cognitive therapy and learn to recognize the early symptoms that you are not managing stress and respond to them before your stress results in anxiety.
I would recommend the site www.anxieties.com as a good place to start. It's run by a respected clinician in the field, and while the site advertises plenty of materials you could pay for, it has a fair amount of information and advice available for free.
The good news is that if you take this seriously, respond quickly, and learn to comprehensively manage your stress, then your odds of avoiding a chronic anxiety disorder are quite good.
When I was in the last couple of years of my undergrad -- computer engineering -- the way I'd deal with hard core tests (Calculus IV, control systems, etc) was by completely shifting gears right before the test.
Guys would always be cramming that last hour or so before the test. Look, if you don't understand how to do a Laplace transform you ain't gonna learn it 30 minutes before the test. To freak out then ya gotta be fracking crazy.
I have a lot of non-technical interests, and a big one is sports cars and sports car racing. I'd take a couple of car porn mags and read about sports car restoration or racing skillz in the common areas while watching every one else act like nut cases. It really calmed me down, and reminded me that I knew this stuff.
There's a saying in the world of professional soldiers -- you fight like you train. Same about tests. If you know the material and are comfortable with it you will test like you train.
The above sounds like an awful thing to bring up, but don't confuse panic attacks with psychosis. I had panic attacks in HS and - years later - so did my daughter. Both of us worried ourselves sick wondering if the next stop was voices, social shunning and the lockup ward. I was an A student and just backed off a little. My daughter got a lot of relief just knowing that panic attacks are familial, can be controlled with medication and relaxation and that panic attacks aren't a sign you are a basket case. Turns out that my daughter also discovered that SLEEP - aka getting to bed before 11 PM and just stopping doing the homework - made the greatest impact on her anxiety and her ability to deal with stress. Another writer complemented you on bringing this up in a Slashdot venue... same here. But do yourself a favor and get to bed early, no more caffeine, get some exercise and have some good times. You'll eventually learn to live with the panic attacks (or, mostly, the worry about having the panic attacks). If they continue or get worse, call a Clinical Psychologist or Psychiatrist as soon as you can. So many of these things, if treated early - even the emotional disorders - resolve and get quickly better. The professionals will help you through the worst of the crisis and are really worth it. I'm a nurse and someone who's lived through this and speak from personal experience. Good luck.
Hi.
Sorry to hear about this; while I've never had an attack while taking an exam, but I have had my share of panic attacks.
Short term strategies (for when they hit):
1) If you have some benzos (xanax, valium, and the like), take one. Xanax takes about 20 minutes to hit, and it is possible to take a dose that cuts the attack without making you a drooling idiot. Really, having these around (esp. legally) will make a difference in your anxiety levels.
2) Close your eyes and breathe deeply---FOCUSING on breathing. You want to get more oxygen to your brain; apparently the shallow breathing of anxiety increases anxiety.
3) If you can get to a water fountain, a cold drink might help. I find that cold, sugary drinks are soothing---just no caffeine.
4) If you can get to a quiet, relatively isolated place, that might help too.
5) Keep reminding yourself that this really sucks, but it is just a panic attack and you're not going crazy and you're not going to have a heart attack.
Long term:
1) Get enough sleep, eat properly, exercize, and cut back on caffeine. (Sorry, this is what works. I was hoping for smoking, boozing, downing Krispe Kreme donuts and freebasing chocolate covered espresso, but no such luck.) As an aside: if you're smoking pot (especially if you're a habitual user), you may find it necessary to stop.
2) If the attacks continue, you'll want to get with a therapist who can help you figure out what your triggers are and how to work through them.
3) If you have panic with depression, I recommend meds. They have their downsides, to be sure, but they have made a huge difference. (Be forewarned that the first med you've been prescribed will work quite right.)
Of course, I'm not an MD---just a Ph.D. (in philosophy) who has some personal experience with this. YMMV, and be sure to get professional help if this becomes more than a one-off.
"Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under." - H.L. Mencken
1) Cut out on sugary drinks completely. They're empty carbs that make you jittery during the day and mess up your teeth. The jury's still out on caffiene I like it, but don't OD on the stuff. It's just as hard to focus through caffiene jitters as it is through soft drink jitters.
2) Going to sleep early: Good. Taking drugs to get to sleep early: Bad. I've noticed that if I take something like nyquil I have a much harder time getting up the next morning, no matter what time I go to bed. Unless the exam's at 6am, I wouldn't suggest going to bed any earlier than 9pm, but I wouldn't suggest pushing it much later either.
3) Orange juice good. It's a full day's supply of vitamin C. High protien breakfast also good. While some people prefer steak and eggs, I like steak and steak. Or oatmeal.
4) Exercise also good. A little exercise in the morning always seems to wake me up. If you're on a cool campus you can go straight from your steak and steak breakfast to the gym for a quick round of kick boxing, then you'll be set to face whatever challenges the day brings!
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
YMMV, but as a survivor of several panic attacks over the years I have found that they've usually been brought on by combinations of stress and lack of sleep. My suggestions:
Get a girlfriend (or boyfriend depending on your preferance), drink some beers, wine or whatever you like and enjoy college, this is your LAST chance. The real world is a lot tougher and a lot less fun until you become a billionare or die :)
My school teachers had always been telling students that elementary school is easy compared to junior/high school and that we had better enjoy it while we can because it was about to get a lot tougher. So I started dreading high school. Then in high school they started saying the same thing about college, and that college was as close as the real world could get in school, and that we had better work hard to get into the right one and do the right thing because our life depends on it, otherwise we'll be working at gas stations. So I started dreading college. Then in college they stopped holding our hand or putting guns to our heads to come to school and do assignments, so since I dreaded college and its assignments so much, to stop being stressed out I simply didn't pay attention to it because I couldn't handle the dread and pressure. Then I dropped out of college. Saying shit like "It's your last chance, it'll get a lot tougher!" is not going to make someone do something better, it'll simply impede them like it did me. Now I'm having a hell of a time.
Twinstiq, game news
Quite a few of the responses here are focusing on a particular symptom (the panic attack during the exam) and overlooking the context of the issue (the entire semester.)
Perhaps it isn't that he is being too hard on himself, but that he isn't being hard enough on himself (but doing it constructively.)
In the military there is a saying : "Train hard, fight easy."
What this means is - if you can condition yourself via repeated very difficult exercises to be able to operate and function in those difficult situations, you will be able to function under pressure. If your training (studying) is even more difficult than the situation you will encounter when it counts (battle, or the exam) then your exam will be easier (less stress, less pressure, easier questions) than you have been experiencing during training (studying) and you will breeze through it.
When I was a competitive swimmer (years ago) the longest race I ever swam was 200 meters - on competition day I might even swim less than that for the entire day : a 100m and a 50m.
But every day during practice I would swim upwards of 3200m over the course of an hour. The coach would yell at us, push us harder, have us swim laps with only our legs (arms behind our backs), have us hold folding chairs over our heads in the deep end while we used only our legs to keep our head, arms, shoulders (and the chairs) out of the water for ten minutes at a time. After a month or two of high intensity training, race day was something we looked forward to - not only to compete, but because it was the easiest day of the swim season.
Same thing with military guys. The guys that are calm and can function reliably when someone is shooting at them - they are calm because the ONLY thing they have to deal with is someone shooting at them. During training someone was shooting at them, a gunny was screaming in their face, they were doing push-ups / sit-ups until they puked, they were carrying around telephone poles as a team through pounding surf in the ocean, they were living on three hours or less of sleep per night for weeks at a time, and they were doing it all while eating grubs and worms and whatever crap the can find or kill or catch with no way to prepare it (under nourished.) Compared to how they trained, fighting on the battlefield is a cake-walk.
Effective studying in college isn't reading a book by yourself in the quiet library until your eyes glaze over.
Effective studying is creating an environment where you are mentally challenged by forcing yourself to demonstrate an understanding - a MASTERY of the material. Sit round robin with a few other students from class and go through the chapter, subject by subject, and have each person be the 'target' - the others ask him a question on the topic and he has to answer it, demonstrate his knowledge on the subject. Do not allow anyone to pass (skip a question,) force him to read the material until he understands it and can explain it to the satisfaction to the others. Let the questions get harder and harder, and pile on the peer pressure. Let the only response to 'I don't know' be 'well motherfucker you better figure it out now with the book in your hands and people here to help you learn it, because it is going to be on the exam.' The harder you are on each other during those study sessions, the easier the exam will be - for two reasons : during the exam it is quiet time without your peers putting the pressure on you (just you and the pencil and the paper), and also because you will have already worked through the thought processes in order to come up with the correct answers, not only for the questions you had to answer but for all the questions all the others had to answer - in watching them get it right or wrong, you will have seen several different perspectives and approaches on the problem, learning not only the correct answer, but the correct approach to get the answer. In doing so, you will have developed a mastery of the material and it will be obvious when you exhibit that mastery
Glonoinha the MebiByte Slayer