This coming up week is finals for the kid sis and even though she works hard, and everyone can see she really has been studying and using flash cards and taped little accounting formulas all over the house, she was a little shaky yesterday.
Today she went into full crying jag. It’s so confusing. I bet she knows her stuff. She’s gotten good grades so far. But she won’t listen to logic about this. I think she’s going to hyperventilate.
I know she’s so nervous about the Accounting, the Macro/Micro Econ, and English, and even the Biology. Is there a way to get her to calm down and maybe breathe.
She didn’t take a shower yesterday because she said she didn’t have time. I’m trying to convince her that maybe a walk around the park or some lunch out would do her a world of good.
I wonder, am I like this when I’m in the middle of a panic? She says it’s just exam panic. I’ve never seen this in her. I hope this isn’t what school normally does to people. How does one help with this? How does one talk down an exam panic?
When I first started college, I had SEVERE test anxiety. To the point of having panic attacks. I’d study for days, and then forget everything the day of exams, because my mind was racing so much.
It started affecting my grades, which I knew I couldn’t allow. So I talked to my primary care doctor about it. He set me up with counseling and prescribed a low dose of Xanax to be taken only on exam days.
The combination of medication and relaxation techniques I learned from therapy saved the day. I was able to relax, remember, and get all A’s again.
One of the most beneficial relaxation techniques for me was yoga. I would dedicate time before and after studying to de-stress and center.
Test panic is no joke. It HAS to be dealt with ASAP. Otherwise, you’re miserable and everything suffers.
My racing thoughts that never stopes, holds me back from going to collage, and it causes me to have poor memory. I tried going to collage few times but i would fail the classes due to my racing thoughts. Sadly there isn’t any medication that helps me. My racing thoughts slows down in the evening leaving me with 3 hours of relaxed mind.
I am trying to convince myself that giving the kid sis .5 mg Xanax in the morning is a bad idea. But if …. A big if, …. but if that happened, I wonder if that would help or hurt.
I’ve looked up the allergic reactions and from what I can tell she doesn’t fit any of that criteria. She’s not on any drugs for any medical condition. She is allergic to bee stings.
Until then, I’ve got a crying kid sister locked in the only bathroom in the flat and it’s 32 degrees (f) outside and just too cold to go outside to pee. I almost want to chop through the door. But some how I don’t think re-enacting a scene from “The Shining” is going to help calm the kid sis down.
put lavender oil ( aromatherapy oil ) on her wrists, if feeling stressed, she can smell her wrists, also on the temples helps a lot.
your kid sis is smart and has nothing to worry about, it is pretty normal before exams, i was no different.
i wish her the best, and my wife and i send her all the luck we can muster.
take care
She’s nervous and afraid. I guess part of it might be lack of confidence. If she calms down enough to talk try logic again and just help her boost her confidence. Remind her that she’s intelligent, has got good grades in the past, and taken tests a thousand times and probably done well. A pep talk. But it occurred to me that maybe she’s stressing about something unrelated to school. Maybe you could ask her calmly if anything else happened to her that she needs to talk about. And if so, help her deal with it. It helps if you stay calm yourself. I know when I’m freaking out I need the person I’m talking to, to be level-headed and calm.Other than that that I don’t know.
Stress and anxiety while dealing with exam time is to be expected. Keep in mind she has also had to deal with other stresses like that boy and the teacher along with other family members. Some times it can be a little overwhelming. Just be there for her like she is there for you. It will pass once exams are over. Look at it this way. Just as you will sometimes stress over doing things like cooking, etc she will sometimes stress over school. They call this crunch time. When students dig in to their school work.
I will be really glad when this week is over. My kid sis hardly ever cries over anything. She really is a tough kid. But this last month has been horrid. I HATE it when she cries. I really really hate it. I tried to get her to take one of my Xanax’s but she says she’s never taken it before and she didn’t want to try it out just before an exam. But that’s the point. She wouldn’t need to take one when she’s not panicked. She has two of the big test today.
It feels really weird trying to talk someone down from a panic and not get panicked yourself. I was feeling very panicked. I took a Xanax just to buffer myself from her panic. I wonder how she manages to stay so calm when I’m falling apart.
She took the advice of the lavender oil and she put some lavender from the plant outside in her pocket. She’s got her notes and her #2 pencils. I have really never seen her so scared. She’s freaking out about the financial aid. She doesn’t want to ask Mom and Dad for money. So between her job and school, and yes, Me, and the stupid teacher, the other family falling apart, the dumb crumbling friends, the boyfriend messing with her, she has had a lot on her plate. How does anyone manage that with out mental damage?
I’d be hospitalized if I had to go through all that at once.
She’s a strong girl and will get through this. Try to remember that you have a higher tolerance for medications like Xanax. What might calm you might put her on her butt and actually stop her from being able to write her exams.
I think you might telle her, that at this point she really cant do more to prepare herself. What I mean is that she should try to relax since she probably prepared and even if she didnt it would be too late. So basically 90% of the work has already been done, so she should just relax about the exam. If she did well during the course of the term, she will most likely do well. For me I could never sleep the night before an exam, but I usually got good grades anyway. I learned to relax about it, and just be focused when in the exam, and make sure I use all the time, unless of course I couldnt do any questions, then I would just leave early.
I had the same problem, my symptoms came out under the pressure of papers and exams. I was prescribed a whole lot of xanax, and it has been doing me more good than making me able to work- its making me go out in public and make new friends. It takes away my social anxiety and also lets me relax- before xanax i would workout and drink to get rid of my anxiety, and lifting weights and drinking two or three beers every night was taking a lot of time and was too much trouble for just an exercise high and an alcohol buzz. Now i just take my xanax and dont worry and be normal.