The symptoms
It is important to detect this anxiety and stress to be able, later, to combat them. ” The symptoms of anxiety during exam time are given in three levels that are related and mutually feed back , ” explains the GOE coordinator: First of all we find the mental or cognitive level . The most common symptoms would be: extreme worry, insecurity, lack of confidence, lack of concentration, difficulty in making decisions, apprehension, feeling of inferiority, feeling of loss of control, difficulties in reading and understanding, difficulties in remembering words or concepts, mental lock l (“go blank”). In second place, we found the physiological level.
The most common symptoms would be: shortness of breath, sweating, dry mouth, tightness in the chest, nausea, stomach pain.
And finally, on a behavioral level, the most common symptoms would be: lack of appetite or overeating, stuttering, talking fast, nervous laughter, continually manipulating objects, impulsive reactions (such as dropping a test), responding without reflecting.
Can be beneficial?
Therefore, regulated and appropriate stress contributes positively to concentration, to physical power. In fact, athletes when they go to compete tend to obtain better results if their anxiety level is higher than usual.
Stress is nothing but energy that helps us get going. Therefore, we can affirm that “stress (at its right point) is a normal and positive reaction since it acts as a protector preparing us for action; Without that dose of vital energy, we would not face the challenges that life presents us, ”says Florencia.
In the field of psychology, there is much studied evidence called Yerkes and Dodson’s law that describes the relationship between anxiety and performance and establishes that optimal performance is obtained with average levels of activation.
However it is not always so. On some occasions, anxiety is no longer adaptive and ends up causing a lot of discomfort, restlessness and suffering.
Antidotes
Florencia Poy gives us some simple keys to avoid and manage stress and anxiety:
The first step to be able to manage anxiety and stress is to recognize and detect it. “This, although it seems simple, is not always it. Learning to observe our state of mind is a very important task ”, he explains. The next thing is to learn to manage these emotions and for this we must not forget that we always move on three levels: physiological, mental and behavioral and emotional plane,” he clarifies.
It is about giving some tools that allow students to manage anxiety states. They also focus on the thoughts that accompany these situations, their origin is analyzed and the best way to control and modify them is sought.
Regarding the use of tranquilizers ,They will be effective in those situations where the techniques by themselves are not enough to manage this difficulty because the medication may temporarily solve the problem but not definitively,” recommends the GOE coordinator.
Organization in the study
Knowing what we can cover is essential. When we have to perform more tasks than we can really attend to, we develop a feeling of worry and anguish that negatively interferes with our ability to concentrate, which in turn aggravates our anxiety and we find ourselves immersed in a vicious circle in which it is difficult to get out. .
Therefore, being able to know what we can cover makes us calm , a factor that directly affects attention and therefore performance.
It is what in psychology is known as mindfulness, which is mindfulness or awareness (without distractors) in the present moment or what is the same as “living in the here and now .”
Other tips
Finally, it would be convenient to take into account certain basic aspects of daily life that will be essential to take care of. Among them, take into account.
1) Perform physical exercise as it is one of the best ways to find a state of “dynamism” by secreting endorphins and releasing tension.
2) Eat a healthy and balanced diet. If you eat something between meals, nuts are a good option since they contain slow-release sugars, which benefits concentration.
3) Be very careful with the use of stimulants such as caffeine as they lead us to a state of “nervousness and confusion” in which we are very activated but not with the ability to retain ideas and concepts.
4) We should not stop sleeping between seven or eight hours every night since rest is one of the best guarantees to achieve good concentration and a positive state of mind.