I for one know the feeling of breaking up for summer, relaxing, not thinking about school and homework…until the last two weeks. The 6 weeks fly by!
I also know how hard it is for some people, to get used to their previous routine of getting up early, having a lot less time due to crazy amounts of coursework and just getting back to school altogether. For me, the last couple of weeks before school starts for the next year are filled with anxiety. This anxiety is hard to control, all you think about is the worst case scenarios – for example for me it is
- What if my grades go down
- What if I can’t keep up with work
- What if I don’t have people to go to prom with
- What if this year is filled with the amount of anxiety about lessons as last year
(These differentiate from person to person)
Tips for dealing with anxiety – in school and about going to lessons and school
- This is so much easier said than done, but to put it short, don’t overthink every situation. Go into school and your lessons with an open minded, positive attitude about the day/lesson. This will increase the likelihood of you getting more out of the day, and potentially helping your grades to shoot up!
- If there are any lessons that you feel particularly anxious in (about anything), then talk to the teacher/ your form tutor/ anyone who cares for you at school. I’m very lucky, at my school I have a great support system and without having spoken to them, my school life would be a lot harder.
- The next point to make is that mental health is so much more important than grades. If you are struggling with your mental health, please do not worry about your grades. At the end of the day, as long as you have a healthy mind, that is all that matters and all that your teachers and school want for you, as I have learned. If there is a Sunday where you’re feeling down and you can’t bring yourself to do your homework, relax for a couple of hours, watch Netflix/read a book/take a nap, do something you enjoy to pick up your mood so that you can do your work to the best of your abilities. I’m going to leave this point with you, from someone I have SO much respect for and who is an amazing person:
“I don’t give a shit about your grades, I care about you getting better”
- So this next one is more about your social life at school. I’ve had quite a difficult time at school – friends wise, in and out of friendship groups and now with two friends (we’re a group of three) who I’m happy with. This tip sounds very obvious and something typically, a parent would say on your first day of school … The tip is to smile and be friendly to those in your year. This gives off a very warm vibe to them, so they know you’re a friendly person and this will also help you to make new friends if you struggle (like I do). Even if you don’t feel good inside, sometimes it’s much easier to pretend, it helps, socially, even if you’re not that happy person all the time that your portray. Picture this, a girl walking down the corridor with hair over her face, hunched over, looking nervous/grumpy/sad – personally i wouldn’t be as inclined to make friends with her as I would be to, say a happy, smiley girl who always said hello. It’s much more difficult to do than say, but give it a try!
I hope that I have (hopefully, fingers crossed!) helped anyone reading this post with coping with anxiety at school. It’s such a difficult thing to live with, but if you train your mind and do things out of your comfort zone, it will get easier.
This was quite a long post, so I decided to stop at 4 tips, but if you want any more, (I have loads!) write a comment and I’ll post some more!
Thankyou so much for reading!
You can beat your anxiety💜
x x x
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