ANXIETY

Anxiety is, essentially, intense fear or worry about the future, because you do not feel in control of the present. Anxiety is a response to stress since stress is defined as trying to control too many things all at once, trying to do so with the utmost quality. The keyword here is control.

Students in particular are in an environment with much more exposure to stress and anxiety due to constantly being tested and asked to achieve. Some issues facing college students include: fear or stress from poverty, fear of criticism, fear of falling ill, fear of lost love or rejection, and fear of failure or not being good enough. Since anything you repeat to yourself becomes stronger, anxiety keeps growing stronger and stronger by the day due to repetition.

Anxiety treatment and alternative treatments like hypnotherapy can you break the cycle of anxiety. If you’re a student in Winter Park and Lake Nona suffering from anxiety to the point where it’s affecting your grades, then it’s time to contact Revibe Therapy today.

TYPES OF ANXIETY AFFECTING COLLEGE STUDENTS

TEST ANXIETY

Test anxiety is one of the most common types of anxiety that has cognitive, emotional, and physical manifestations. Symptoms of test anxiety fall into these three categories:

• Cognitive issues – running thoughts or overthinking, comparing self to others, lack of focus, blanking out, and memories or thoughts of previous failures.
• Emotional Dysregulation – stress, anxiety, frustration, hopelessness, anger, guilt, disappointment, and fluctuating self-esteem.
• Physical Symptoms (Psychosomatic) – nausea, increased heart rate, sweating, shallow breathing or shortness of breath, headache, dizziness, dry mouth, and tense muscles.

There are many ways to help yourself calm down before a test, including breathing or tapping exercises. Anxiety therapy and medical intervention are always an option, and, remember, you don’t have to do it alone! Know, too, that Revibe Therapy is here for you as well.

FEAR OF FAILURE

Anxiety caused by a fear of failure keeps students from studying and preparing properly. You can get so caught up in your fear that you end up making mistakes as you prepare. When you are able to decrease anxiety through anxiety treatment like hypnotherapy at Revibe Therapy in Winter Park and Lake Nona, you increase the probability of success. One practical suggestion we have for you is to find a way to make your own practice tests or have someone you trust compose one as you get evaluated.

FEAR OF SUCCESS

This type of anxiety is the opposite of the fear of failure and pertains to a subconscious hesitation to reach your goal due to fear of changing yourself in this process. The journey to success does have an impact on you, but many of us forget about that impact once we get to our goal.

For example: Sarah is a 24-year-old post-graduate student who has never had good discipline to study, but on her state exam she goes to the other extreme, staying away from parties, getting 8 hours of sleep, meditating in the morning, eating nutritious food, keeping her phone on vibrate and only checking it every 2 hours, all while studying 8 hours a day. Then, once she gets to her exam and passes it with flying colors, she abandons this whole sequence and returns to her daily habits of partying, inconsistent sleep, skipping morning meditation, screen distractions, and procrastination. She is afraid of her own success and what it might mean to continue to build those healthy habits, and thus reverts to her old ways.

FEAR OF BEING ALONE

Even though you might realize on a conscious level that you are not alone, this is only five percent of your mind and you need to reinforce the other 95 percent. None of us can control our subconscious, but we can only influence it, through present moment communication (Hypnosis), or repetition of thought, emotions, and behavior.

Go listen to stories of other students of when things did not go well and what they have done to handle their endeavors. This will help you realize that you are more than just a test score and that you are human, who sometimes makes mistakes. This places you in a good position to motivate yourself and keep your pace, allowing you to prepare for success.

OVERTHINKING

Everyone who is under stress and anxiety can easily start having automatic thoughts filling their mind. In psychology, we call this type of thought pattern rumination. Many of these thoughts like to call attention to themselves and have a tendency to assume the worst is about to happen. Know that this is just a defense mechanism to a possible upcoming threat, like your exam, but we do not have to rely on this type of defense.

Instead, using skills learned in anxiety treatment, let’s focus on the fact that you are not your mind. Take about 15 minutes each day to simply sit quietly and watch these thoughts as you focus on diaphragmatic breathing, a type of anxiety therapy. This is a conscious way to communicate to the subconscious that there is no real threat, and as you do this, you become the observer as you watch these thoughts dissipate into the background.

SITTING DOWN A LOT

Sitting down too much and too long (such as when you study) is a problem for our physiology. Humans were not designed for such a sedentary lifestyle, and this harms your body’s circulation by limiting the amount of oxygen and glucose transportation to your brain, body extremities, and joints. Standing still for a long time also increases your risk for injury for when you are active or exercising.

You only have a certain amount of energy available to you, based on your nutrition and amount of sleep, but if you are not using that energy by using your legs, core, hands and feet, guess where that energy will get utilized? In you head. People with more sedentary lifestyles are more at risk of thought rumination and overthinking, which leads to anxiety. Hypnotherapy at Revibe Therapy in Winter Park and Lake Nona can help you shift those patterns of thought. Contact us today to learn more.

MICRO MANAGEMENT

Being told what to do by the teachers while sitting down in class, then studying by following the chapters they’ve outline for you can be frustrating. All of this work can also take time away from socializing or exercising, both things that help reduce anxiety. You may feel like you need to spend all your time studying, but not being able to take proper breaks can be overwhelming to your CNS (central nervous system) causing fatigue, exhaustion, overthinking, and lack of motivation/willpower.

For this reason, it is very important to allow your CNS to partly recover by going out for a 20 minute walk or lunch out in the outdoors if possible, breathing fresh oxygen and enjoying a large amount of space. Hypnotherapy can also be a way of letting your CNS to recover.

Here at Revibe Therapy, we’ve seen the results that this alternative treatment can have on students suffering from anxiety. Let us help you find relief. Contact us today to schedule an appointment for anxiety treatment.