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Treasure Oludaisi, Low Entropy Volunteer Writer

Anxiety in and of itself can be debilitating, but what happens when the sole cause of it is a fundamental part of your chosen career path? Academia is an essential part of most people’s day-to-day lives and can leave many with the unsettling feeling of intense nerves. Academic anxiety is a performance anxiety related to educational settings that can be a cumulation of many sources; whether that may be social, trauma, or just feeling the pressures of overachieving, it can create a hindrance on your potential and overall success, which could inevitably lead to further anxiety and other mental health struggles. Such anxieties are common amongst students at various educational levels.

What Causes Academic Anxiety?

Pressure to perform seemingly high-stakes testing, coupled with the academic workload, makes for the perfect anxiety cocktail. Inevitably, students start to subconsciously or consciously associate these feelings with the academic institutions and or the accompanying degree/program. This leads to social effects, such as students feeling the pressure of their fears, negative judgment and competitive environments that often create learning difficulties aggravated by anxiety. This establishes quite a negative cycle, especially in a young impressionable mind. Such feelings can be incredibly daunting and can cause isolation. 

How Can It Show Up?

Anxiety is personalized. It shows up differently in everyone, depending on their age, gender identification and ethnicity. In most cases, alongside its mental attributes, anxiety presents itself physically as difficulty concentrating, irritability, nausea and shaking to name a few. Oftentimes it appears when dealing with things that cause great stress. Many with academic backgrounds can attest to the stress of situations like a presentation or an exam. Naturally, such situations cause difficulties concentrating and memory problems, which may lead to avoidance of academic tasks and decreased participation. All of this can cause long-term effects that impact academic performance and eventually self-esteem.

Moving Forward

It is important we prioritize our career and academic goals, especially regarding things we are passionate about, but it is easy to place our success in those areas as the be all and end all of our lives, subsequently basing our inherent value on what we can academically achieve. This creates a burden, a cap in a sense, on when and how we are able to learn. You cannot learn without failure. Academic anxiety causes an enormous dread of that failure and an inclination to avoid it. This usually leads to a cycle of stress, anxiety and depression. Such a reality begs the question of what to do next. Thoughts like “I need to do well to get into this program” and “I have expectations I have to meet,” give power to the anxiety. It is imperative you understand your self-worth is not tied to your academic achievements, regardless of what you may have been led to believe. Do not allow this anxiety to break you. Every new day is a blessing to keep pushing forward and trying again.

Unfortunately, professional assistance, such as counselling and therapy, are often not easily accessible for everyone. With that, it is essential when dealing with any form of anxiety to find a system that works for you.

When noticing these attributes and/or characteristics in someone that you know, it is important to encourage them to take time outside their academic pursuits to find passion in things that excite them. Remind them that the person they are and qualities they possess hold value outside of the academic and professional workspace.

Conclusion

Academic anxiety, like most mental health issues, is a prevalent and layered issue that affects students at various educational levels, driven by pressures to perform and the heavy academic workload. This kind of anxiety can display itself through physical and mental symptoms, creating a vicious cycle that dampens academic performance and self-esteem. Separating your self-worth from academic success can help ease some of the pressures that contribute to this anxiety. Encouraging students to engage in activities they are passionate about outside of academics can also help mitigate it. Although professional assistance like counselling and therapy may not be accessible to everyone, finding a personal coping mechanism is essential. By understanding that failure is a part of learning and that academic performance does not determine one’s human value, students can begin to break the cycle of anxiety and move forward with a healthier mindset. 

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Treasure Oludaisi is currently studying Law full-time, in her free time she utilizes her academic background in English Literature and passion for art to write poetry and short stories.