Academic and Exam Stress: When the Pressure Becomes Something More

Generally we understand that some degree of stress around academic performance makes sense, and that within limits (such as approaching exams or assessments) it can be useful. A moderate degree of stress can sharpen our attention, motivate us to study and revise, and reminds us that what we are navigating through is important.

The difficulty arises when that stress becomes: disproportionate to the situation; chronic rather than temporary; or when it begins to affect not just our academic performance but the broader quality of our daily lives as well.

 

What academic stress can look like

Academic stress manifests differently in different people. For some of us it presents primarily as anxiety: racing thoughts, difficulty concentrating, or catastrophising about outcomes that have not yet occurred. In others it presents more as avoidance: an inability to begin work, or procrastination that looks like laziness but is more accurately understood as a paralysis produced by fear. In others still, academic stress produces physical symptoms like disrupted sleep, headaches, digestive upset, or a general sense of physical depletion that makes studying harder still.

For young people in particular, academic pressure can also become entangled with questions about identity and self-worth. When performance has become the primary measure of our value (as it does in many high-achieving families and school environments), the stakes of any given exam extend well beyond the exam or test result itself. Failing (or the fear of failing) becomes a threat to our academic performance, our self-esteem and self-worth, and could also be perceived to impact personal, parental or family reputation too.

 

When it is more than stress

When academic stress become chronic, or when it significantly affects functioning beyond one's studies (e.g. relationships, sleep, mood, physical health), something more than practical study strategies alone may be required.

In some situations, academic stress might be the manifestation of broader anxiety that has chosen academic performance as its primary focus. It might be the pressure of living up to expectations (our parents', the wide family’s, society’s, or our own) that no longer connect to what we actually want. Or it might be that a young person has been performing at a very high level for a very long time without rest or adequate acknowledgement of what this might have cost.

What therapy can offer

Therapy for academic stress is not primarily about study skills or performance strategies (although practical support has its place). Here, therapy is also about understanding what academic pressure is actually about: where it comes from, what it is protecting, and what would need to change for learning or examinations to feel less threatening. For young people especially, therapy can also offer a rare space in which performance is not the main focus and being genuinely heard is the point. Therapy can help students to acknolwedge and work through the accumulated exhaustion of the academic pressure and expectations.

It may be that family therapy (for example, parents and their children attending sessions together) could be a helpful way to proceed. This can allow unspoken conversations (about a young person’s inner world, the origins and impact of expectations, or pressures within the extended family, school, or community) to surface in a safe and understanding way.

If you are a student (or the parent of one) and you have noticed that the pressure that you (or your child) may be under has stopped feeling manageable, therapy might be beneficial.

Dr Erin Reid is a counselling psychologist offering online therapy to individuals, couples, adolescents, and families across the UK and internationally, and 'Walk and Talk' therapy in Northwest London green spaces. Visit drerinreid.com to find out more.