How Can Anxiety Affect School Performance

We all experience anxiety.  Anxiety was developed as a result of our ancient ancestors being in life-or-death situations. It helped to keep them safe by either fleeing from danger or by choosing to stay and fight.

Now, though, it isn’t as useful as it was back then, but we still experience anxiety. And while anxiety can be useful at times, for the most part, it just makes life more difficult and challenging to deal with.

We often hear about adults experiencing anxiety. Leaving the impression that children, teens, or college kids just don’t go through it the same way. However, anxiety can affect anyone for any reason at all,

Anxiety can affect many different aspects of a young person’s life. From social connections, home life, and yes, even school. Here are a few of the main ways that anxiety can affect school performance.

Poor Grades Or Scores

This isn’t from a lack of trying or not being smart enough. Instead, anxiety can have an effect on someone’s ability to focus on the tasks at hand. Because they can’t concentrate on what they are learning, or worry too much about understanding the material, a student may not fully absorb what they are learning.

Procrastination

A hallmark sign of anxiety, at any age, is procrastinating. When we are so overwhelmed by a project, or task, we put it off.

I’ll deal with this later.

I’ll be able to focus on this later, I just don’t have the energy right now.

We all do this, but for students, this can really affect school performance. Waiting until the last minute, or worse, not doing something at all, can prevent a student from thriving in school. As we procrastinate on certain assignments, anxiety kicks it into high gear. Suddenly, there is a mountain of deadlines to deal with and you convince yourself there’s no way you can get it all done. Which just worsens your anxiety.

When a student, in particular, does this, it just creates a cycle of self-doubt and negative self-talk. Instead of believing in themselves and their capabilities, they are saying that they can’t do something constantly. Which only leads to feeling anxious about everything as they doubt their own self.

Lack Of Self-Care

There is no denying that performing well in school is really important. However, anxiety, when it affects school performance, trickles down to other areas of life as well. For students, this might look like not being able to take care of their personal hygiene as they are so overwhelmed by everything else going on.

But unwinding time is also important. Anxiety, for anyone, can prevent them from devoting time to hobbies or activities that help them de-stress. When students are so keyed up over performing well in school or not getting things done, they can’t bring themself to enjoy anything they used to. Because they are so focused on feeling anxious about their grades, deadlines, and what they have to get done.

Lack Of Social Connections

When you are in school, the focus tends to be all on academics. However, the time we spend in school or college is also an important time for forging social connections. But for a student suffering from anxiety, these social connections feel harder to make. It makes someone feel like they are being judged or laughed at no matter what they do. Anxiety convinces you that you aren’t worthy of having friends or that the ones you do have don’t really care for you.

How To Overcome Anxiety Over School Performance

Anxiety is one of the most common mental health issues, but it is also one of the most treatable conditions.

If you or your child may be developing anxiety, it’s important to begin taking steps to manage these symptoms so they don’t become out of control later in life.

Anxiety counseling can help combat anxious thoughts so educational performance and general life happiness can be better.