ANXIETY

Recently my younger brother and I had to take an exam. It was our second last exam and we were sitting at the dining table and having our breakfast and revising for our respective subjects…That’s when my mother came in running and told us that we had both studied for the wrong exam!

“You have to be lying…I studied so hard for the exam. Ma, what do you mean we studied for the wrong exam? I won’t pass I cannot stay back a grade. It would be so embarrassing…But the exam syllabus said that we have history what do you mean we have chemistry?” I said trying to hold back my tears and nausea at the same time.

On the other hand…

“Really? YESSS….LESSGOOO! Ma, this is awesome …I won’t have to study the same subject again. I can just chill for tomorrow’s exam… I won’t have to worry at all.” Said my brother with a huge grin on his face.

“Are you CRAZY? What about today’s exam we both are doomed! I am already bad at chemistry even when I go prepared…going for an exam without preparation? I am definitely dying”

My mother couldn’t hold her laughter anymore and she burst out laughing and said that it was all a prank. My brother was really sad but I was relieved. That day I realized how different I and my brother are.

Additionally, I realized that my brother being in 5th grade had nothing to worry about. Whereas I on the other hand with my ‘teenage worries’ on how everything in the future could have been destroyed if I had failed the test or how I would be looked at by my peers was what mattered to me and I had an anxiety attack.

Anxiety is something that every teen faces in their lives or for that matter every human being at some point in their life. It is this fear and dread. You feel very uneasy when it happens. Your stomach starts to churn, your brain imagines all possible worse scenarios, and you feel as though your world is going to break down or you have sudden panic attacks. But either way, it isn’t a great feeling.

Something’s I do to help with these anxiety attacks (hopefully you find some of them helpful too):
-Listening to music
- taking deep breaths
-singing the lyrics of my favourite song no matter how bad I sound
- Lastly, hugging a loved one

Now that you read how my brother and I reacted. Which one of us do you think you would have reacted like?