DOCTORS' ADVICE FOR STUDENTS AND PARENTS ON COPING EXAM PRESSURE

Parents play a role in reducing stress levels among kids by creating a good atmosphere

- VINCENT D'SOUZA @Mangaluru

WITH the exam season kicking in, children are increasingly finding it difficult to cope up with the pressure to perform well, leading to depression and anxiety. In the education hub of Mangaluru, three children even ran away from home in the last one month to escape the exam phobia.

Doctors dealing with such students say it's quite normal to feel a little anxious before exams, but it should not cross a threshold into being unmanageable as it can make them forget what they have learned, or have difficulty concentrating.

When that happens, it's no longer simply stress—it's exam anxiety, and it requires some intervention. "I've seen cases where stress, the regular stress, turns into something beyond anxiety, turns into something much more severe. Like the 17-year-old girl who came to see me only a week before her exams. She began to lose sleep, act strangely, hallucinate and become delusional. She was clearly stressed to the breaking point. We arranged for immediate psychiatric support, and she was treated until she was able to recover in time for her exams," said Dr Poonam Santhosh, consultant-psychiatry, KMC Hospital, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Circle.