Dealing with Anxiety: It’s Not About Your Self-Confidence

    Last week I led a workshop for 國三students on how to deal with test anxiety. From a counseling perspective, effectively handling test anxiety consists of identifying triggers and training the body and mind to respond to them.  Thus, I asked students to name the negative thoughts, feelings, and physical responses that occurred when they sat down to take an important test.  Students reported feeling nervous and worried with their body sometimes feeling too hot or too cold, their hearts racing, and the urge to pick at their fingernails.  They mentioned negative thoughts such as “Other students are smarter or faster than me,”  “What if I fail?” and “I just want to be done with the test and do other things.”  All of these triggers work together to flood the body and brain so that students freeze, forget what they studied, or even sometimes give up.

    To respond to these triggers, counseling suggests using techniques from cognitive-behavioral therapy and positive psychology.  First, to calm the body, students can use deep breathing, tensing and relaxing their muscles, or even quick exercise before the test to release the build-up of adrenaline in the body.  Second they practice accepting the reality of the test, meaning that there will be stress, some questions they don’t know and some things they won’t remember.  Lastly, they should practice changing negative thoughts to positive statements such as “I can do it,” “I have prepared for this test,” and “These feelings and worries are normal.” 

    As parents, we all want our kids to have an inner voice that tells them these positive statements and gives them confidence to face different challenges.  But as I led the workshop, I realized these types of statements are not rooted in God or His word.  They are part of God’s general grace given to all people because He has wired our brains so that by thinking positively about ourselves, we can reduce anxiety and boost confidence.  But as Christians, we have something that goes beyond self-confidence and positive thinking.  I asked the students as Christians what statements could they say in the midst of test anxiety based on their faith.  One girl immediately responded, “God is with me.”  Another student spoke up, “No matter what, I have Jesus.”  A third added, “When I am in the middle of trouble and suffering, God is there to comfort me.” 

    The students’ faith focused on God’s presence, comfort and salvation rather than thinking God would help them succeed.  Society and even counseling tends to focus on self-actualization, but a God-centered worldview sees finding our true self in Christ and his cross, not in our own strength or abilities.   At the end of the session, each student wrote down the possible outcomes of the exam, good and bad, and laid them on the Bible to show that all of the test is in God’s hands.  It reminded me that as I pray for them, my focus should be on their faith and experience of God in this trial as opposed to asking God to give them a good outcome because His presence and salvation secure them to walk along any path He leads them on.