• Question: @all why can some stuff get stuck in our head and why can they turn into a worry and make us panic like say if you had a test why do we start to rush and not read questions properly

    Asked by anon-188660 to Pizza Ka Yee, Paul, Nadine, Alex on 15 Nov 2018.
    • Photo: Paul Matusz

      Paul Matusz answered on 15 Nov 2018:

      Hi XBigBoyThomsonX ,

      Great question. The simple answer is – your body needs a bit of stress to focus on the important task that you’re doing – such as reading questions and thinking of the answers. But at times, if you don’t feel ready – maybe because you didn’t study enough, maybe because you are the type of person that generally doesn’t feel self-confident – you activate the stress system too much, and that makes you shake and not be able to focus (anymore, a bit of stress is good for focusing). So one successful way of coping with the panic – as it’s hard to change your level of self-confidence – make sure to prepare well for tests. It helped me when I was a student – I couldn’t cope with the stress of being ill-prepared! Hope this helps 🙂

    • Photo: Nadine Mirza

      Nadine Mirza answered on 16 Nov 2018:

      Hey XBigBoyThomsonX!
      I think one of the reasons is definitely what Paul said which is that it’s the stress response- so it’s basically producing adrenaline to kick start your body into making it active and alert again but you end up with too much and it turns into a state of panic.
      Another reason also lies in the fact that it might just be how our brain is wired. Essentially, if we go all the way back to cavemen, thinking negatively and worrying could be the difference between life and death for those dudes. Is a giant toothed big cat going to eat me, if my cave mate gonna club me in my sleep, will I freeze to death if I don’t rent a cave out soon- stuff like that. Stress, worrying and negativity was a means for surviving.
      Across the millenia and then in the last few centuries, we’ve made the world more comfortable and relatively safer for ourselves- no big cat is gonna burst into our homes and eat us. But out brains still have the sort of underlying wiring of our ancestors so all that panicking is your brain’s outdated way of trying to protect you by “making a plan” through worrying and preparing for the worst. Ironically, your brain protecting itself in this way is the things that ends up causing more damage. It basically hasn’t upgraded to the next best version of itself yet.
      Paul gave the good suggestion that best way to avoid this feeling is to be well-prepared so basically your brain wouldn’t have to charge in cause you already have a plan. In moments of panic try deep breathing (inhale through the nose, exhale through the mouth 10-20 times) to help you trick your body into slowing back down!

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