My G.A.D is taking over

Castiela · Sep 15, 2017

Do you know how you study and retain information best? Is it from writing, listening, doodling, trading, all the above? And for the exam, did you study the wrong materials, read questions wrong, got so anxious your mind blanked out etc?

Knowing the answer to those questions might help you study smarter. I've had gad for ages and these are some of the things that helped me in school

1- do things asap, don't procrastinate, and alternate between projects/ studying/ subjects to keep your mind fresh

2- focus on the large picture Rather than nitty gritty details

3- schedule time to take care of yourself and get adequate sleep. Socializing during break might be good for you to get your mind out of the funk of school

4- go to instructor office hours of you are unsure about concepts (ie IV drips)

5- don't focus on the worst case scenario. Try to remain in the present. I like counting 5 things I can feel, hear, see, smell etc to bring me back to the moment. One moment is enough to worry about without all the "what ifs"

6- exams will often have more than one right answer, the key is to go with the most right answer. Stick with your gut instinct unless you can prove it wrong otherwise.

Hopefully this helps a bit. Best of luck

oceanblue52 · Sep 16, 2017

Please take care of yourself. Do you see a therapist and/or doctor for managing your anxiety and depression? It is better to stay on top of these types of things rather than go unchecked. What kind of coping techniques have you used in the past to manage anxiety and mood? If you are needing to talk to someone, you could also try your health and wellness center.

Some other tips to recommend:

-get a planner if you don't already have one, and pick one that breaks the day down by the hour. Block off time for studying, and also self-care. Sometimes visualizing your day can help things seem less overwhelming. I always recommend paper planners over electronic management, because you can flip back and forth between weeks, and cross off things when you complete them.

-some people will probably disagree with me...but I think it is counter productive to do ALL the reading for class. Reading multiple chapters is time consuming and takes away from review. High school does a disservice by teaching students to highlight. It makes you focus on little details, and miss the big picture. When I was in school, I used to skim the text before class for general concepts, pay very close attention in lecture, and then go back and read concepts I didn't understand more carefully. Trying to read and meticulously take notes for all of your textbooks is a lesson in futility. If you have good teachers they will highlight the most important points in lecture. Star essential concepts when your teachers talk about them and focus your studies from that. I also second doing a self assessment in your learning style. Do you learn best by reading? Watching videos? Listening to lectures? Writing out important concepts? What has worked for you in the past?

-do you have a classmate you can commiserate with? I never did well with group studying, but even small talk with your seat mates can help manage anxiety. This might be challenging tho if your GAD extends to social settings

-IV drips are confusing, and it takes practice to learn how to extrapolate info from questions. Thankfully, there are a limited number of calculations that you will use, and it gets easier with practice. I'd be happy to try and help over PM. There are different ways to solve a problem, and some ways click better than others for people

-This is obvious, but make sure you are managing your sleep, eating good food, avoiding screen time late at night, etc. Feeling good physically is really important to maintaining your mental health

-for Pharm, there are some good study resources that offer mnemonics and group the meds by class so you are not trying to memorize details about every little drug. I used a little spiral book by Mosby that had lots of cartoons and simplified the info. The costs of these extra study guides add up, but is worth it if you can get some piece of mind

-Finally, please stop beating yourself up about a bad test score. Nursing school is notoriously hard, and it takes awhile to get used to the tests. Can you go to office hours and review what you missed? Talk with your professor and see what they advise. The vast majority WANT you to succeed and will do what they can to help. Several of us nurses have had lousy test scores, and managed to get our license. Getting a "D" can be ego deflating, but it is possible to improve. Please do not get discouraged.

I wish you the best. Would be happy to explain dosage calc over PM, it's really only learning a few formulas and then plugging in numbers. Maybe I will ask about submitting an article on this in the future since so many students have difficulty.

cjprenurse · Sep 16, 2017

I am deathly afraid of being kicked out. I used to be an A/B student and got all A's and B's in my pre-req. Then this happened and I surely don't want to fail nursing school. I write on the test and cross out the questions I see wrong. I think I'm just a really bad test taker in general because i know the material.

And prioritizing. That's an issue. I have a skills quiz monday, and the week after I have fundamentals and a pharm test.

Shawn91111 · Sep 17, 2017

I have struggled with GAD for the last year. Never had before, and have been through a lot of different medications, and other approaches to finding a way to reduce or get rid of the anxiety, and nothing has really help. I'm having it right now as I type, but something I push through. I try to break down, and prioritize everything, setting mini goals to focus on rather than something large