Panic climbs at exam time

Updated on: Friday, February 25, 2011

Twenty years ago, if you told your mother before the board exams that you were suffering from a panic attack, you would get as much attention as if you had a stomach ache. Today, chances are you will be sent to a counsellor. With stress levels hitting the roof and exams driving kids up the wall, counsellors and psychiatrists are finding that up to thrice the number of students are reaching out for help than in previous years.

In an atmosphere where there is increased awareness about mental health, students are being brought in by parents or calling up on their own. This time last year, clinical psychologist Seema Hingorrany was counselling around three students a day. Now, she counsels six. “Also, I used to get four or five phone calls from students each day. I now get 12 to 15. On a given day, the number may even go up to 25,” said Hingorrany. “Students have even phoned me when they’re entering the exam hall to tell me they are blank,” added Hingorrany, who gets calls at night too. Hingorrany attributed the spike in calls to skyrocketing stress at exam time. “It’s as if students are going to fight a war,” she said.

Many say they will commit suicide if they fail their exams. “The fear of failing exams is amongst the most common anxieties for students calling our helpline,” said Hyacinth Pereira, senior vice president, Vandrevala Foundation, whose helpline has seen a 35 per cent increase in calls from students this year. “Many wonder how their friends and family would react to their failure.”

Pereira added, “We received around 18 calls a day during this time last year. The number has gone up to 28 to 30 calls a day.”

Psychiatrist Anjali Chhabria said, “I recently had a topper visit my clinic because she was suffering from severe anxiety before the Class X prelims. Soon, a whole bunch of her friends were seeking counselling too. Anxiety seems to have spread amongst students.”

Psychiatrist Harish Shetty, president of the Counsellor’s Association of India, attributed the trend to increased awareness about mental health. “Families and schools are more comfortable sending children to counsellors now,” said Shetty. This year he saw a threefold increase in calls from children. In addition, he sees at least five students a day.

Shetty has also found that, for an increasing number of students, financial woes add to the pressure. One student he was treating said his father had not paid the fees. Other students with financially struggling parents say that doing well in the exam is the only thing that can make their folks happy.

Maya Kirpalani, consultant psychologist and family therapist, said that with so many cases of student suicides, parents have begun taking children to counsellors because they fear the youngsters may harm themselves. “Somewhere along the line, I feel that parents are losing faith in their own intuition when it comes to rearing children,” she adds.

Aside from the usual cases, psychiatrist Nirmala Rao has treated an unusually high number of children who have been violent to their mothers before the exams. “These instances are from middle-class families, which are believed to have strong values,” said Rao.

Panic climbs at exam time

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