Back to school

So here we are again, at the start of a new academic year. For many a source of much excitement and for others a source of much anxiety. To those of you starting new schools, I hope all goes well, I’m delighted to have been able to help a significant group of children to be starting at their preferred school this month.

I’ve been looking at anxiety a lot recently, as it has reared its ugly head in our household and is significantly impacting life experiences both socially and academically.  It is generally treated as a mental health challenge, however, when you think about it, this isn’t the case.  Anxiety is a physiological response to a perceived threat and stems from our caveman ancestors, and the limbic system, especially the amygdala, sometimes referred to as the “old brain” which regulates basic survival functions. 

The limbic brain fires before the cerebrum or “thinking brain” can intercept messages.  So for many people therapies that require them to ‘think differently’ about the specific situation don’t help, because the fight, flight or freeze response triggered by the limbic system has already taken over.  Coupled with this the fact that anxiety is a state of high arousal, anything which tries to ‘calm’ is often unsuccessful.

Anxiety produces physical symptoms, such as a strong, fast or irregular heartbeat, muscle aches and tension, shortness of breath, sweating and often a need to empty our bowels.  It’s much easier to run or fight if we aren’t worried about the contents of our last meal! 

There is evidence that the physical symptoms of anxiety are the same as those of excitement.  Physiologically they are almost the same, the main difference is that in the case of anxiety there is also the presence of fear, whereas excitement is associated with a feeling of optimism.  Rather than trying to ‘calm down’ when anxious, it can be more successful to reframe anxiety as excitement by self-talk (saying “I am excited” or “get excited”), as this can create an opportunity mindset and improve performance.

There have now been several studies in this area.  Singing is often used as an anxiety-inducing event, and participants are asked to sing a familiar song via Karaoke.  In one study from 2013, before singing they were asked at random to say out loud “I am [excited] [angry] [sad] [anxious] [calm] or make no statement.  Those who said “I am excited” sang with 80.52% accuracy compared to 50.98% for the “I am anxious group” with the no statement group scoring 69.27%.[i]  It’s a bit like holding a pencil between your teeth ticks your brain into thinking you’re smiling and so you feel happier.

The challenge many young children face is that they don’t always notice the physical changes in their bodies.  To that end, advents in new technology such as bio-feedback are now filling the gap.  I have written previously about mightier – a programme which aims to build muscle memory around bringing the heart rate under control through breathing and other strategies. 

For those transitioning from primary school to secondary school, you might like to take a look at this visual shared by Professor Amanda Kirby https://twitter.com/profamandakirby/status/1432706741624508419/photo/1

I wish you a very exciting start to the new academic year.

[i] Brooks, A. W. (2014). Get excited: Reappraising pre-performance anxiety as excitement. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 143(3), 1144–1158