Anxiety from exam pressures are new front for mental health charity Richmond Foundation

Anxiety due to exams has placed enormous pressure on teenagers to perform well for high grades, with the Richmond Foundation’s online mental health service Olli-Chat receiving quite a few students reaching out for support.

Students ranging from secondary school ages to university have felt a greater pressure to perform, and found it harder to study, under the conditions created by the COVID-19 pandemic.

A spokesperson for the mental health charity said even parents and relatives are calling on the Foundation, concerned about changes in their adolescents.   

“This is an added burden of feeling isolated and lonely – and some have said they struggle with maintaining their normal levels of productivity and struggling to keep up with usual tasks such as assessments and homework. They also said they struggle with not having proper interactions.”

The World Health Organisation’s 2018 study Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) found the highest prevalence of school work pressure in 15-year-old girls in Malta with 80%, with boys registering at 62%.

The Richmond Foundation said the concerns it has had to deal with were on anxiety, loneliness, symptoms of depression, lack of motivation and lack of energy to do things.

“In those cases, the foundation tries to work with the caller to see ways they can help them connect with others, help build a social network, and find things that can help motivate them despite the present circumstances,” the spokesperson said.

But the foundation said calls regarding exam pressure are still relatively new. “It is customary to be anxious about a test or exam and in certain circumstances, it could help because it forces us to prepare and motivates us to study.”

But this can also cross over into unhealthy territory, stopping adolescents and young adults from doing normal things in their lives.  “If the range of anxiety being experienced is out of the ordinary, and they are above the average you would normally experience during an exam; they should speak to someone to see if they need more support.”

“We usually shy away from giving generic advice because people need different things. Basic things would be like getting enough sleep, getting a good variety of nutrients. And that we’re doing a little bit of exercise daily. I would encourage people to speak to us, and then we can work with them and guide them on what’s best for their particular situation,” the foundation’s spokesperson said.

The Foundation said parents must also listen to what their children need and not simply ‘assume’, or even add pressure.

“Sometimes parents can be anxious that their child won’t do well in exams, or that they won’t get into university, and sometimes they project those anxieties onto their children. It is important that our kids feel loved no matter what, no matter how they do in the exams and that we encourage them and support them in the way they need to be supported,” the Foundation said.

Parents should be having these conversations with their children, asking them what they need and building those relationships. “We tend to bombard our kids, and the added pressure makes them very emotional; that’s not helpful for them.”

The Richmond Foundation reminds anybody needing information about mental health or wanting to talk to someone about anything on their mind can go to https://olli.chat/ or call 1770.  Attention, if you are aware that someone is in immediate danger of performing suicide, please call 112 and not any other helpline.