Stress put to the test

New work on anxiety and depression is bearing fruit, writes Wendy Champagne.

As the clock ticks down to any NSW school students' final rite of passage - the HSC - research shows that final exams are overwhelmingly the most stressful experience in the life of a teenager.

HSC student Marina* is one of many students who has found it hard to cope with the stress: "I have been preparing for them for so long and now they are finally here and I can't escape it. I shouldn't be stressed but l still am."

Dr Gary Galambos, consultant psychiatrist and visiting medical officer at the non-profit St John of God group, says: "Students and their families get swept up into the whole seriousness of it all until it becomes this huge, dominating experience."

Two out of five teenagers surveyed believed the exams would affect the rest of their lives. That's a very powerful perspective," says Galambos. "It reflects the size of the stress for
them at their age."

There is significant anecdotal evidence, he says, to suggest burnout in a large number of students, as well as sleeplessness, suicidal ideas and anxiety. 

"For a lot of students suffering depression, it is anxiety-related," says Galambos. "They are
overwhelmed and fall into a rut. 

"You have to take that really seriously in a student population, because the risk of suicide in teenagers is very high in Australia." 

Whatever the trigger, anxiety and depression may affect as much as 20 percent of Australia's teenage population. "This is a major problem," says Dr Sarah Edelman of the Health Psychology Unit at the University of Technology, Sydney, which is run by Dr Antony Kidman. "But there are very good arguments to suggest that if you 

Remond is running Taking Charge programs at schools and institutions around Sydney, including Dulwich Hill High School and the Exodus Foundation in Ashfield. A big focus has been General Certificate of Vocational Education TAFE courses, which give "casualties" of the school system an alternative year 10 program.

"We're trying to teach them to look at situations more realistically," says Remond. "What we say is, when you experience negative emotions that are out of proportion to the situation or really holding you back, you can make a choice about how to manage them." 

Unless stronger intervention is needed, Galambos's advice to stressed and anxious students is very practical: exercise, improve your diet, sleep, meditate, do visualisations, socialise, learn to work more systematically and try to apply a problem-solvlng approach to the task of studying.
*Names have been changed. 

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Page last updated: 28 December 2005