Clearing: How to handle the stress

Clearing time can elicit the most amazing stress reactions. Hayward Godwin discusses the problems and pitfalls and how to deal with it. Stress. It’s like the common cold. We all get it and we all hate it. Here is how it happen.
You get tested all your life. By and by, much of how your life turns out will depend on these tests. We are all victims of our own choices, and these choices tend to determine the course that our lives take. Picture this scenario: you open your envelope containing your A-level results and they are better than you hoped. All your dreams come true, etc.. End of story. Or: your results are nothing like what you expected. They are terrible. A monkey on a typewriter could have come up with better stuff than the drivel you produced. So what ? You choked. Life goes on. You will react now to this new stressor in a way that is unique to you and you alone. First we can look at you at the biological level. The first instant reaction you will experience is one of dread and falling. This is a standard fear response and involves the release of several hormones that trigger your fight and flight response. The point? That stress affects you on a number of levels - emotional, physical, biological and so on. One very good way that we can imagine stress is to think of the meaning of the word in physical terms. A structure that has, say, too much weight upon it can be said to be under stress. It is being asked to cope with a load that it can not really bear. Parts of the structure begin to bend and become too strained. What you therefore need to do is literally 'take a load off' your mind. Avoidance Most people like to avoid the problem as much as possible and try not to think about it (avoidance). This can work wonders. However, avoidance only really works by building a dam around the stress and not letting it enter your mind. When the stress becomes too great, you can't really stop thinking about what will happen: will you manage to get a place at another university? What will happen? Will the rest of your life come crashing down around your ears? Appraisal
Additionally, if you “appraise” something as being traumatic or terrible, then you will respond in a traumatic and terrible way. It’s that simple. If you try our avoidance strategy already discussed, then things will not go so badly. If, however, you rationalise and intellectualise the problem, then you are most likely to suffer the least. Deal with the problem in an un-emotional way (yes, it is difficult) and try to put things in perspective. Bear in mind that you could actually end up benefiting from the clearing process. A number of my friends didn't end up with the results they expected, but managed to 'jump the queue', ending up at better universities than they had hoped for because places has opened up elsewhere fore them! Realise that not doing too well in your exams is not the worst thing that will happen to you. Control Studies have also shown that having a sense of control over your problems results in you being able to cope with them more effectively.
Therefore you should really admit to yourself that, yes, maybe some things got in the way of you not putting 100% into your revision time. But at the end of the day, it was down to you. And you did not do as well as you wanted to. It may help for you to tell yourself, "OK, so I screwed up. But now I'm going to put things right." You can also: • Come up with a back-up plan - say to yourself that if you don't end up at the university that you want, then take a year out. • Work somewhere, or maybe travel. Expand your horizons a little (or even a lot!). • Plan it so that you could perhaps go back to college after your year out, or to night school during your extra year to get some extra qualifications. Again, I have known people who have taken this route. They found that they ended up in unexpected places, but these places were better than they had hoped for originally! Basically, if you do have a ”Plan B”, clearing stress won't matter, because you will already have it all figured out. On the flip-side of this, if you do manage to get a good place somewhere, you can ditch Plan B and celebrate! Other ways to deal Many people like to find their own little outlet for their problems. Physical exercise (as well as aggressive sports) can be very useful. Similarly, wishful thinking (imagining times that were in absence of the present stressor), social support (talking to your friends and family about what to do, as well as finding information such as this article) and distraction (going out and getting very drunk) can all play a part in how you cope during the difficult clearing time. At the end of the day, it’s down to you. Getting overly stressed is just not worth it. Why? Because research has shown that stress is incredibly damaging to your health. Stress can increase the chance of stomach ulcers and kidney disease, suppress your immune system and make you ill more often. You could develop tumours and cancerous cells. If you are 18-24, you are in the critical period for wrecking your heart and arteries through smoking, drinking, eating poorly, not having enough exercise. Stress only adds to the problems your coronary system will be experiencing and therefore make you even more likely to meet an early grave. As the poet John Donne put it, "I do nothing upon my self, and yet I am mine own executioner". So, in other words, try to relax.

Take control. Make a second plan for your future. Realise that as one door closes, ten more open. Don't execute yourself, because it is not worth it. There is a place out there for you, the hard part now Hayward Godwin has just finished his first year studying Psychology at Southampton University. He runs a student psychology website at www.psychwire.co.uk and is the PR Officer of the British Psychological Society's Student Member's Group.