Saturday, June 07, 2008

T.E.S.D

Traumatic Exam Stress Disorder - TESD , is not a listed disorder in the DSM 5 (lists disorders according to psychologists) however due to personal experience and through intensive tests and study i am creating this category of traumatic disorders.

You may ask.. what authority do i have to create my own disorder ? Well to be honest I have absolutely no authority to make such a claim, infact a band of travel gypsies would have more authority than me.... but hey if a black man can run for the presidency of the united states of America then anything is possible.

Each and every person that has done some sort of studying in any sort of educational institution has experienced some sort of stress due to exams. Whether pre or post exam stress affects us or has affected us all and at times has caused a poor correlation between our ability to apply our knowledge and our ability to reproduce. a set of facts verbatim (parrot fashion). Ok this could also be due to a students natural tendency to study last minute but thats besides the point.


My exams have just ended and i have certainly have felt the effects of TESD. I wrote 4 papers in 3days (the first time this has happened to me) and I had to summon strength which i I didnt know I had. Unfortunately my appearance and general disposition is not the best during the exam period and this is a major symptom of TESD. Crankiness, lack of social interaction, red eyes, communicating by a series of grunts and clicks (ok over exaggeration on my part... maybe just mono syllablistic responses) and the worst.. lack of sleep. A combination of these and other symptoms makes me look and feel less human and more like one of george romero's undead friends. (zombies for those of you who dont know who george romero is).


The good thing is that once its over there is absolutely nothing you can do about the result and you have to leave it in the hands of the Almighty, ofcourse the stress and the anxiety is still yours to deal with.


The question still remains is how to deal with the stress ? Any ideas


Shadows and dust
The Lone Writer

8 comments:

Prixie said...

chocolate cures all ills. ;p

oooh exams...i dont miss that all.

Nooj said...

yeah this is the first year since grade 3 that i haven't written and it's the tuffest feeling ever. I used to go crazy the night after my last exam with all the pent up anxiety and stress. I'd pack my cupboards and bake and watch tv until pure exhaustion and relief took over. hey atleats celebrate it being over before u worry about results:)

Khadija said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Khadija said...

If it's death and taxes that are inevitable, and students manage to dodge the sickle of the taxman, through a tangible lack of a financial income, then, exams are the tax on the income that is education.

Saaleha Idrees Bamjee said...

Things I do to de-stress: play carpal-tunnel threatening amounts of free-cell and solitaire, listen to good music and try to isolate each instrument in the composition, cook, read.
Hope one of these works for you.

bb_aisha said...

i don't consciously stress about exams. but i always focus on the positive-dreaming of a great outcome. stay calm-that always works

hope you're enjoying the holiday & good luck with results

Salma said...

Knock knock....SURPRISE,I'm back!
Oh, it has been ages since i last commented here!
Really miss the blogsphere :)
Congrats on ending the exams :)
LOL on the part relevant to the authority :))
Actually,I've been through all the symptoms you've mentioned. The problem is that even after exams, stress is still there! I still suffer from sleeping disorders, and don't know either how to deal with it, so please if anything worked with you to eliminate stress just let me know -away from yoga- :))

Will make duaa's for you :)

Tazeen said...

I am so happy that I am done with exams, that was the only part I hated about exams and used to get severe stomach cramps before exams