1. Assisting a Student with Anxiety
Presented by Sylvia Brown

2. Know What Anxiety Is
Anxiety, whether clinically consistent or circumstantial, is a crippling and overwhelming sense of fear, panic, and/or uneasiness.
According to the National Institute of Mental Health, anxiety often manifests through physical symptoms such as: tachycardia (racing heartrate), nausea, shortness of breath, dizziness, and restlessness.

3. The Different Types of Anxiety
Panic: People experiencing panic feel an abrupt and intense onset of extreme anxiety. This can even be mistaken for a heart attack.
Social Anxiety: This sort of anxiety is based on extreme self- consciousness and worry about rejection or humiliation.
Generalized Anxiety: A person with Generalized Anxiety Disorder will experience excessive worrying about seemingly insignificant issues. Often, anxiety will manifest just from anticipating anxiety (Anxiety and Depression Association of America).

4. Assisting a Person Experiencing a Panic Attack
Recognizing the symptoms
Knowing what to do

5. Scenario:
A student begins confiding about their plummeting grades. They emphasize that this essay they are revising is crucial to whether or not they pass the class. The more the student talks about their plummeting academic career, the faster they start breathing, the more they start sweating, and, soon enough, they become pale. Essentially, their body has gone into fight-flight-freeze response mode. They are having a panic attack. What do you do first?

6. Calm Breathing
When a person experiences any sort of panic or anxiety, the first system in their body to become symptomatic is their respiratory system. Often, they hyperventilate. Rapid breathing leads to dizziness, nausea, and even loss of consciousness, so it is most important to prioritize calm breathing.

7. A calm breathing exercise:
1. Inhale through the nose, slowly and steadily. Count "one- Mississippi, two-Mississippi, three-Mississippi, four-Mississippi" as the inhalation is ongoing.
2. Once inhalation is complete, hold the breath for one or two seconds before exhaling.
3. Slowly exhale through the mouth for the same amount of time inhalation took.
4. Lather, rinse, repeat.

8. Arousing Realistic Thinking
Often, a person experiences a panic attack once the worries and anxieties have overtaken their logical appeals. During a panic attack, a person predominantly experience deluded thinking regarding their physical well-being due to the actual panic attack. "I'm having a heart attack," or "I'm going to faint" are very common thoughts the person experiences.
The best way to combat this is reassurance and consistent breathing techniques.

9. Assisting a Person with Social/Generalized Anxiety
Assisting with any physical manifestations of anxiety
Creating objective goals

10. Scenario:
A student you are tutoring is very quiet and hesitant when asking for help. When questions are asked, hardly any answers are given. You ask the student if everything is alright, and they inform you they have anxiety to an extent where it was a chore to come into the tutoring center today. What different approaches do you use for this student?

11. Physical Manifestations of Social Anxiety
Often, anxiety can present itself in the same way panic appears.
Social anxiety can manifest through blushing, excessive sweating, nausea, rapid heartrate, dizziness, etc.
The symptoms can be combatted with deep breathing, hydration, and isolation (Anxiety and Depression Association of America).

12. Creating Objective Goals
Where social anxiety is prevalent, negative thoughts assist. It is natural for a person with social anxiety to not acknowledge their strengths, and instead, belittle their self.
Counter this thought process by having the student keep track of their progress by creating fair, doable goals.
For example: A student has trouble with group activity because they are too self-conscious to speak. A reasonable goal that could be set up for the student is making three comments through out their group activity. Remind the student feeling nervous while making these comments is okay and does not disqualify completion of this goal (Psych Central).

13. When is Anxiety an Emergency?
Anytime the person's safety is at risk, including:
Loss of consciousness
Hysteria
Expression of intent for self-harm/suicide
If the anxiety attack has become an emergency, call campus police, B.A.R.T., or the counseling center.

14. Resources to keep handy:
CSUB Public Safety:
Kern County Mental Health, Crisis Unit:
Good Samaritan Psychiatric Hospital:

15. Works Cited
"Anxiety Disorders." National Institute of Mental Health. May Web. 01 Mar Tartakovsky, Margarita. "6 Ways to Overcome Social Anxiety." Psych Central. Web. 02 Mar "Understanding the Facts." Anxiety and Depression Association of America, ADAA. Web. 01 Mar