More and more adolescents suffer from performance anxiety. Poor self-confidence often lies at the basis of performance anxiety. Luckily, performance anxiety is often easy and quickly treated. That is what the online self-help program has experienced with students and youths who follow the online program 15 Minutes 4 Me.

Sensibility campaign by Klasse: Performance anxiety in education

The magazine Klasse starts a campaign for adolescents in education to increase sensibility regarding the issue of performance anxiety. By making performance anxiety something which can be talked about, adolescents or their parents will find it easier to find their way to help or prevention.

Performance anxiety caused by poor self-confidence

Most adolescents who are bothered by performance anxiety also have issues with poor self-confidence. Social expectations and social pressure each play a role in this. Still, modern psychology has developed very simple techniques with which adolescents can improve their self-esteem. We notice that adolescents who follow the online self-help program 15 Minutes 4 Me notice an increase in confidence after just two weeks. They also experienced an increased satisfaction with life in general. This new zest of life helps them fight performance anxiety more easily.

Exam anxiety is a special type of performance anxiety

In the case of adolescents, the most common type of performance anxiety is exam anxiety. To take control of exam anxiety, it is recommended that adolescents find help at least a month before their exams start, or that they use an online self-help program like 15 Minutes 4 Me for at least the same amount of time.

Performance anxiety is a specific type of stress and general anxiety

What we notice in adolescents and students with performance anxiety, is that most of them also experience increased levels of tension and that they often respond to other situations in a more anxious way than the average adolescent does. This is another reason why the online self-help program 15 Minutes 4 Me deals with reducing general stress in adolescents and to deal with their underlying anxiety, instead of only focusing on performance anxiety.

Performance anxiety: treating it online with online self-help

The results of online self-help are hopeful. Our study shows that adolescents who followed online self-help experienced 27% less stress on average, which increased to 37% after 2 weeks, 54% after 3 weeks, and after 5 weeks there was 77% less stress present than before getting started. Except for this reduction in stress, the specific anxiety-fighting exercises they learn help them to stop the worrying thoughts which trigger their anxiety in less than 2 minutes' time. This of course only goes for those who practise for fifteen minutes each day.

Performance anxiety: testing it with a free self-test for stress and performance anxiety

Do you want to know if you suffer performance anxiety? Then do our free self-test now, where both your anxiety and your underlying stress can be measured!

Paul Koeck, MD