Revision addicts
Is your child studying obsessively?
‘Iwake up at 6.30am and revise until 7.30pm,” explains Alexa. “I take an hour’s break in the middle where I go for a run and have a shower. It’s an intense routine and it’s been my life for more than a month now, but the thought of taking a day off makes me feel stressed. I have little panic attacks if I feel I’m not doing enough.”
Alexa, 26, is studying for a law conversion degree. She sailed through her GCSEs with 10 A*s, then achieved four As at A-level, and went on to get a first-class degree from Nottingham University. After working as a researcher for a few years, she is now retraining as a lawyer, and has found that her addiction to revision is as strong as it was during her school years.
She refused to celebrate her birthday last month, as it fell during her revision time, and has only taken two evenings off in the past three weeks. “Most of my stress comes from putting pressure on myself,” she admits. “But if I don’t revise so much, I might end up having a breakdown. I’d rather learn all the back-ups and know I’m prepared, even if I don’t have a social life for a month. I think it’s just who I am. I got 90 per cent in a recent exam and was annoyed at myself.”
Alexa is one of many students who are “addicted” to revision. Dr Richard Graham, a child and adolescent consultant psychiatrist at the Nightingale Capio Hospital, says this is now a growing phenomenon that many young people are receiving treatment for. “Anxiety around school and university has always been there, but it’s rising,” he explains. “The pressure to keep attaining is growing in young people and the student population.
“Girls particularly are in a vulnerable position, especially around adolescence, as they’re in the tick-box world where they have to succeed on every level with their weight, their looks, their Instagram profiles and still somehow be an A* student to get to whatever Russell Group university.”
A global study last month, by the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD), found that British teenagers are less happy with their lives than those of other nations such as Latvia, Germany and France. Girls were less likely to be satisfied with their life than boys, and were more prone to worry about exams. Around three quarters of British students were said to feel anxious in the classroom, compared with a global average of 55 per cent.
Dr Graham believes much of this is related to an obsessive desire to do well and succeed academically in the current climate. “We’re in a period of extreme uncertainty and young people are amplifiers of adult anxiety. Schools are struggling with league tables, competing with each other and trying to prepare that curriculum for a future none of us can really anticipate.
“It’s also linked to the explosion of tech and social media, which changes awareness but also creates enormous uncertainty in terms of finding your place in the future. Young people have a tremendous need to keep improving and reinventing themselves, as we see with social media. It’s embedded in our culture to keep pushing and tracking your self-improvement.”
Angela Epstein, a broadcaster and mother of four, says this is something she has noticed with her 13-year-old daughter, who is currently revising for her Year 8 exams at her academic state school in Manchester. “She’s taking the exams really seriously, which I’m pleased about, but she’s also really stressed. She’s very concerned about being away from her work, and only went to a friend’s house for an hour recently so she could continue studying.
“It comes from within. I’ve never been one of those parents to stand there with a whip, because I think it’s counterproductive, and it doesn’t come from her school either. Though all my kids worked hard, Sophie is definitely feeling more pressure. I think there’s far greater competition among classmates. Who’s done their revision? Who got what mark? With social media they are constantly stock-taking what they’re all doing. That’s where the pressure must come from.”
As a parent, she is naturally concerned and has tried to talk to her daughter about not working too hard. “There’s a balance to be struck between wanting them to do well and not being disproportionately stressed,” she explains. “It’s hard to alter a mindset, though, and I don’t want to knock her diligence. The difficulty you have when they’re not public exams is that they don’t have much bearing at this age, so I’m not trying to downplay them, but if she’s feeling like this now, how will she be during her GCSEs?”
Dr Graham says parents should be aware of a difference between “workaholics” who immerse themselves in their work for a buzz, and the affliction he is increasingly noticing among young people today. “For them, it’s a more anxious compulsion where they feel guilty if they have some down-time. There’s a fear of a lack of control.”
He urges young people to “take breaks and have proper relaxation time” during these periods of revision to avoid becoming “robots or computers”. “If not, you’ll see a burnout-type syndrome where they’re flat in mood, exhausted and not really able to function properly. It’s horrible to witness.”
‘It’s just who I am. I got 90 per cent in a recent exam and was annoyed at myself ’