HSC stress, procrastination and perfectionism

HSC study stress and the challenge of procrastination and perfectionism

In HSC stress, clinical experience has indicated that there are often some lurking beliefs that students hold. These beliefs often lay the foundation for anxiety and stress.

Beliefs may include:

• Self worth being dependent on a successful outcome.
• Perfection being seen as a useful and familiar standard to hold in order to be successful.
• Fears that study sessions or project completion will become overwhelming, panicky or filled with agitation, and that one doesn’t have the coping skills to handle this.
• Past experiences of finding relief and a sense of sanity by avoiding tasks or failing to complete projects: that is, self control has not been learnt and avoidance has been over-learnt.

Assessment by a clinical psychologist can determine what previous behavioural and belief structure is influencing study stress. As you can probably imagine from reading the potential factors listed above, there may be multiple influences to study . Therefore treatment by a clinical psychologist aims to tailor this to the individual rather than adopting a one-size-fits-all approach.