Grades Impacting Mental Health

Tori_L
Community Member

I don’t even know if anxiety is the best place to put this but I am diagnosed with anxiety and depression. Compared to last semester, where my grades were still good in the D, HD area. This semester I’m most likely floating in Credits and would count myself lucky to get a Distinction. I know it’s not necessarily bad but I pride myself on my grades and the fact that not only will my grades be lower but this is my final semester of Uni. So these will be my last grades and instead of going out with a bang I’m leaving a flop.

I’ve been quite upset about this for a bit but tonight I went over the edge. I got marks back for a 2 question multiple choice quiz and didn’t get either correct!! This has impacted my marks now to a point that if I get a 70 in my final (which is the grade I seem to be averaging) I would be 2% away from getting a distinction for my overall grade. I cried hard for 40mins and still am trying to catch my breath. I’m just so scared of looking mediocre even though a) I know I’ll still pass and b) my parents are still happy with that.

but for myself!? I can’t accept it, I congratulate other people on their grades but if I was to receive something similar Id want to vomit and I’d absolutely hate myself. I’m rambling now but yeah, I just feel worthless and disappointed.

10 Replies 10

smallwolf
Community Champion
Community Champion

My personal experience with perfectionism is that it takes a quite a while to get over. If you are interested in overcoming you can look here...

https://www.cci.health.wa.gov.au/Resources/Looking-After-Yourself/Perfectionism

Getting good grades is one way of "keeping" parents happy. Others ways would include independence, love, understanding, helping others, honesty etc. From your posts you have many if not all of these. We (read "I") might not get the feedback from parents and look for other ways such as success and grades. I could say more on the other things I mentioned but would revealing too much about myself.

Suffice to say, I am sure your parents are already proud of you. Conversations between parents and children can strengthen the bonds of relationship and connection.

Have you been able to talk your parents about your fears.anxieties etc.?

Tim