how to get over essay anxiety

How To Overcome Writing Anxiety

For many people, writing can offer tremendous solace and be a fun and creative way to explore a new world and exercise their creativity. But if you have any experience with writing, you’ve probably also encountered the frustrations of writing anxiety and writer’s block. Understanding the situational nature of writing anxiety can empower writers to employ tailored strategies for overcoming it.

How to overcome anxiety in the writing process

Whether you're looking to embark on a longer project or just want to get the words flowing, the following strategies for overcoming anxiety may help you rekindle your writing.

Free associate

When the words just aren't coming, it can be frustrating for it to seem like you'll never be able to come up with the right thing to say or the right idea to pursue. Instead of mulling over your setbacks, you may benefit from free associating. See what your unconscious mind comes up with and be sure to keep a notebook handy to jot down any interesting connections, phrases, or ideas. This is a great exercise to warm up your mind and get into a good writing mindset, and you might be surprised by what you come up with when you're not thinking about writing directly.

Keep a journal

From Sylvia Plath to Virginia Woolf, many renowned writers have been avid journal keepers. Journals can be a great way to instill a daily practice of writing in a less stressful environment; they can be a refreshing change of pace, allowing you to play around, explore your thoughts, and get into the habit of writing just for the pleasure of it.

A journal is like a garden, where the seeds of phrases, fragments, and ideas may one day flower into poems, stories, or essays. Since your journal is just for you, you don't have to worry about the quality of the writing or the expectation that someone might someday read it. You don’t even have to explain things that another reader might not understand. This is just for you to write as you like.

You may experience anxiety when writing life experiences that may have brought on negative feelings. Giving yourself a writing task that brings these negative or difficult experiences to the surface can be a great way to process what happened and how it may have affected you. That said, working with a mental health professional through online therapy may provide helpful structure and encouragement along your journaling journey, all from the comfort of your own home. 

Whether writing for work, school, or creative endeavors, there are  numerous benefits to writing by hand. Writing things down by hand often pushes you to be more concise and to think more carefully about your words. On the flip side, however, writing by hand also discourages editing and encourages the practice of completing an entire first draft before going back to reread your work.

Conversely, in writing situations where you’re typing, it's easy to get stuck on the first sentence, writing and removing the same words many times over. Writing by hand encourages you to continue on, even if things aren't perfect. You can always go back to it later with a little red pen and make things better.

Go for a walk

If you're stuck on writing deadlines — external or self-imposed — it can be tempting to force yourself to sit at your desk until you complete the assignment. However, staying in one place for too long isn't always good for creativity or productivity and may exacerbate your writing anxiety.

Walking can  help us think  better by letting our minds work through things at their own pace. Exercise also improves memory, attention, and cognition and has lasting positive effects both physically and mentally. Walking is also conducive to thought in that it lets our minds wander, freeing us up to follow new trains of thought or simply to dwell on thoughts, ideas, and sensations without the pressure of writing them down. Writers have long used walks to work through their thoughts before writing them down.

Create something physical 

Feel overwhelmed by writing? Try activating a different part of your brain by making something with your hands. Creating something physical rather than verbal can be a great way to engage your creative faculties without the pressure and anxiety that sometimes come with writing. Similar to walking, physical creation is also a great way to let the mind work through ideas and problems without focusing on them directly. Whether you're into knitting, baking, carpentry, or some other creative physical enterprise, switching activities can shake things up mentally and help you overcome writing roadblocks. 

What’s more, the finished product will be something tangible you can eat, wear, or hold, marking physical progress. So, when your mind is too burnt to write, or you're facing writing anxiety, start your palms on a different project.

Read widely and often

Some of the best writers in the world are also avid readers. Whether you write for work, school, or pleasure, it's common to find that your pieces become stale or repetitive after a sustained period of writing. Reading and writing only your own words is often a recipe for stagnation. If you're frustrated by your writing, try picking up a book or magazine and seeing how professional writers approach their tasks. For further reading about academic writing in particular, Oxford University Press offers a range of reference texts.

Reading widely in various genres and styles can help introduce you to new tactics and thinking methods that will inevitably improve your work. Reading works by authors with different backgrounds or opinions than you can be similarly fruitful — and books aren't the only things that will enrich your creativity. Other media like magazines, radio, TV, and games can also do the trick. When your creative mind feels like it's running on empty, be sure to fill it up with quality fuel.

Consider a challenge

Sometimes, the best way to break out of a creative rut and overcome writing anxiety is to set a challenge for yourself. One of the most popular creative writing challenges is the National Novel Writing Month, or  NaNoWriMo , which takes place each November, encouraging hundreds of aspiring writers to attempt to write a novel before December.

The key here is to break down the elements of your future novel into manageable tasks to complete for each of the 30 days in November. Goal setting like this is a great mechanism to avoid overwhelming and negative experiences with writing. You don’t have to write the whole novel today; perhaps you just have to map out the plotline — and suddenly, the project becomes lighter.

A similar project takes place during National Poetry Month in April, where poets from around the world set goals to write a poem a day for the month. Whether you're attempting fiction, poetry, or another genre, an ambitious goal can be the perfect thing to kick-start your activity and overcome writing anxiety.

Trying to make your writing perfect on the first try is tempting. Whether you're a writer by trade and inclination or are just trying to complete a writing assignment for work or school, a polished first draft is a common goal to have in mind. But first drafts are rarely perfect — they often take several drafts and a lot of sustained effort to emerge as a solid, finished product. Instead of focusing on perfection, try letting the first draft be a place to explore ideas, try out turns of phrase, and experiment with your writing. 

You can always go back later and smooth things over. For most writers, a couple of drafts are often necessary, so it's a great time to experiment, have fun, and get as many words down on the page as you can. After all, the first draft doesn't have to be perfect — it just has to be done.

Whether you're working on writing assignments for school or work, trying to hit the deadline for a call for submissions for creative work, or have told yourself for the past year that tomorrow will be the day you'll start writing the next great American novel, procrastination is a familiar beast to most. Procrastination also goes hand in hand with writing anxiety and often intensifies it. Many people first use procrastination as a tool to churn out high school papers and assignments the night before they're due, and it can be a difficult habit to break. 

Sometimes, it's easier to create under pressure — but procrastination can also result in lukewarm first drafts and not enough time to go back and edit. Instead of procrastinating, try to break up writing projects into chunks and complete a little bit at a time. If a time crunch helps you write, try instituting a self-imposed deadline several days before the work is due. That way, you can pull an all-nighter, sleep all afternoon, and edit with rested eyes the following day.

Once you've finished a draft or two of a project, it's tempting to read and edit it continuously until it's perfect. But at this stage, you're often too close to the work to do it justice. Whether you're having trouble getting the next chapter down or aren't sure how to polish a rough draft into something better, the best option is often to walk away. Take some time for yourself, work on other projects, and try to forget about the draft sitting in your desk drawer or computer drive. After enough time has passed, be it a few days or a few weeks, you can return to your work with fresh eyes and more accurately judge its merits and areas that could use improvement.

Edit courageously

Even if you're proud of your first draft writing, editing can provoke a whole new round of writing anxiety. Writing, rewriting, and editing take courage. It's good to remind yourself that even if your writing needs work, there are worthwhile things about your writing. Editing can often be like carving sculptures from marble or polishing gems from rough material. Beautiful things are waiting underneath the surface, but they need a little help to take their true form. 

Don't be afraid to edit your writing, and then send it off to others and see what they think, whether that means a close friend or family member, a beta reader, or a professional editor. When the process is through and you think it’s done, try not to fear stepping away and sending it out into the world.

Sometimes, a writer’s inner critic gets too difficult to ignore. When critiquing your own writing gets overwhelming, it may help to turn to a trusted writing buddy for constructive criticism. Alternatively, you might prefer to join a writing group whose focus is on workshopping drafts. Group settings can provide a place where you can learn from experienced writers of various ages and backgrounds.

If you are writing from campus, your college or university may offer a writing center, where an academic advisor or other colleagues of the school can help you with the writing process and formatting citations. This will help with meeting deadlines and avoiding getting negative feedback or a “bad” grade from your professor.

Collaborating on a writing project with a partner or partners serves as an effective strategy for managing writing anxiety and acquiring diverse skills. The process allows for the exchange of ideas, feedback, and insights, offering as many skills and learning opportunities as there are people involved.

How can you overcome creative stress?

Writer's block (i.e., feeling like you can’t write or move forward creatively) is an unfortunate part of the writing process, even for experienced writers. It can add frustration and discouragement to your writing life.  The Writing Center at the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill states that writer's block or writing anxiety may be even more prevalent when you are shifting to a new kind of writing. However, there are strategies you can try to break through a creative standstill.

For example, the Writing Center at UNC Chapel Hill recommends  finding a writing buddy to support you in your writing life. A writing buddy could be a trusted friend, colleague, or mentor you can go to discuss ideas and challenges you are facing in your writing process.

You might also try talking out ideas with others, not allowing your inner critic to interrupt your first drafts, and embracing self-acceptance.

Can writing help?

Writing can be an effective way to process negative feelings and situations that are triggering stress. Research shows that  expressive writing decreases intrusive thoughts  about past negative experiences.

What causes mental blocks?

There are numerous causes of writer’s block, a few of them including: 

• Writing for uncommon or new audiences.
• Working on an unusual or new type of writing task or writing assignment.
• Worrying about negative feedback from readers.
• Remembering negative experiences from previous writing tasks.
• Experiencing negative thoughts about your writing ability or skill.
• Worrying about getting a bad grade.
• Facing perfectionism.

How can you overcome stress?

The goal is not to push away feelings or never to feel stressed. You may start by acknowledging the presence of stress in your mind and body, as ignoring negative feelings will only allow them to resurface more strongly. 

Some coping skills you might try when feeling stressed include doing yoga, meditation, and mindfulness techniques or talking to a trusted friend or family. It may take trial and error to identify what works best for you in managing symptoms.

For individuals who are facing ongoing stress that impacts their daily functioning, further treatment may be required. Like any mental health condition, there is no overnight fix or cure, but psychotherapeutic and medical intervention can help individuals cope with symptoms and continue leading meaningful lives.

• Overcoming Extreme Anxiety: Treatment Options And Tips Medically reviewed by Majesty Purvis , LCMHC
• Overview Of Valerian Root Supplements For Anxiety Medically reviewed by Julie Dodson , MA
• Relationships and Relations

Writer's Anxiety

Where all this worry is coming from and what to do about it..

Posted July 13, 2017

• What Is Anxiety?
• Find a therapist to overcome anxiety

Writing is practically synonymous with graduate school. As grad students, not only are we encouraged to publish, publish, publish, but we’re also required to write excellent dissertations, compose flawless ethics applications, and hash out insightful term papers.

Not writing is rarely an option.

Yet, writing can be a major source of stress and anxiety for students. In fact, some research has suggested that around 50 percent of doctoral students in the U.S. and Canada drop out during the research proposal or dissertation-writing phases of their degrees before finishing their programs [1][2] .

(This, by the way, is not an encouraging statistic for a person who’s currently in the middle of drafting her proposal. But I digress.)

So what’s getting in the way of all this writing? In a study published this month in the Higher Education Research & Development journal, authors Huerta, Goodson, Beigi, and Chlup explored writing anxiety, self-efficacy , and emotional intelligence (EI) amongst graduate students (N = 174) at a large, research-intensive university in the US [3] . Before I dive into their findings, I’ll briefly describe what they mean by each of these three factors:

• Writer’s anxiety : Feelings of tension, worried thoughts, and physical changes like increased blood pressure when faced with a writing task.
• Self-efficacy [4] : A belief in one’s capability (or confidence ) to write in a given situation.
• Emotional intelligence (EI) [5] : The ability to monitor one’s own and others’ feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them, and use them to guide thinking and action (in the case of writing, using them to guide writing tasks). [6]

I imagine all grad students have faced hiccups in at least one of these areas at one time or another. However, these authors wanted to know more about these constructs, how they were related, and if there were any differences amongst students in how they experienced them.

Results revealed that, perhaps unsurprisingly, self-efficacy exhibited a significant negative association with writing anxiety (that is, higher self-efficacy was related to lower writing anxiety). In contrast, the authors found that EI accounted for very little of the students’ writing anxiety, and that this contribution was not statistically significant. However, the sample included highly emotionally intelligent individuals to begin with; thus, as the authors noted, the lack of variability in EI scores amongst participants may have skewed results.

Additionally, demographic differences contributed to the ways in which different groups of students experienced writing anxiety. For example, higher writing anxiety was reported amongst women, master’s students (as opposed to doctoral students), and students for whom English was not their first language.

So what do we do with this information? The authors of the study concluded by outlining ways in which universities can help reduce writing anxiety and increase self-efficacy amongst graduate student writers. They cited literature that has found tactics such as self-regulating one’s writing, writing regularly, and participation in a writing group as helping academic writers increase self-efficacy and decrease anxiety.

While these suggestions are likely helpful, they left me feeling a bit underwhelmed. It’s also important, I think, to uncover where writing anxiety is coming from. Is it unpleasant experiences with writing during grade school? Or systemic pressures for academics to be “natural writers” who do not need support?

Additionally, I can’t help but think about how so much of academic writing is devoid of creativity and personality . In an article written by Antoniou and Moriarty in the Teaching in Higher Education journal [7] , the authors stated that:

Where guidance and support on academic writing has existed, the focus has been on technical issues, e.g. structuring journal articles, and procedures and protocols for publishing. Little attention has been paid to the more holistic aspects, such as the lecturer-writer’s sense of self and identity , their emotional orientation to their writing and their creative process.

This quote highlights what I believe are imperative aspects of the writing process; that is, that it is often deeply personal, emotional, and creative. However, academic demands and the belief that academic writing is purely an intellectual task can lead to disenchantment with the writing process, creating resentment amongst many academics. However, Antoniou and Moriarty argue that writing in any genre requires all aspects of the self, and they encourage academic writers to take a step back from the mechanics of writing and ask themselves questions such as: Who am I? What are my values? What does writing mean for me? Only after that should they ask themselves what they want to say through their writing and how they want to say it.

Furthermore, the authors suggest several beliefs about writing that can be used by faculties and graduate students to support writing anxiety:

• Writing is a skill that can be taught : Given practice, guidance, and support, the authors assert that anyone can write academically. However, faculties need to commit to offering this support to their students, as students should not be solely responsible for developing their writing skills.
• Writing well involves building confidence and establishing safety: Because writing involves “emotional risk-taking ,” writing groups should prioritize creating a safe space where vulnerabilities and worries can be voiced. Academic writers often struggle in silence about their writing concerns; however, seeking help with one’s writing should be supported and encouraged amongst academic communities.
• Successful writing requires community: While creative writers often share early drafts of their work with other writers, there is a stigma amongst academic writers that their work should almost always appear polished. However, writing groups can help academic writers share the more raw versions of their work with others, eliciting precious feedback, helping them let go of perfectionism , and allowing them to get into the flow and joy of writing.

Antoniou and Moriarty also note that, “the most important lesson in developing one’s writing is to WRITE.” With this quote, I’m reminded of an undergraduate journalism course I took many years ago. My instructor reminded us that we wouldn’t expect to learn how to play an instrument without practice; similarly, we cannot expect to develop self-efficacy for writing without putting pen to paper (or hands to keyboard).

Council of Graduate Schools (2008), PhD Completion and Attrition: Analysis of Baseline Program Data from the PhD Completion Project. Washington, DC: Council of Graduate Schools.

​Huerta, M., Goodson, P., Beigi, M., & Chlup, D. (2017). Graduate students as academic writers: Writing anxiety, self-efficacy and emotional intelligence. Higher Education Research & Development, 36(4), 716-729.

See Bandura, A. (1997). Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. New York, NY: Freeman.

See Salovey, P., & Mayer, J. D. (1990). Emotional intelligence. Imagination, Cognition and Personality, 9, 185-211.

Bastug, M., Ertem, I. S., & Keskin, H. K. (2017). A phenomenological research study on writer’s block: Causes, processes, and results. Education & training, 59(6), 605-618.

Antoniou, M., & Moriarty, J. (2008). What can academic writers learn from creative writers? Developing guidance and support for lecturers in higher education. Teaching in Higher Education, 13(2), 157-167.

Amy Green, M.A., is a doctoral student in Counselling Psychology at the University of Calgary.

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How to Deal with your Writing Anxiety: 6 Smart Tips that Work

by Adela Belin

Editor’s note: This article on writing anxiety is part of our KISS series of articles. If you missed the first one, you can find it here . KISS stands for ‘Keep It Simple, Stupid’. It’s not meant to be derogatory, as the first article in the series explains. One of the ways we fail to keep it simple, is by putting the horse before the cart. What do I mean? well, on Write to Done we publish a lot of great advice on writer’s block for instance, but to even reach the stage of having writer’s block, you may have to overcome writing anxiety…

Writing is required in almost every sphere of our lives. From writing essays and research papers in college to blog posts, press releases, emails and reports for work –even writing novels.

Writing is a vital skill to have.

It all boils down to how articulate you are in expressing yourself. Unfortunately, it doesn’t come as easily to some as to others.

If the thought of writing makes you nervous and you spend hours staring at a blank page, not knowing how to start, you might be suffering from writer’s anxiety.

Let’s get one thing straight – writer’s block and writing anxiety are two very different conditions. Writer’s block is when the writer cannot produce “new work”. On the other hand, writing anxiety is more deep-rooted and reflects certain personality traits.

A study published in the Higher Education Research & Development journal revealed that self-efficacy showed a significant negative association with writing anxiety – people with higher self-efficacy demonstrated lower writing anxiety.

Don’t let this condition dampen your performance. Here are 6 smart tips to free yourself from your writing anxiety and get writing –

• Find the true cause of your anxiety

It helps to know what is triggering your anxiety, so you are better prepared to tackle it.

Was your writing harshly criticized in the past? Do deadlines make you nervous? Are you afraid how people will perceive what you write? Do you suffer from poor confidence and self-esteem issues? Are you too focused on the outcome? Do you fear failure? Does a particular topic or type of writing induce anxiousness?

People have different reasons for suffering from writing anxiety. Dig deeper and ask yourself what’s stopping you from writing?

Usually people spend too much time thinking about what people will say about their writing which adds to the pressure and paralyses them. Regardless of the cause, know that the only way to improve your writing is to write more.

• Organize your thoughts

You know the feeling when your mind is buzzing with ideas but when it comes down to translating your thoughts into words, you break into a sweat?

At such times, it’s a good idea to organize your thoughts and ideas before rushing on to the writing stage. You can brainstorm ideas, develop an outline and roughly mention what you plan to write about in bullet points. This outline serves as the skeleton which you can refer to while writing.

• Practice free writing

Most people suffering from writing anxiety are unable to just start writing. Free writing is an effective technique to cross that hurdle.

Free writing involves writing whatever comes to your mind, at a stretch. No judgements, no stopping to second-guess yourself, no polishing – just plain writing. It’s also a great way to generate ideas and write the way you think.

So, the next time you are not motivated to write or are too focused on the outcome, practice free writing. It might just give you that much required push and break your inhibitions.

4. Set short-term goals

One of the biggest causes of writing anxiety is getting overwhelmed by the sheer enormity of the task. Do you know what can help overcome that?

Breaking down the writing process and setting short-term goals for yourself. For instance break the process down into conducting research, writing the actual content, editing and proofreading among others and set a realistic deadline for each.

The trick is to take baby steps and concentrate on one step at a time as you go. Before you know it, you will be done writing, with a much calmer state of mind. That’s great for starters, isn’t it?

5. Ask for constructive feedback on your writing

Sometimes all you need is a little help or nudge from someone to make you change your perspective. Join a writing community or ask a trusted family member or friend to offer feedback.

Not only will this help you improve your writing, but it will also help you see your strengths and gain confidence.

Get into the habit of sharing your work so you’re no longer shy about it and are open to receiving constructive feedback which toughens you in the long run.

6. Overcome perfectionism

A lot of times we don’t realize that our biggest enemy is perfectionism and our ‘all or nothing’ approach in life.

No one’s a perfect writer – stop being hard on yourself. The only thing you can control is your effort. So, give it your best, be realistic and stop obsessing over your writing being perfect.

The day you set this notion aside and immerse yourself in the process, you are likely to enjoy writing more and become a better writer.

Do you suffer from writer’s anxiety? Let me know your favourite tip for overcoming it below.

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Overcoming Writing Anxiety and Writer’s Block

You may be thinking, “All this advice is good, but sometimes I just get stuck! What I normally do just isn’t working!” That’s a familiar feeling for all writers. Sometimes the writing just seems to flow as if by magic, but then the flow stops cold. Your brain seems to have run out of things to say. If you just wait for the magic to come back, you might wait a long time. What professional writers know is that writing takes consistent effort. Writing comes out of a regular practice—a habit. Professional writers also know that not everything they write ends up in the final draft. Sometimes we have to write what Anne Lamott calls a “shitty rough draft.” One of my favorite writing professors, Duncan Carter, used to say that he was a terrible writer but a great reviser, and that’s what helped him write when inspiration wasn’t available. So how do writers get going when they feel stuck or uninspired? They develop a set of habits and have more than one way to write to get the words flowing again.

 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

You might associate the idea of writing anxiety or writer’s block with procrastination, and procrastination certainly can be either a cause or an effect of writing anxiety. You can learn more about  procrastination later in this section of the text.  But writing anxiety or writer’s block is more of a condition. We might even venture to call it an ailment. Uh oh. Do you have it? To aid you in self-diagnosis here, let’s take some time to figure out what it is. Then, if you find that you’re afflicted, we’ll help you to determine the best course of treatment.

What is Writing Anxiety and How Do You Know if You Have It?

Do you worry excessively about writing assignments? Do they make you feel uneasy or agitated? Do you have negative feelings about certain types of writing? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you might suffer from writing anxiety. Writing anxiety simply means that a writer is experiencing negative feelings about a given writing task. The last of the questions above points out something important about this condition that has been afflicting writers everywhere for centuries: writing anxiety is often more about the audience and/or purpose for a given writing task than it is about the mere act of writing itself.

Let’s consider this situational nature of writing anxiety for a moment. Say you just bought a new pair of headphones. You brought them home, removed all the packaging, plugged them into your MP3 player, and they’re amazing!  So you decide to visit the company website, and you write a stellar review of the product, giving it a five-star rating and including descriptive details about the headphones’ comfortable fit, excellent sound quality, ability to cancel outside noise, and reasonable price.

Now, let’s say that the next day in biology class your instructor covers the topic of biomes, and you learn about animal habitats and biodiversity and the interrelation and interdependence of species within biomes. You find it fascinating and can’t wait to learn more. But then something terrible happens. Your instructor assigns a term project on the subject. As your instructor begins to describe the length and other specifications for the report, complete with formatting guidelines, citation requirements, and a bibliography at the end, your palms start to sweat, your stomach feels uneasy, and you begin to have trouble focusing on anything else your instructor has to say. You’re experiencing writing anxiety.

Writing anxiety is the condition of feeling uneasy about writing. Writer’s block is what you experience when you can’t manage to put words on the page. But your condition isn’t about the act of writing. Just yesterday you wrote a great review for those cool new headphones. So why do you suddenly feel paralyzed by the thought of writing the biology essay? Let’s consider some possible causes.

What Causes Writing Anxiety?

The causes of writing anxiety are many. Here are just a few:

• Inexperience with the type of writing task
• Previous negative experiences with writing (e.g. someone, maybe a teacher, has given you negative feedback or said negative things about your writing)
• Negative feelings bout writing (e.g. “I’m not a good writer”; “I hate writing.”)
• Immediate deadline
• Distant deadline
• Lack of interest in the topic
• Personal problems or life events

Level of experience may explain why you felt comfortable writing the headphone review while you break out in a sweat at the thought of the biology paper. If you’ve never written anything similar to a specific assignment, maybe you’re unsure about whether or not you can meet the assignment requirements or the teacher’s expectations. Or maybe the last time you turned in a written report for school you received negative feedback or a bad grade from the teacher. Maybe you procrastinated most of the term and now the paper is due next week and you feel overwhelmed. Or maybe it’s the second week of the term and the finals week deadline seems so far away that you’re not motivated to write.

Knowing the cause of your writing anxiety can help you move beyond it and get writing, even if you can’t completely eliminate the problem. If the topic doesn’t interest you or if you’re having problems at home, those probably aren’t issues that will just disappear, but if you try some of the following strategies, I think you’ll find that you can at least move forward with even the most anxiety-inducing of writing assignments.

Strategies for Overcoming or Managing Writing Anxiety

There are a number of strategies upon which you can draw to help you move past the feeling of being lost or stuck. Consider if some of the following tactics can help you to get writing again.

Just Start Writing

It might sound like it’s oversimplifying the matter, but it’s true. Half the battle is to just start writing. Try some strategies like freewriting or dialectic notetaking. (For more on freewriting, see “ Strategies for Getting Started ” in the “Prewriting” section of this text, and for more on dialectic notetaking , refer to the section on “Writing about Texts”). You should also believe in the importance of writing badly. Bruce Ballenger, a well-known writer and professor of English at Boise State explains why writing badly is an important part of the writing process:

Giving myself permission to write badly makes it much more likely that I will write what I don’t expect to write, and from those surprises will come some of my best writing. Writing badly is also a convenient alternative to staring off into space and waiting for inspiration.

Sometimes the biggest problem writers have with getting started is that they feel like the writing needs to be good, or well organized, or they feel like they need to start at the beginning. None of that is true. All you need to do is start.

Have you ever seen a potter make a clay pot? Before a potter can start shaping or throwing a pot, they have to bring the big wet blob of clay and slap it down on the table. It’s heavy and wet and messy, but it’s the essential raw material. No clay? No pot. “Bad writing” is a lot like that. You have to dump all the words and ideas onto the table. Just get them out. Only then do you have the raw material you need to start shaping the words into something beautiful and lasting. You can wait until the revision stages to worry about shaping your writing to be its best. For now, just get the ideas on the table.

Create Smaller Tasks and Short-Term Goals

One of the biggest barriers to writing can be that the task just seems too large, and perhaps the due date is weeks away. Each of these conditions can contribute to feelings of being overwhelmed or to the tendency to procrastinate. But the remedy is simple and will help you keep writing something each week toward your deadline and toward the finished product: divide larger writing tasks into smaller, more manageable tasks and set intermediate deadlines.

The process that the authors used for writing this text provides a good example. As authors, we had to divide the text into sections, but we also had to plan the process for a first draft, peer reviews, and revisions, along with adding images, links, and other resources, not to mention the final publication of the text online. Had we not divided up the larger tasks into smaller ones and set short-term goals and deadlines, the process of writing the text would have been overwhelming. We didn’t meet every single intermediate deadline right on time, but they helped move us along and helped us to meet the most important deadline—the final one—with a complete text that was ready to publish on schedule.

Imagine that you have a term paper that’s assigned during Week 1 of a eleven-week term, and it’s due during finals week. Make a list of all the tasks you can think of that need to be completed, from beginning to end, to accomplish all that the assignment requires. List the tasks, and assign yourself due dates for each task. Consider taking it a step further and create a task table that allows you to include a column for additional notes. Here’s an example:

Collaborate

Get support from a friend, family member, or classmate. Talk to your friends or family, or to a tutor in your college writing center, about your ideas for your essay. Sometimes talking about your ideas is the best way to flesh them out and get more ideas flowing. Write down notes during or just after your conversation. Classmates are a great resource because they’re studying the same subjects as you, and they’re working on the same assignments. Talk to them often, and form study groups. Ask people to look at your ideas or writing and to give you feedback. Set goals and hold each other accountable for meeting deadlines (a little friendly competition can be motivating!).

Talk to other potential readers. Ask them what they would expect from this type of writing. Meet with a tutor in your campus writing center. Be sure to come to the appointment prepared with a printed copy of the assignment and a short list of what you want to work on, along with a printed copy of your essay.

For more about getting help from a tutor see “Why Meet with a Writing Tutor?” and “Preparing to Meet with a Tutor” in the “ Giving and Receiving Feedback ” section of this text.

Embrace Reality

Don’t imagine the situation of your writing assignment to be any better or worse than it really is. There are some important truths for you to recognize:

• Focus on what you do best rather than fretting about your perceived weaknesses.
• Acknowledge that writing can be difficult and that all you need to do is do your best.
• Recognize what might be new or unfamiliar about the type of writing that you’re doing.
• Understand that confusion and frustration is a natural part of experiencing new things, and it’s okay; it’s part of the learning process.
• Remember that you’re a student and that you’re supposed to be experiencing things that are new and unfamiliar (new formats, new audiences, new subject matter, new processes, new approaches, etc.).
• Repeat the mantra, “It doesn’t have to be perfect; it just has to be DONE.”

Seek Out Experts

If you can, find more experienced writers (especially related to the type of writing that you’re doing) and ask them questions. Sometimes, this might just mean a friend or family member who’s already taken a couple years of college courses. Maybe it’s a fellow student who has already taken the class you’re taking now. Also, the tutors in your college writing center can be a big help at any stage in the writing process. Give them a call and make an appointment. And don’t forget the expert you see all the time throughout any class that you take: your instructor. Ask your instructor for suggestions. That’s what she’s there for.

Another way to learn from the experience of others is to look at examples of other pieces of writing of the type that you’re working on. How is this piece organized? Does it make use of source material? What sort of tone does it use? If you don’t know where to find examples, ask your instructor. If he doesn’t have them at the ready, he’ll likely be able to give you some suggestions about where to find some.

The Word on College Reading and Writing Copyright © by Carol Burnell, Jaime Wood, Monique Babin, Susan Pesznecker, and Nicole Rosevear is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Writing Anxiety: Why Does Writing Sometimes Make You Anxious (And How to Overcome It)​

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Have you ever felt a rush of writing anxiety when trying to write your story? Do you often label this writer's block before letting it take over? Has writing anxiety made you feel like you're a poor writer, and then it tricked you into giving up?

Here are four common problems that feed writing anxiety and tips on how to overcome them.

Tons of writers, even professional writers, suffer from writing anxiety on a daily basis no matter their experiences with writing.

Whether you view this as resistance or low self-esteem, writing anxiety can prevent you from finishing that beautiful, unique story that only you can tell.

We've All Suffered From Writing Anxiety at Some Point

I'll admit writing anxiety has stalled a lot of my writing. The negative feelings are unwelcome, but sometimes impossible to ignore.

I can't count the number of stories I didn’t write to conclusion, or the half-formed novel ideas that I started and abandoned because I grew too anxious to continue writing.

I’ve abandoned ideas in the first sentence, the first chapter, the first ten thousand words. I have a book that’s sitting on my computer at sixty thousand or so words. It's filled with scene after scene, and all of them building to a brilliant climax I've never managed to jot down. Mainly because I've allowed writing anxiety to freeze me right before the finish line.

A lot of this anxiety comes from perfectionism—we, as writers, desperately long to deliver a perfect book.

I know I have. I've been flustered over my first drafts.

I've dreamed of that magic last page, but found myself unable to finish.

I used to tell myself things like, “I need to work out those rusty sentences weighing this version down before writing the final showdown,” or “Maybe I need to go back to the first act and fix that before I can write this .”

It's exhausting.

But it's not an uncommon problem.

The thought of delivering anything less than perfect to our beta readers (and eventually next readers) keeps us from either 1) not finishing our stories at all, or 2) too anxious to share our stories once they're complete.

I know this because I've done it.

Writing anxiety may be stopping you from making progress on your writing projects, but it's something we can overcome.

4 Sources of Writing Anxiety (And How to Overcome Them)

In recent years, I’ve recognized four major problems that cause my fear of writing —which has allowed me to discover and practice better habits that have proven successful at pushing me to finish my story.

There are many reasons for a writer to be afraid of finishing a story, especially those new to writing. But when we understand what's holding us back, we can become mindful and prevent fear from manipulating us in the writing process.

Let’s take a look at the four most common reasons we experience writing anxiety. Better yet, lets explore ways to overcome it.

Problem 1: The Story Is Too Long

It’s easy to feel like a story is so massive and complicated that you will never be able to do it justice.

Most ideas spark from a novel premise or a vision of a story's climax. This excites the writer, but then the hard work begins and writing anxiety sets in when trying to build the structure supporting that idea or leading up to that finale moment.

Big ideas can be very overwhelming, especially if you’re just starting to write.

Do we all dream of writing a franchise masterwork like the Harry Potter series? Of course! Who wouldn't get a thrill from mastering J.K. Rowling's writing process ?

But complicated books, especially epic fantasy series, take years to plot out. This might be the direction you want to go—that's fine if it is! But if it's not, cut yourself a break.

If you're writing a book , especially your first, the goal should be to deliver a story readers will enjoy—and enjoy isn't synonymous for perfect.

Here's an important truth: if readers like your first book, they will come back for more expecting you to grow as a writer. Writing is a life-long learning process.

Hopefully when you understand this, you can give yourself a break. You can take that BIG idea and learn how to break it up into scenes that can make fiction (or nonfiction) writing easy.

In fact, the fourth step in Joe Bunting's How to Write a Novel article is to set smaller deadlines that build to your big deadline (of finishing a book).

You can apply this same mindset when planning or writing your BIG story idea. Start small, and then build to the ultimate climax.

Solution 1: Start Small

Think of a story idea and tell it in less than a thousand words. Try writing this in three paragraphs that outline the Beginning, Middle, and End in one to two sentences each. Maybe use your premise to kickstart the summarizing of each book part.

Quality doesn’t matter here—the goal is to tell an entire story, beginning to end, within the word limit.

Quality can come in later drafts, after you get used to the feeling of writing small, which might also do wonders for your writing confidence.

Problem 2: You Get Stuck in Story Structure

“Write a book” sounds easy, but when you delve into it, you realize there’s so much more to it.

Inciting incident ? Climax ? Hero's Journey ? Characterization ? There’s so much that goes into planning and writing a book, and stopping to think about just how much can easily give most writers moments of intense anxiety.

If you’re trying to tackle an impossible bestseller book checklist, you might come to a fierce halt, probably trapped in paralysis by analysis, obsessing over details that just don't matter on your first go.

It's enough to cause an anxiety epidemic that eventually tempts you to give up.

This is the exact reason my book stalled for eight years.

And while the faithful advice to keep going can grow weary—sometimes maybe even feel useless—the reality is that you can't edit anything that isn't written down.

Solution 2: Practice

This is simple in theory but difficult in principle. However, like anything, practice makes perfect, and the more stories you write, the more things you will realize becomes second nature.

You don't have to master story structure to use it to get a draft down, but a quick structure outline (even if it's only six sentences!) can help you write to the end. And the more you practice, the more comfortable you'll get with story structure.

6 Key Moments of Story Structure

There are six required moments in every story, scene, and act. They are:

• Exposition : Introducing the world and the characters.
• Inciting incident : There’s a problem.
• Rising Action/Progressive complications : The problem gets worse.
• Dilemma : The problem gets so bad that the character has no choice but to deal with it. Usually this happens off screen.
• Climax : The character makes their choice and the climax is the action that follows.
• Denouement : The problem is resolved (for now at least).

If you're unfamiliar with these terms, I recommend studying each of them, especially dilemma. Practicing these will be a huge aid to your writing process.

For your first few scenes, try plotting out each of these six moments, focusing especially on the dilemma.

Better yet, download our story structure worksheet to guide you through the story structure process, from crafting your initial idea through to writing the synopsis.

Messy drafts are the makings of good writers because they are time spent developing your craft.

To relieve yourself of perfectionist pressure, make that first book your “practice book,” or try writing a short story or novella before tackling a 90,000 word manuscript.

That practice book may be a complete mess, but if you stick to it, you will ingrain many of the skills needed to become a great writer. This will carry you far beyond one story. And you'll only get better at telling them!

Problem 3: Leaving Your Story Alone for Too Long

I used to believe that writing a book takes years.

It’s such a daunting project, after all. So big, so many details. But the more I wrote, the more I realized, it doesn’t have to take a decade to write.

Remember that advice about a fantasy series? J.R.R. Tolkien took decades to write the Lord of the Rings series, and for a good reason—he spent ages building Middle Earth and its history in addition to the actual stories.

Your initial story doesn’t have to be a project of this magnitude. You can spend years revising a book, but that first draft can come as quickly as you’d like.

And they'll probably only come quicker the more you write.

The first draft of my first book took three years. The first draft of my second took six weeks.

Plotter or pantser , discovering your writing process and what gets you to the last page will motivate you to write quicker.

Need a writing process that will keep you on track from the first page to the last? We've taken everything we've learned from helping thousands of writers finish their books and packed it all into The Write Plan planner. Plan your story and write your book with the planner designed just for writers. Get The Write Plan planner here »

Solution 3: Write Fast

This is in the interest of both yourself and the book.

Deadlines are crucial in getting you to commit to finishing sections of a book within a set timeline, and establishing consequences for not meeting those deadlines will help.

Set yourself a deadline (or few) and stick to it. Better yet, join a writing community like the 100 Day Book program to keep you writing on track while also receiving peer and editor feedback.

Remember, quality in the first draft doesn’t matter. You don’t have to stick to a certain word count either.

The only thing you have to commit to is finishing your story . Nothing else matters until you have every part of your story written down.

And when you write fast to meet deadlines, I bet that you will also find what you’ve written is tighter and more interesting to read. This is because you didn’t allow yourself to lose your train of thought.

Sloppy writing can be fixed in future drafts, but if you don’t get your story out, those drafts will never happen.

You can finish your book in 100 days. And in 100 Day Book, you'll get the training, structure, deadlines, accountability, and community support you need to make it to “The End.” Join the next semester of 100 Day Book and write your book with us »

Problem 4: Thinking You're Not a Good Writer

Yes, you are. You just haven’t written enough yet.

This deadly mindset is probably the most common problem preventing burgeoning writers from finishing their book.

They think, “I'll never get published. I'm not as good as [INSERT AUTHOR ROLE MODEL HERE].”

Maybe you're not yet . But you have too many great stories to tell, and only you can tell them in your way.

So get going.

Solution 4: Don't Listen to the Voice of Doubt

Bad writing habits can sneak up on you in nasty ways, but this doubtful voice can easily be the most deceitful.

To overcome it, put a jar on your desk labeled “Writer Thoughts.” Every time this idea comes up, add a dollar. Every time it comes up and you believe it , add two dollars. Every time it comes up, you believe it, and you stop writing, add five dollars.

At the end of each month, use that money to donate to a charity you don't want to support.

Not a fan of working against the negative? Use this jar as an “Ice Cream Fund” and add to it every time you have a rush that makes you feel like a writer. Pin a note that reminds you about that feeling, and when you take the money out to treat yourself, make sure to tape these notes to your writer's desk to motivate your next session.

Finishing a story can seem scary, especially for those of us who go into writing with a mindset that all writing is easy and glamorous.

Writing is hard.

But you can do it.

The world needs your stories!

Don't Let Writing Anxiety Cause Writer's Block

A final thought on writing anxiety:

Sometimes writing anxiety sneaks up on writers by labeling itself as writer's block. This is an issue because it disguises itself as something we think is out of our control.

Lots of writers will stop writing for long chunks of time because they're waiting for that creative spark. I'm sure you've heard the advice before: you can't wait for inspiration to strike!

Personally, I like this quote from writer Mary Kay Andrews:

“There’s no such thing as writer’s block. As long as your fingers can move over the keyboard, eventually it’ll segue into something.”

She's right, and this is a big reason why The Write Practice encourages writers to take fifteen minutes at the end of each post to share a prompt that will help writers PRACTICE writing. Now. This very second.

Remember, you can spend years mulling over the first draft of your book, but every moment you suspend on trying to make it perfect, you prevent yourself from delivering a finished manuscript that readers can review and critique.

And without a first draft, there will be no second.

There also won't be a second or third or forty-fifth book.

Do yourself a favor and embrace the problems causing your writing anxiety so you can consciously practice ways to overcome it.

If you need some extra help with this, I highly recommend checking out some of these great posts on The Write Practice:

• How to Overcome Writer’s Block While You Sleep
• 8 Bold Ways to Overcome Your Fear of Writing
• How to Overcome Writer's Burnout
• 10 Obstacles to Writing a Book and How to Conquer Them
• The Hardest Part of Writing Well

But before you do this, take a look at today's practice. Strike while the iron's hot, and even if it's not, keep going!

What’s the biggest problem contributing to your writing anxiety? Share in the comments below.

Set yourself some small writing deadlines for a story of “X” amount of words.

Establish your ending date (preferably something sooner than later). Take fifteen minutes to fill in four to five small deadlines that you'll complete along the way.

Jot down a little bit about what you'll include in each smaller deadline, either in bullet notes or sentences.

When you're done, share in the practice box below. Give feedback on your writing companion's posts—and keep coming back to update us all on how you're doing with meeting your benchmarks!

Oops! We could not locate your form.

J. D. Edwin

J. D. Edwin is a daydreamer and writer of fiction both long and short, usually in soft sci-fi or urban fantasy. Sign up for her newsletter for free articles on the writer life and updates on her novel, find her on Facebook and Twitter ( @JDEdwinAuthor ), or read one of her many short stories on Short Fiction Break literary magazine .

I don’t know what are the biggest barriers to writing. I think the closest approximation is ‘imposter syndrome’, which I also get when I’ve been off work for a while (or sometimes just over the weekend!).

The feeling is that I have forgotten something important; the thread of the book, the aim I had in mind, or even my sense of self, as a writer.

Though I’m getting better, I still have fits and starts of writing regularly and having ‘breaks’ that are too long. These breaks are only influenced by the conscious feeling that there’s something I’d rather be doing instead – even though I know keeping up with my writing is good for my general mental health, which is of course of the greatest importance.

It makes me think that there is an unfelt fear that is behind this – classic for all procrastination – but that I’m unable to reach the fear in the first place, let alone face it down. There are days when I even feel positive about writing and could certainly happily write, then I find that, for no real reason that I can trace, I just don’t.

This is a fantastic article! I love how you pinpointed different root causes of writer anxiety & then addressed each one. Prioritizing personal well-being is such an essential (yet often overlooked) part of the creative life so thank you for sharing about it in such a practical way.

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How to Overcome Anxiety

Steven Gans, MD is board-certified in psychiatry and is an active supervisor, teacher, and mentor at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Verywell / Laura Porter

Anxiety is something that everyone experiences from time to time, but for some people, it can become pervasive and excessive. Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is characterized by persistent, excessive worry.

If the problem started and ended with a single worry, it might not be such a big deal. Instead, people with GAD get bogged down as one worry leads to another and another.

7 Ways to Reduce Your Anxiety

What causes anxiety.

Some people tend to be more prone to anxiety, often due to upbringing or genetics , but there are also other factors at work that can contribute to the anxiety cycle. Such things include:

• Avoidance : Anxiety can persist and even grow worse because of the ways people respond to their worries. Individuals with untreated anxiety problems tend to respond to their fears by trying to suppress the worry, seek reassurance that nothing bad will happen, or avoid situations that might trigger the fear. These strategies can backfire and reinforce anxiety, creating a cycle.
• Distorted or biased thinking : Some worries might persist because of  biased thinking . This thinking could involve an overestimation of the likelihood of a bad outcome or an exaggeration of  how bad  the bad outcome will be.
• Negative thinking : Some worries are strengthened by negative thoughts about yourself, such as the belief that you would be unable to cope with uncertainty or an undesirable outcome.
• Selective memory and attention : Worries can also persist because of how information in the environment is processed. A person with GAD may selectively tune into information that supports the worry and ignore evidence that refutes it. Memory can also be selective.

In some cases, people with anxiety problems have difficulty recalling data that is inconsistent with a particular worry.

Impact of Anxiety

Anxiety can have a number of distressing effects on your health and well-being. Some of these include:

• Avoidance of triggering situations
• Irritability
• Intrusive, unwanted thoughts
• Panic attacks
• Poor concentration
• Restlessness

Intrusive, anxious thoughts can create distress and make it difficult to cope. Take, for example, this worry: "My boyfriend is going to break up with me." This is an intrusive thought that is actually quite normal for a person to have. It might come up out of the blue or in response to a specific situation.

However, an overly anxious person would appraise this thought as very meaningful, review all the reasons why this thought might be true, try to reduce the anxiety in the short term (effectively strengthening it in the long term), and become very stressed by it.

As a result, the belief becomes even more significant and is experienced more frequently and more intensely than in someone without an anxiety problem. To overcome anxiety, this vicious cycle needs to be broken.

There are different ways that you may be able to overcome anxiety in order to enjoy better emotional wellness. The following are some strategies you might try to include.

One way to overcome anxiety is to learn to accept that not every intrusive thought is signaling a legitimate reason to worry. Simply put, not every thought is true. So it's often unhelpful to try to disprove the beliefs.

Try an acceptance-based approach instead, which includes:

• Identifying the thought
• Labeling it ("worry" or "judgment," for example)
• Being aware of the moment when the thought comes up
• Being aware of the moment when the thought begins to recede from awareness

An acceptance-based approach means that you observe the thought you're having without the urgency you might normally feel to address it, fix it, argue with it, or believe it. You are letting it come and go without focusing on it.

Questioning

Cognitive restructuring is another strategy that can help you change the way you perceive situations and lessen your anxiety. This technique is a cornerstone of a treatment approach called cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT).

Cognitive restructuring offers a way to critically evaluate potentially distorted thoughts, like "He’s definitely going to break up with me." You ask a series of questions about the belief that can encourage a more balanced view.

For instance, "He's definitely going to break up with me," might turn into a more realistic belief such as, "Just because we had a small argument doesn't mean our relationship will end."

The basic concept of exposure is to lean into anxiety by confronting, rather than avoiding, anxiety-provoking situations to learn  by experience. You learn that nothing terrible will happen, or that bad outcomes are manageable (and might even have an upside).

When facing a fear, it is critical to refrain from any safety behaviors that might "undo" learning; this is sometimes referred to as response prevention.

For instance, an exposure exercise could be intentionally disagreeing with a boyfriend or imagining what it would be like to get into a major argument. Repetition helps with exposure, so repeating an exposure until it all becomes more boring than anxiety-provoking can be important.

The response prevention component would be to do these things  and not ask whether or not your boyfriend is mad , so as to learn to live with uncertainty. While the cycle of anxiety is often vicious, breaking even one link can go a long way to diminishing worry and the anxiety to which it leads.

Research shows that anxiety levels can be impacted by the kinds of foods and drinks you consume. One study observed that participants who consumed more saturated fats and added sugars had higher anxiety levels than those who consumed fewer fats and less sugar.

Eating fruits, vegetables, healthy fats, and high-fiber foods—while limiting processed foods—is connected with improving mood and making it easier to manage psychiatric conditions like anxiety and depression .

Caffeine can also increase your anxiety levels. If you drink more than one cup of coffee per day, try scaling back or eliminate it altogether and note whether your anxiety improves. Caffeine is also in many teas, beverages, and foods (like chocolate) so make sure to read nutrition labels to monitor how much you're consuming.

Physical Exercise

Find a way to move your body that feels good—it doesn't have to be a long and arduous workout. Taking a walk for even 10 minutes can help improve your mood.

Exercise can improve your concentration, your sleep, and lower your stress levels. Many doctors advise physical exercise alongside therapy and/or medication for people with anxiety and depression.

Mindfulness

Other coping strategies you can try to help ease anxiety include practicing techniques such as mindfulness, meditation, deep breathing , and progressive muscle relaxation . One study, for example, found that people who practiced a technique known as mindfulness meditation experienced significant reductions in stress and anxiety.

Connect With Nature

Connecting with nature is another way to improve your anxiety. Studies find that using any of the five senses to feel closer to nature—taking a walk in the woods or even listening to nature sounds—can boost your mood and puts you in a more relaxed state.

Beyond generalized anxiety disorder, anxiety can also be a symptom of a number of other disorders including phobias , panic disorder, and social anxiety disorder .

It's important to recognize that you are not alone: Anxiety disorders are one of the most common mental health conditions in the U.S. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, an estimated 19.1% of U.S. adults experienced some type of anxiety disorder during the past year and more than 30% of adults will have an anxiety disorder at some point in their lives.

If anxiety is causing distress and disruptions in your normal functioning, it is important to get help. Treatments for anxiety typically rely on psychotherapy , medications , or a combination of the two. Talk to your doctor about your symptoms in order to determine what approach to treatment might work best for you.

If you or a loved one are struggling with anxiety, contact the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) National Helpline at 1-800-662-4357 for information on support and treatment facilities in your area. 

For more mental health resources, see our National Helpline Database .

Press Play for Advice On Dealing With Anxiety

This episode of The Verywell Mind Podcast shares a strategy to help you cope with anxiety.

Follow Now : Apple Podcasts / Spotify / Google Podcasts / Amazon Music

A Word From Verywell

Anxiety can create a vicious cycle that is difficult to escape. Fortunately, anxiety is highly treatable. Self-help strategies to overcome anxiety can be helpful, but it is also important to talk to your doctor about your treatment options. By taking steps to get better, you can help ensure that your anxiety isn't keeping you from achieving the things you want to do.

National Institute of Mental Health. US Department of Health and Human Services. Generalized anxiety disorder: When worry gets out of control .

Wells A. Metacognitive theory and therapy for worry and generalized anxiety disorder: Review and status. Journal of Experimental Psychopathology . 2010;1(1):133-145. doi:10.5127/jep.007910

Mogg K, Bradley BP. Anxiety and attention to threat: Cognitive mechanisms and treatment with attention bias modification . Behav Res Ther . 2016;87:76-108. doi:10.1016/j.brat.2016.08.001

Cleveland Clinic. Anxiety disorders .

Treanor M, Erisman SM, Salters-Pedneault K, Roemer L, Orsillo SM. Acceptance-based behavioral therapy for GAD: Effects on outcomes from three theoretical models . Depress Anxiety . 2011;28(2):127-36.  doi:10.1002/da.20766

Tolin D. Doing CBT: A Comprehensive Guide To Working With Behaviors, Thoughts, And Emotions . Guilford Publications, Inc.; 2016.

Masana MF, Tyrovolas S, Kolia N, et al. Dietary Patterns and their association with anxiety symptoms among older adults: The ATTICA study .  Nutrients . 2019;11(6):1250. doi:10.3390/nu11061250

Firth J, Gangwisch JE, Borsini A, Wootton RE, Mayer EA. Food and mood: How do diet and nutrition affect mental wellbeing? . BMJ . 2020:m2382. doi:10.1136/bmj.m2382

Santos VA, Hoirisch-Clapauch S, Nardi AE, Freire RC. Panic disorder and chronic caffeine use: A case-control study .  Clin Pract Epidemiol Ment Health . 2019;15:120-125. doi:10.2174/1745017901915010120

Anxiety & Depression Association of America. Exercise for stress and anxiety .

Ratanasiripong P, Park JF, Ratanasiripong N, Kathalae D.  Stress and anxiety management in nursing students: Biofeedback and mindfulness meditation .  J Nurs Educ . 2015;54(9):520-4. doi:10.3928/01484834-20150814-07

Franco LS, Shanahan DF, Fuller RA. A review of the benefits of nature experiences: More than meets the eye .  Int J Environ Res Public Health . 2017;14(8):864. doi:10.3390/ijerph14080864

National Institute of Mental Health. An anxiety disorder .

Abramowitz JS, Deacon BJ, Whiteside SPH. Exposure Therapy for Anxiety: Principles and Practice. New York: The Guilford Press; 2011.

By Deborah R. Glasofer, PhD Deborah Glasofer, PhD is a professor of clinical psychology and practitioner of cognitive behavioral therapy.

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Has this ever happened to you? You’ve been studying hard for your chemistry midterm, but when you walk into your exam, your mind goes blank. As you sit down to start your test, you notice your sweaty palms and a pit in your stomach. 

If these classic signs of test anxiety sound familiar, your grades and test scores may not reflect your true abilities. Learn ways to manage test anxiety before and during a stressful test.

What is Test Anxiety?

While it’s completely normal to feel a bit nervous before a test, some students find test anxiety debilitating. Racing thoughts, inability to concentrate, or feelings of dread can combine with physical symptoms like a fast heartbeat, headache, or nausea. Whether it’s the ACT , an AP exam , or an important history final, test anxiety has the power to derail weeks and months of hard work. 

Test Anxiety Tips

According to the ADAA , causes of test anxiety may include a fear of failure, lack of adequate prep time, or bad experiences taking tests in the past. You're not alone! Here's what you can do to stay calm in the days leading up to and during your test.

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1. Be prepared.

Yes, this seems obvious, but it bears repeating. If you feel confident that you’ve prepped thoroughly, you’ll feel more confident walking into the test. Need help reviewing tough concepts or question types? The test prep experts at The Princeton Review can provide that extra boost you need to feel cool and collected.

2. Get a good night’s sleep.

Cramming is never the answer, and pulling an all-nighter can exacerbate your nerves. Having adequate rest (9–10 hours per night) is likely to be more beneficial than rereading a text until dawn (But if you ARE up late studying and have a question, our on-demand tutors are there for you.)

3. Fuel up.

Eat a nutritious breakfast before the test and pack smart snacks for ongoing energy. Look for foods that offer a steady stream of nutrients, rather than a sugar high followed by a crash.

4. Get to class—or the testing site—early .

Feeling rushed will only amp up the anxiety. Pack everything you need for the exam the night before and set the alarm, so you can get out the door on time.

5. Have a positive mental attitude .  

Bring a picture of your happy place or come up with a morale-boosting mantra like “I can do this” or “I worked hard and deserve this.” Peek at your picture or recite your mantra, right before the test begins.

6. Read carefully.

Read the directions thoroughly and read all answers before making a choice or starting the essay. There is nothing worse than putting time into a question and realizing you are not solving for x, or the essay is off target. Slowing down can help you stay focused.

7. Just start.   

The blank page can maximize your anxiety. After you’ve read the directions, dive right in by making an outline for an essay answer. Or, find some questions you can ace to build up your confidence and momentum. You can always go back and change things later if needed, but a few quick answers can get the ball rolling.

Read More: 5 Signs You Need a Tutor

8. Don’t pay attention to what other people are doing.

Everyone else is scribbling away? Ack! What do they know that you don’t? It doesn’t matter. Pay attention to your own test and pace, and forget about the other students in the room.

9. Watch the clock .

Realizing that time is almost up and there are lots of test questions left can make it hard to do anything useful in those final minutes. Stay on pace by scoping out the whole test before getting started. Mentally allocate how much time you’ll spend on each section. If there’s time to recheck, even better.

10. Focus on calm breathing and positive thoughts .

Deep breathing can slow down a beating heart or a racing mind, so practice these techniques at home. The very act of concentrating on breathing and thinking can biometrically alter those anxious feelings.

Sometimes just remembering that some  test-taking anxiety is a normal part of school can help make it easier to handle. If you need a confidence boost, try a session with an online tutor. From PhDs and Ivy Leaguers to doctors and teachers, our tutors are experts in their fields, and they know how to keep your anxiety at bay.

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Anxiety Essay: Simple Writing Guide for an A+ Result

Table of Contents

If you’re a Psychology department student, you’re sure to get an anxiety essay assignment one day. The reason for the popularity of this topic today is that people live in chronic stress conditions today, with numerous challenges and pressures surrounding them in daily routines.

In this article, we’ve tried to present a comprehensive guide on composing this type of assignment so that your work on it gets simpler and quicker.

Here you can find:

• Step-by-step instructions on writing essays about anxiety.
• The summary of challenges students face in the preparation of anxiety essay works and ways to deal with them.
• Types of assignments you may face on this topic.
• A list of bulletproof topics to pick when composing an anxiety essay.

How to Write a Thesis for an Essay on Anxiety

Composing a thesis statement is typically the most challenging task for students who are just starting. Your primary goal is to encapsulate your key message in that sentence and to clarify the major arguments you’ll use in the text.

So, here are some tips to make your thesis effective:

• Try to make it not too long and not too short. One-two sentences are enough to communicate the key idea of your paper.
• Focus on the arguments you’ve selected for the paper, and don’t go off-topic. Your readers will expect to read about what they learned from the thesis in the body of your assignment.
• Don’t sound opinionated, but make sure to voice your standpoint. The thesis is your guidance on the point you’ll argue; it’s also the readers’ roadmap through the website content.

With these tips, you’ll surely be much better positioned to complete an anxiety essay with ease. Still, there are some intricacies of the process to keep in mind. Here are our experts’ observations about the challenges you can come across in the process of its composition.

Essay on Anxiety Disorder: Key Difficulties & Differences

Anxiety disorder (AD) is a psychological condition that many people experience in different ways. It differs in manifestations, regularity of symptoms, and intensity. Living with AD is fine for some people as they constantly feel a bit overwhelmed with what’s around them. In contrast, others suffer a permanent disability because of intense worrying symptoms and the inability to concentrate on their work and social responsibilities.

Thus, when composing your anxiety essay, you should be delicate to this sensitive theme, knowing that AD causes real trouble to many people worldwide.

Second, you should be concrete about your selected population. Children, teens, and adults experience AD differently, so your analysis may be incorrect if you talk about children but select scholarly sources talking about adults.

Third, it’s vital to rely on viable clinical evidence when discussing AD. There are differing views on whether it is a severe clinical condition or not. Still, suppose you’re discussing people’s experiences with AD. In that case, it’s better to inform your argument, not by anecdotal evidence from blogs or social media, but to focus on the scholarly articles instead.

What Is a Panic Disorder Essay

A panic disorder essay is a piece of writing you dedicate to the analysis of this disorder. A panic disorder is a specific condition that manifests itself much more intensely than the typical worrying does. Overall, psychiatrists consider it a variety of AD, but this condition is characterized by sudden, intense attacks of panic or fear people experience because of specific triggers.

As a rule, you can diagnose a panic attack by the following symptoms:

• Hot flushes
• A feeling of choking
• Trembling extremities
• Sweating and nausea
• A sudden rise in the heartbeat rate
• Dryness in your mouth
• Ringing in your ears
• A sudden attack of fear of dying; a feeling that you are dying
• A feeling of psychological disconnection with your body (the body parts don’t obey you)

Panic attacks as such as not considered a severe clinical condition. Yet, if people experience them too often and are too concerned about repeated attacks, they should see a psychotherapist and get treatment. Treatment modalities typically include psychotherapy (e.g., talking therapies, CBT) or medications (e.g., antidepressants or SSRI).

Main Steps to Writing a Panic Disorder Essay

When you’re tasked with a panic disorder assignment, the main steps to take in its preparation are essentially similar to those you’ll take with any other anxiety essay:

• You formulate a debatable topic and a clear, informative thesis statement
• You find relevant evidence to support each of your arguments
• You organize your arguments and content into a coherent outline
• You draft the paper and edit it
• You compose a reference list to indicate all external sources and complete the final proofreading of the final draft.

What Is a Social Anxiety Disorder Essay

Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is another form of worrying disorder that people are increasingly diagnosed with today. Clinicians have started taking this condition seriously only a couple of years ago after recognizing that much deeper psychological issues can stand behind what we are used to labeling as shyness. In its severe manifestations, SAD can take the form of a social phobia, which can significantly limit people’s functionality in society, causing problems with schooling, employment, and relationship building.

Still, after recognizing the real problem behind SAD, the psychological community has developed numerous therapeutic and pharmacological ways of dealing with it. So, at present, you can approach the SAD in your essay from numerous perspectives: analyze its symptomatology, the causes underlying SAD development, types of SAD experienced at different ages, and therapeutic approaches to its lifelong management.

Main Steps to Writing a Social Anxiety Disorder Essay

When approaching this type of academic task, you should answer a couple of crucial questions first. What do you know about this topic? Why is it significant? What needs to be clarified on this topic to help people suffering from this condition live better lives? Once you get clear on your writing goals on SAD, it will be much easier to formulate a workable, exciting thesis statement and elicit strong arguments.

Next, you need to research the subject. You’re sure to find much valuable information about SAD in academic sources. Sort the relevant sources out and categorize them by arguments to cite appropriate evidence in each paragraph.

Once you have all the needed sources collected and sorted by argument, you can proceed to the outline of your project. Set the general context in the introduction, define SAD, and clarify why researching this topic is significant. Next, shape all key arguments and develop topic sentences. After that, you can add the relevant evidence in the outline by indicating which source supports which argument.

The next step involves writing the paper’s draft. You should add “meat” to the “bones” of your outline by presenting the data coherently and systematically. Add transitions between paragraphs to enhance the overall flow of the content.

The final step is to edit and proofread the draft to make it look polished and fine-tuned.

20+ Anxiety Essay Topics for Engaging Writing

If you’re still unsure what to include in your essay and what subject to pick, here is a list of attention-grabbing, exciting anxiety essay topics for your use.

• Is anxiety a genetically inherited disorder?
• What environmental factors can cause the development of worries and panic?
• GAD symptoms you can detect in a child.
• What are the symptoms of excessive worrying that require medical assistance?
• Gender differences in the exposure to anxiety disorders.
• Types of clinically diagnosed anxiety disorders.
• Is excessive worrying a personality trait or a clinical condition?
• Are students more anxious and stressed than other population groups because of frequent testing?
• Diagnosis and treatment of AD.
• Does the manifestation of ADs different in children and adults?
• CBT therapy for overly anxious children.
• What is a social anxiety disorder, and how is it manifested in people’s behavior?
• Is feeling permanently anxious cause sleep disorders?
• Correlations between autism and social anxiety disorder.
• Is public speaking a good method to overcome anxiety?
• The therapeutic effects of positive self-talk.
• The social media body image and female teenager anxiety.
• How does low self-esteem reinforce the feeling of anxiety in teenagers?
• The phenomenon of language anxiety among immigrant students.
• The impact of child anxiety on academic attainment, dyslexia, and antisocial behavior.

We Are Here to Help You 24/7

Still, having problems with your essay on anxiety disorder? We have a solution that may interest you. Our experts have all the needed qualifications and experience in writing this type of academic paper, so they can quickly help you out with any topic and any task at hand.

Surprise your tutor with an ideally composed paper without investing a single extra minute into its writing! Contact our managers today to find out the terms, and you’ll soon receive an impeccably written document with credible sources and compelling arguments. Studying without hardships and challenges is a reality with our help.

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Home — Essay Samples — Nursing & Health — Anxiety — How to overcome anxiety disorder

How to Overcome Anxiety Disorder

• Categories: Anxiety Anxiety Disorder

About this sample

Words: 560 |

Published: Jan 4, 2019

Words: 560 | Page: 1 | 3 min read

• Self-help information in the Recovery Support area of our website.
• Personal coaching/counseling/therapy program delivered by experienced and professionally trained therapists who have personally experienced and successfully overcame problematic anxiety in their own lives.

Works Cited

• Anxiety Centre. (n.d.). Overcome Anxiety Disorder: Self-Help Information, Coaching/Therapy. Retrieved from https://www.anxietycentre.com/
• Bourne, E. J. (2015). The Anxiety & Phobia Workbook (6th ed.). New Harbinger Publications.
• Clark, D. A., & Beck, A. T. (2010). Cognitive therapy of anxiety disorders: Science and practice. Guilford Press.
• Craske, M. G., & Barlow, D. H. (2013). Mastery of your anxiety and panic: Workbook for primary care settings (4th ed.). Oxford University Press.
• Hofmann, S. G., & Otto, M. W. (Eds.). (2017). Cognitive behavioral therapy for anxiety disorders: Mastering clinical challenges. Routledge.
• Leahy, R. L. (2017). Cognitive therapy techniques for anxiety: A practitioner's guide. Guilford Press.
• Norton, P. J. (2012). Group cognitive-behavioral therapy of anxiety: A transdiagnostic treatment manual. Guilford Press.
• Rapee, R. M., & Spence, S. H. (2008). The etiology of social phobia: Empirical evidence and an initial model. Clinical Psychology Review, 28(6), 836-864.
• Richards, J. C., & Schmidt, F. L. (2015). Anxiety: A Brief History. Wiley-Blackwell.
• Tyrer, P., & Baldwin, D. (2006). Generalised anxiety disorder. The Lancet, 368(9553), 2156-2166.

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Anxiety Disorders and Depression Essay (Critical Writing)

Introduction, description section, feelings section, action plan, reference list.

Human beings become anxious in different situations that are uncertain to them. Depression and anxiety occur at a similar time. Anxiety is caused due to an overwhelming fear of an expected occurrence of an event that is unclear to a person. More than 25 million people globally are affected by anxiety disorders. People feel anxious in moments such as when making important decisions, before facing an interview panel, and before taking tests. Anxiety disorders are normally brained reactions to stress as they alert a person of impending danger. Most people feel sad and low due to disappointments. Feelings normally overwhelm a person leading to depression, especially during sad moments such as losing a loved one or divorce. When people are depressed, they engage in reckless behaviors such as drug abuse that affect them physically and emotionally. However, depression manifests in different forms in both men and women. Research shows that more women are depressed compared to men. This essay reflects on anxiety disorders and depression regarding from a real-life experience extracted from a publication.

“Every year almost 20% of the general population suffers from a common mental disorder, such as depression or an anxiety disorder” (Cuijpers et al. 2016, p.245). I came across a publication by Madison Jo Sieminski available who was diagnosed with depression and anxiety disorders (Madison 2020). She explains how she was first diagnosed with anxiety disorders and depression and how it felt unreal at first. She further says that she developed the need to get a distraction that would keep her busy so that she won’t embrace her situation. In her case, anxiety made her feel that she needed to do more, and everything needed to be perfect.

Madison further said that the struggle with anxiety is that it never seemed to happen, but it happened eventually. She always felt a feeling of darkness and loneliness. She could barely stay awake for more than 30 minutes for many days. Anxiety and depression made her question herself if she was good enough, and this resulted in tears in her eyes due to the burning sensation and overwhelmed emotions. In her own words, she said, “Do I deserve to be here? What is my purpose?” (Madison 2020). Anxiety made her lose confidence in herself and lowered her self-esteem. She could lay in bed most of the time and could not take any meal most of the days.

Madison said that since the sophomore year of high school, all was not well, and she suddenly felt someone in her head telling her to constantly worry and hold back from everything. She could wake up days when she could try a marathon to keep her mind busy. However, she sought help on 1 January 2020, since she felt her mental health was important, and she needed to be strong. She was relieved from her biggest worries, and what she thought was failure turned into a biggest achievement. She realized that her health needed to be her priority. Even after being diagnosed with depression disorders, she wanted to feel normal and have a normal lifestyle like other people.

Madison was happy with her decision to seek medical help even though she had her doubts. She was happy that she finally took that step to see a doctor since she was suffering in silence. She noted that the background of her depression and anxiety disorders was her family. It was kind of genetic since her mom also struggled with depression and anxiety disorders. Her mom was always upset, and this broke her heart. She said it took her years to better herself, but she still had bad days. Madison decided to take the challenge regarding her mother’s experience. Also, Madison said she was struggling to get over depression since her childhood friends committed suicide, and it affected her deeply. She also told the doctor how she often thought of harming herself. The doctor advised her on the different ways she could overcome her situation after discovering she had severe depression and anxiety disorders.

After going through Madison’s story, I was hurt by the fact that he had to go through that for a long time, and something tragic could have happened if she had not resorted to medical help. I felt emotional by the fact that she constantly blamed herself due to her friends who committed suicide, and she decided to accumulate all the pain and worries. The fact that I have heard stories of how people commit suicide due to depression and anxiety disorders made me have a somber mood considering her case. In this case, you will never know what people are going through in their private lives until they decide to open up. We normally assume every person is okay, yet they fight their demons and struggle to look okay. Hence, it won’t cost any person to check up on other people, especially if they suddenly change their social characters.

Madison’s story stood out for me since she had struggled since childhood to deal with depression and anxiety disorders. In her case, she was unable to seek help first even when she knew that she was suffering in silence (Madison 2020). However, most people find it hard to admit they need help regardless of what they are going through, like Madison. People who are depressed cannot work as they lack the motivation to do anything. In my knowledge, depression affects people close to you, including your family and friends. Depression also hurts those who love someone suffering from it. Hence, it is complex to deal with. Madison’s situation stood out for me since her childhood friends committed suicide, and she wished silently she could be with them. Hence, this leads to her constant thoughts of harming herself. Childhood friends at one point can become your family even though you are not related by blood due to the memories you share.

Depression and Anxiety disorders have been common mental health concerns globally for a long time. Depression and anxiety disorders create the impression that social interactions are vague with no meaning. It is argued by Cuijpers (2016, p.245) that people who are depressed normally have personality difficulties as they find it hard to trust people around them, including themselves. In this case, Madison spent most of her time alone, sleeping, and could not find it necessary to hang around other people. Negativity is the order of the day as people depressed find everything around them not interesting.

People who are depressed find it easy to induce negativity in others. Hence, they end up being rejected. Besides, if someone is depressed and is in a relationship, he/she may be the reason for ending the relationship since they would constantly find everything offensive. Research shows that people who are clinically depressed, such as Madison, prefer sad facial expressions to happy facial expressions. Besides, most teenagers in the 21 st century are depressed, and few parents tend to notice that. Also, most teenagers lack parental love and care since their parents are busy with their job routines and have no time to engage their children. Research has shown that suicide is the second cause of death among teenagers aged between 15-24 years due to mental disorders such as suicide and anxiety disorders.

Despite depression being a major concern globally, it can be controlled and contained if specific actions are taken. Any person needs to prioritize their mental health to avoid occurrences of depression and anxiety orders. Emotional responses can be used to gauge if a person is undergoing anxiety and depression. The best efficient way to deal with depression and anxiety is to sensitize people about depression through different media platforms (Cuijpers et al. 2016). A day in a month should be set aside where students in colleges are sensitized on the symptoms of depression and how to cope up with the situation. Some of the basic things to do to avoid anxiety and depression include; talking to someone when you are low, welcoming humor, learning the cause of your anxiety, maintaining a positive attitude, exercising daily, and having enough sleep.

Depression and anxiety disorders are different forms among people, such as irritability and nervousness. Most people are diagnosed with depression as a psychiatric disorder. Technology has been a major catalyst in enabling depression among people as they are exposed to many negative experiences online. Besides, some people are always motivated by actions of other people who seem to have given up due to depression. Many people who develop depression normally have a history of anxiety disorders. Therefore, people with depression need to seek medical attention before they harm themselves or even commit suicide. Also, people need to speak out about what they are going through to either their friends or people they trust. Speaking out enables people to relieve their burden and hence it enhances peace.

Cuijpers, P., Cristea, I.A., Karyotaki, E., Reijnders, M. and Huibers, M.J., 2016. How effective are cognitive behavior therapies for major depression and anxiety disorders? A meta‐analytic update of the evidence . World Psychiatry 15(3), pp. 245-258.

Madison, J. 2020. Open Doors .

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IvyPanda. (2022, June 16). Anxiety Disorders and Depression. https://ivypanda.com/essays/anxiety-disorders-and-depression/

"Anxiety Disorders and Depression." IvyPanda , 16 June 2022, ivypanda.com/essays/anxiety-disorders-and-depression/.

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IvyPanda . 2022. "Anxiety Disorders and Depression." June 16, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/anxiety-disorders-and-depression/.

1. IvyPanda . "Anxiety Disorders and Depression." June 16, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/anxiety-disorders-and-depression/.

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IvyPanda . "Anxiety Disorders and Depression." June 16, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/anxiety-disorders-and-depression/.

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Best Personal Essay ever- My Struggle with Anxiety

I’m Justin Stewart, a junior that attends Science Leadership Academy. During the first quarter of my junior year at SLA, my class and I would take vocab quizzes every other week.  It sounded easy to most people but was it really easy? For me, it was a struggle because of the anxiety that I have. Anxiety is a mental health disorder characterized by feelings of worry, anxiety, or fear that are strong enough to interfere with someone's daily activities. My anxiety first started in fourth grade. We had to do group presentations about what we found while researching how light bulbs worked. It was my groups turn to go up and that’s when my anxiety kicked in for the first time. “Justin lets go” my friend said as I continued to stare at everyone in the classroom. At that moment, I came up with an Idea. I decided to pretend that I was sick and ask to go to the nurse. Surprisingly It worked and my teacher let me go to the nurse.

Before every vocab quiz, we had to write down the words that she posted on canvas in the back of our notebooks. Then we had to find the definition and write a sentence for the word.

On the very first vocab quiz, I was feeling confident because I spent that whole week studying. I thought that I was going to pass it by getting a 10 out of 10,but I was wrong. As my teacher, Ms. Pahomov, wrote the words on the board, I felt really nervous and was afraid to take the test. There were some words that weren’t coming back to me. “You may begin” Ms Pahomov said. I spent the first 20 minutes just staring at the paper. I couldn’t believe that I forgot the words so quickly and so easily. After about 20 minutes, I began to try my best. I started with the words that I remembered then tried to figure out the ones that I had forgotten. Before I had known, time was up. “Put your test in the middle of the table” Ms Pahomov said. As I put my test in the middle of the test, I realized I did it with fear in my eyes. I knew that I didn’t do too well on the test. We then were asked to grade our classmates papers as well, and as we started to grade each other’s quizzes,  I zoned out. I couldn’t focus on grading the test that I had. All I could focus on was who graded my test and what they would think of me.

The next day, I went on canvas to see if she graded the quizzes and she did. I got a 5 out of 10. I did better than I thought I was going to do, but it still brought my grade down. “How can I bring my grade up?” I thought to myself. I then thought about the 2fer essays that she assigns us every week, the weeks that we don’t have vocab quizzes. The 2fers could be about anything as long as they weren’t in first person. I took these essays as opportunities to bring my grade up. Completing  one of the 2fer essays, and I got an 18 out of 25. It wasn’t too bad, but I knew I could do better.

The week after the 2fer, we had another vocab quiz assigned and my anxiety immediately kicked in. But this time I wasn’t scared, I was just nervous. I wasn’t afraid to take this test because I knew some of the words already. So I was even more confident than before,ut I slacked the whole week and didn’t study a lot. When I walked into the room, all I could hope for was the words that I knew were on the quiz so I could at least get some credit on the quiz. When Ms. Pahomov wrote the words on the board, none of the words that I knew before the test were on there. At that moment, every last bit of nervousness crawled back into my body. My hands started to sweat and my heart started to beat really fast. “You may begin.” Ms. Pahomov.” It felt like deja vu all over again. I couldn’t believe that I was getting nervous again. While I was taking the test, the words were coming back to me, or I thought.

The next day I went on Canvas again to see what I got this time. This time I was even more nervous and scared to look at my grade than before. I haven’t seen my grade yet, but I already knew that I did worse than the first quiz. I got a 4 out of 10 and my grade dropped again but not as much as I thought it would. I then thought of the same method I used last time. I then started thinking about my next 2fer topic. I worked even harder than I did on my first 2fer and I did slightly better than I did last time. I got a 19 out of 25. It was better than last time, but once again, I knew I could do better. I had no anxiety when it came to writing the 2fers. I began relying on them to bring my grade up.

The week after our second 2fer was the week for our third vocab quiz. When Ms. Pahomov revealed the words in class, I felt even more confident than the first two vocab quizzes. I felt like the words were easier to remember.  I spent that whole week studying and this time I made flash cards to help me remember,ut they still didn’t help. By the time I got to the classroom, I forgot some of the words. Now my anxiety was even more intense than last time. “You may begin” Ms Pahomov said. As usual, I started out with the words I knew.  That brought my confidence up. But then the words I forgot took my confidence away. I felt like it was happening all over again. Me being somewhat confident in myself, only to get let down in the end. I was tired of it. By the end of class, I was so depressed that I didn’t want to talk to anyone. I went straight to advisory and sat down.

What I learned from this experience is that quizzes are not my strong point.  No matter how much I prepare for them, they will always be a struggle for me because of my anxiety. My anxiety has been going on since fourth grade and I still don’t know how to overcome it. It would prevent me from being comfortable with talking to some of my classmates and doing presentations in front of them. Over the years my anxiety settled down a lot. But it’s not fully gone. When I first started school in Kindergarten, I didn’t talk to anyone because I was afraid to. But now here I am in 11th grade and I am more comfortable when I am talking to people.

Comments (6)

I remember reading this and watching this earlier this week because you got it done early and was super impressed. We are super close and hang or at least talk every day and im not gonna lie it shocked me a bit. I always knew you were quiet but didnt know you had anxiety. But none the less I am still very impressed with what youve done and think that everything worked well in your essay. Plus this tpic is very relatable LOL

you are stronger than your struggles

From reading this essay, I was able to learn more about your thought process when you feel nervous about a test. I think that the repetition did a good job of bringing the reader back to the first moment that you felt anxiety over the test.

I did not know you have anxiety; You used repetition, this worked for your you essay

Repetition- I repeated the phrase, "you may begin" Anecdote- The story is about my anxiety

I like how you kept bringing back the scene of the vocab quizzes and 2fers. That kind of repetition worked really well for this essay.

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‘Can I Get Over My Debilitating Social Anxiety?’

This column first ran in John Paul Brammer’s  Hola Papi  newsletter, which you can subscribe to on Substack.

¡Hola, Papi!

I’m in my early 30s. Last year, I gave up drinking. It’s been nice, and I haven’t felt compelled to pick it up again. Lately, I’ve started trying to go out more and to be more socially active. It’s working, but the problem is, I have so much social anxiety and social impostor syndrome. “You don’t belong here,” the anxiety tells me. “These people pity you and talk about you when you leave.” It makes it hard to feel at ease, which makes the social anxiety worse. I thought I got over this when I first went to college, but now it’s coming up again in my post-drinking world.

The other issue is that I’m meeting people that I feel intensely eager to connect with as friends. I haven’t felt this vulnerable in a long time! What if they don’t feel the same way? What if it’s cringey that I want to get closer to them? What if they’re just humoring me, and the niceness and connection I feel is built on politeness? Why is having human feelings so deeply embarrassing?

I know I need to be more compassionate toward myself, but it’s hard. I know I need confidence, but I don’t know where to start. I think about a recent time I went out to the club when I wanted so badly to dance, but the fear of being seen was so physically painful that all I could do was stand there. 

So, how do I get out of my head and into my body? How do I stop worrying about how I’m perceived? How can I make friends effortlessly without coming on too strong, but also without making them feel like I’m not interested? And how do I do it all without the help of alcohol? 

Signed, The Impostor

Hey there, Impostor!

I think a lot of people, myself included, can relate to your letter. It’s incredibly embarrassing to be an adult with a Roth IRA and still be walking away from social interactions with thoughts like, Did they like me? Did I say the wrong thing? Are they talking about how weird I am since I left? Am I God’s most hated creation? Personally, it’s likely I will still be doing this at 136 years old after my consciousness is uploaded to the Cloud, where I will exist as a bodiless line of code, wondering if the other bodiless lines of code I just met have decided to make a private server without me.

I go back and forth on the term “impostor syndrome” as a descriptor for the suite of anxieties that attend meeting new people or being put in challenging social interactions. It’s nice to have a file to put those unruly, chaotic emotions under. But at the same time, I don’t think my problem is that I’m faking it. I know several people who’ve read Judith Butler. I understand that everyone is performing . Everyone is an actor, an impostor, in a way. I don’t know about you, but my problem is that my performance sucks. If anything, the issue is that I’m either too cold and aloof, or too eager to expose my real self to someone I desperately want to get to know. As it turns out, my “real self” is apparently an eighth-grader who just wants the cool kids to acknowledge him as worthy.

But let’s roll with “impostor syndrome” as a catchall for “fear of flopping in social settings.” Regardless of whether you are “me” or “someone else,” it is the case, at least in my mind, that impostor syndrome is a self-imposed narrative. It’s paranoia, and like all shades and flavors of paranoia, this one too is rooted in delusion.

Now, when I say that, I don’t mean that no one in a group of strangers is judging you, thinking unkind things about you, or, worse yet, dismissing you altogether. I don’t want to freak you out, but the reality is, these are definite possibilities. That’s life! It’s not delusional to think that you won’t be some people’s cup of tea. If anything, it’s astute. What’s delusional is this idea that some people not liking you is a massive problem that must supersede everything else on your list of concerns. The delusion is that you have to care — a lot — about strangers approving of you, and that if you don’t get that approval, it must mean there’s something fundamentally wrong with you, that you are a pathetic worm person no one will ever love. No one is thinking about you that hard.

But if impostor syndrome is delusional, then why do we cling to it so dearly? Why, if it does nothing but hinder us, would we elect to worry so much? Well, for one, of course, anxiety is hardly a choice. But in some ways, I think impostor syndrome is a defense mechanism gone awry. For those of us who come from backgrounds where reading the room felt like a matter of life or death (gay in rural Oklahoma, for example), it’s possible that we developed a reflexive instinct to interrogate our immediate surroundings to calculate our optimal position in it: Do I belong here? Are these people friends or foes? Is this a place where it would be safer to be invisible? Some of us learned the hard way to be on guard at all times and to flee at the very first sign of danger.

Impostor syndrome also preempts criticism. Sometimes, we’re cruel to ourselves just to beat other people to the punch. Walking into a room thinking, Remember, you’re a fundamentally flawed human being, so try not to let that show might sound insane on paper, but in practice, it can feel like you’re getting ahead of something, like you’re protecting yourself from being blindsided by rejection or unpleasant information.

Perhaps you’ve already picked up on this, but this line of thinking makes complete sense for a person who already, for whatever reason, doesn’t like themselves very much. Getting back to me, my favorite and least favorite person on earth, it’s almost as if I view meeting new people as a desperate way to disprove the nasty things I suspect about myself — that I’m unattractive, that I don’t know how to get close to people, that I don’t register as someone people want to get to know better, that I don’t sparkle, I don’t shine. Social settings with strangers become a sort of test site for these unsavory hypotheses. Will I be proven right, or, God willing, proven wrong?

With all this swirling anxiety, it’s no wonder so many people turn to alcohol or drugs to get out of their own heads. So then, without those, what to do?

Well, what’s helped me is to remind myself that, yes, impostor syndrome is indeed a narrative, and that I’m a writer. I can rework the story. When I feel those familiar fears crop up when meeting new people, I remind myself, These are fictions . I try, as best I can, to forget the ridiculously high stakes I tend to impose on interactions with new people and focus instead on this other person. Who are they? What are they all about? What do they like?

Whether this person is my new best friend or a new acquaintance or merely someone to talk to for a bit, I try to remind myself how nice it is to simply be in contact with another human being. I don’t want to lead with fear in my interactions. I want to lead with curiosity and genuine interest. That, I believe, is the very best I can do, and my best is all I’ve got. If they’re judging me, if they’re dismissing me, if they’re thinking, I’ll never speak to this person again , it’s none of my business. My best foot is forward. Some people will meet me there, and some won’t. That’s the way it is.

It can be helpful, Impostor, to work on our relationship with ourselves as a way to inform how we approach relationships with others, including new people. I recommend meditating as a way to practice placing your attention on certain thoughts. The fears will come up, yes, but the fact that they exist doesn’t mean we have to feed them. Becoming aware of our anxious sentiments is the first step to being able to deal with them. For me, when I find myself thinking unkind or paranoid thoughts, I like to mentally restate them in a ridiculous voice, crumple them up as if they were written on paper, and throw them out as a way of acknowledging their presence before tossing them aside.

I won’t pretend like any of this is easy, or that backsliding won’t happen! There are still nights where I go home thinking, God, I fucked that up , or, This is why I should stay home , or, Why can’t you just be normal? Or even, worse still, I wish I was someone else . But I also know that it’s possible for me, for us all, to make genuine connections with other people, and that good things often exist just outside our comfort zone, and that, ultimately, I’ll be okay. Sometimes just reminding myself, You are safe , is enough to get me to unclench and relax.

I don’t find myself in many rooms that I don’t belong in, Impostor, if you don’t count “the Eataly in Soho at 2:15 in the morning last week,” which is something I don’t want to talk about right now. Because the thing is, to return to what is likely my oversimplification or a whole-cloth misreading of Judy B., everyone is doing a performance. We’re all clowns here. Just enjoy your time at the circus.

Con mucho amor, Papi

Originally published on April 11, 2024 .

Purchase JP Brammer’s book  Hola Papi: How to Come Out in a Walmart Parking Lot and Other Life Lessons ,  here .

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Here’s how to reduce stress and get your taxes done

For many, tax season isn’t only about gathering W-2 forms or calling an accountant. It also can bring intense feelings of stress or anxiety about dealing with finances (AP video: Mike Householder)

In this image made from video, Lindsay Bryan-Podvin, a financial therapist and founder of Mind Money Balance, is interviewed, Wednesday, April 10, 2024, in Ann Arbor, Mich. With tax season upon us, Bryan-Podvin recommends that you make a plan to tackle your return step by step and focus on self-care if you’re experiencing financial stress. (AP Photo/Mike Householder)

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Greg Mahaffey, an enrolled agent with Levy & Associates Tax Consultants, works at his desk, Thursday, April 11, 2024, in Lathrup Village, Mich. For many people, tax season isn’t only about gathering W-2 forms or calling an accountant. It also can bring intense feelings of stress or anxiety about dealing with finances. (AP Photo/Mike Householder)

NEW YORK (AP) — For many people, tax season isn’t only about gathering W-2 forms or calling an accountant. It can also bring intense feelings of stress or anxiety about dealing with finances.

Financial stress during tax season can manifest in different ways, whether that’s procrastinating on your tax return until the last minute or experiencing intense stress about filing incorrectly. If you’re dealing with financial stress right now, you’re not alone.

“Many Americans experience high stress during tax times, and many Americans are dealing with financial stress,” financial wellness expert Joyce Marter said.

You might think emotions and money don’t go together, but they often affect each other, said Lindsay Bryan-Podvin, financial therapist and founder of Mind Money Balance.

“Our money and mental health intersect because they’re two parts of our overall wellness,” said Bryan-Podvin.

Here are recommendations from experts to reduce financial stress during tax season while still getting your return done by the deadline:

Don’t avoid, plan

Financial stress can happen all year long. While tax season is only a window of time, it comes with something that can be daunting: a deadline. Some might find a deadline motivates them to get things done, while others can feel paralyzed by it, said Dr. Tanya Farber, psychologist at McLean Hospital, a mental health facility in Massachusetts.

“If we’re overwhelmed by our anxiety, that’s where it may lead us to avoid thinking about finances or trying to avoid thinking about taxes,” Farber said.

Although you do have an option of filing for an extension, Farber doesn’t recommend prolonging the period when you have to worry about taxes. Instead, a good first step is to make a detailed plan to tackle them.

Farber recommends you break down all of the steps and start completing them one by one. A key step is to start gathering all of your documents, such as your W-2 or 1099 forms, savings and investment records, eligible deductions and tax credits , ahead of sitting down to file your taxes. Once you have a list of steps, scheduling times to complete the tasks will make it easier to build momentum.

While the required documents might depend on your individual case, here is a general list of what everyone needs:

If you need help making a plan, search for tax checklists, which can be a great tool to make sure you have everything you need.

Face your fears

For many, anxiety over filing taxes comes from fear, Farber said. Whether it’s fear of making a mistake in your return or unexpectedly owing thousands of dollars, these fears can overwhelm you to the point of avoiding even looking at your taxes.

If you identify that fear is what’s stopping you from filing, Farber recommends that you ask yourself if whatever you’re afraid of is likely to happen.

“When we have fears, they’re possible, probable or definite,” Farber said. “And oftentimes anxiety is the highest when we’re assuming the worst-case scenario.”

If thinking about your fears by yourself is not helping, Bryan-Podvin recommends you discuss them with a friend or a family member. In many cases, talking with someone else might help you focus on what might actually happen rather than focusing on the worst-case scenarios.

Focus on self care

If tax season brings a lot of financial stress for you, Bryan-Podvin recommends that you increase the amount of self-care activities you’re doing. Activities such as taking a walk, spending time with your dog or getting enough sleep can help soothe stress.

“We are going to be doing things that are difficult and depleting and anxiety-provoking so doing more things that are restorative can help us balance that,” Farber said.

Doing restorative activities can work as a toolbox of coping skills when you’re in the middle of a stressful situation, like filing taxes.

Ask for support

You might feel like you’ll be judged if you talk about money, but that’s often not the case. Talking about finances with your friends or family can be a moment to receive support, she said.

“Talking with others is going to give you access to more information and resources and also helps remove the shame and stigma because you’re not alone,” Marter said.

Whether it’s talking with a tax professional or reaching out to your most tax-savvy family member, proactively seeking support will help you avoid being stressed if you’re filing very close to the deadline.

Additionally, if you are experiencing mental health struggles, there are several resources you can use to find professional help.

In the U.S., you can dial 211 to speak with a mental health expert, confidentially and for free.

Other mental health resources include:

Veterans Crisis Line: call 1-800-273-TALK (8255)

Crisis Text Line: Text the word ‘Home’ to 741-741

The Trevor Lifeline for LGBTQ Youth: 1-866-488-7386

The Trans Lifeline: 1-877-565-8860

The Associated Press receives support from Charles Schwab Foundation for educational and explanatory reporting to improve financial literacy. The independent foundation is separate from Charles Schwab and Co. Inc. The AP is solely responsible for its journalism.

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NPR in Turmoil After It Is Accused of Liberal Bias

An essay from an editor at the broadcaster has generated a firestorm of criticism about the network on social media, especially among conservatives.

By Benjamin Mullin and Katie Robertson

NPR is facing both internal tumult and a fusillade of attacks by prominent conservatives this week after a senior editor publicly claimed the broadcaster had allowed liberal bias to affect its coverage, risking its trust with audiences.

Uri Berliner, a senior business editor who has worked at NPR for 25 years, wrote in an essay published Tuesday by The Free Press, a popular Substack publication, that “people at every level of NPR have comfortably coalesced around the progressive worldview.”

Mr. Berliner, a Peabody Award-winning journalist, castigated NPR for what he said was a litany of journalistic missteps around coverage of several major news events, including the origins of Covid-19 and the war in Gaza. He also said the internal culture at NPR had placed race and identity as “paramount in nearly every aspect of the workplace.”

Mr. Berliner’s essay has ignited a firestorm of criticism of NPR on social media, especially among conservatives who have long accused the network of political bias in its reporting. Former President Donald J. Trump took to his social media platform, Truth Social, to argue that NPR’s government funding should be rescinded, an argument he has made in the past.

NPR has forcefully pushed back on Mr. Berliner’s accusations and the criticism.

“We’re proud to stand behind the exceptional work that our desks and shows do to cover a wide range of challenging stories,” Edith Chapin, the organization’s editor in chief, said in an email to staff on Tuesday. “We believe that inclusion — among our staff, with our sourcing, and in our overall coverage — is critical to telling the nuanced stories of this country and our world.” Some other NPR journalists also criticized the essay publicly, including Eric Deggans, its TV critic, who faulted Mr. Berliner for not giving NPR an opportunity to comment on the piece.

In an interview on Thursday, Mr. Berliner expressed no regrets about publishing the essay, saying he loved NPR and hoped to make it better by airing criticisms that have gone unheeded by leaders for years. He called NPR a “national trust” that people rely on for fair reporting and superb storytelling.

“I decided to go out and publish it in hopes that something would change, and that we get a broader conversation going about how the news is covered,” Mr. Berliner said.

He said he had not been disciplined by managers, though he said he had received a note from his supervisor reminding him that NPR requires employees to clear speaking appearances and media requests with standards and media relations. He said he didn’t run his remarks to The New York Times by network spokespeople.

When the hosts of NPR’s biggest shows, including “Morning Edition” and “All Things Considered,” convened on Wednesday afternoon for a long-scheduled meet-and-greet with the network’s new chief executive, Katherine Maher , conversation soon turned to Mr. Berliner’s essay, according to two people with knowledge of the meeting. During the lunch, Ms. Chapin told the hosts that she didn’t want Mr. Berliner to become a “martyr,” the people said.

Mr. Berliner’s essay also sent critical Slack messages whizzing through some of the same employee affinity groups focused on racial and sexual identity that he cited in his essay. In one group, several staff members disputed Mr. Berliner’s points about a lack of ideological diversity and said efforts to recruit more people of color would make NPR’s journalism better.

On Wednesday, staff members from “Morning Edition” convened to discuss the fallout from Mr. Berliner’s essay. During the meeting, an NPR producer took issue with Mr. Berliner’s argument for why NPR’s listenership has fallen off, describing a variety of factors that have contributed to the change.

Mr. Berliner’s remarks prompted vehement pushback from several news executives. Tony Cavin, NPR’s managing editor of standards and practices, said in an interview that he rejected all of Mr. Berliner’s claims of unfairness, adding that his remarks would probably make it harder for NPR journalists to do their jobs.

“The next time one of our people calls up a Republican congressman or something and tries to get an answer from them, they may well say, ‘Oh, I read these stories, you guys aren’t fair, so I’m not going to talk to you,’” Mr. Cavin said.

Some journalists have defended Mr. Berliner’s essay. Jeffrey A. Dvorkin, NPR’s former ombudsman, said Mr. Berliner was “not wrong” on social media. Chuck Holmes, a former managing editor at NPR, called Mr. Berliner’s essay “brave” on Facebook.

Mr. Berliner’s criticism was the latest salvo within NPR, which is no stranger to internal division. In October, Mr. Berliner took part in a lengthy debate over whether NPR should defer to language proposed by the Arab and Middle Eastern Journalists Association while covering the conflict in Gaza.

“We don’t need to rely on an advocacy group’s guidance,” Mr. Berliner wrote, according to a copy of the email exchange viewed by The Times. “Our job is to seek out the facts and report them.” The debate didn’t change NPR’s language guidance, which is made by editors who weren’t part of the discussion. And in a statement on Thursday, the Arab and Middle Eastern Journalists Association said it is a professional association for journalists, not a political advocacy group.

Mr. Berliner’s public criticism has highlighted broader concerns within NPR about the public broadcaster’s mission amid continued financial struggles. Last year, NPR cut 10 percent of its staff and canceled four podcasts, including the popular “Invisibilia,” as it tried to make up for a $30 million budget shortfall. Listeners have drifted away from traditional radio to podcasts, and the advertising market has been unsteady.

In his essay, Mr. Berliner laid some of the blame at the feet of NPR’s former chief executive, John Lansing, who said he was retiring at the end of last year after four years in the role. He was replaced by Ms. Maher, who started on March 25.

During a meeting with employees in her first week, Ms. Maher was asked what she thought about decisions to give a platform to political figures like Ronna McDaniel, the former Republican Party chair whose position as a political analyst at NBC News became untenable after an on-air revolt from hosts who criticized her efforts to undermine the 2020 election.

“I think that this conversation has been one that does not have an easy answer,” Ms. Maher responded.

Benjamin Mullin reports on the major companies behind news and entertainment. Contact Ben securely on Signal at +1 530-961-3223 or email at [email protected] . More about Benjamin Mullin

Katie Robertson covers the media industry for The Times. Email:  [email protected]   More about Katie Robertson

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NPR suspends veteran editor as it grapples with his public criticism

David Folkenflik

NPR suspended senior editor Uri Berliner for five days without pay after he wrote an essay accusing the network of losing the public's trust and appeared on a podcast to explain his argument. Uri Berliner hide caption

NPR suspended senior editor Uri Berliner for five days without pay after he wrote an essay accusing the network of losing the public's trust and appeared on a podcast to explain his argument.

NPR has formally punished Uri Berliner, the senior editor who publicly argued a week ago that the network had "lost America's trust" by approaching news stories with a rigidly progressive mindset.

Berliner's five-day suspension without pay, which began last Friday, has not been previously reported.

Yet the public radio network is grappling in other ways with the fallout from Berliner's essay for the online news site The Free Press . It angered many of his colleagues, led NPR leaders to announce monthly internal reviews of the network's coverage, and gave fresh ammunition to conservative and partisan Republican critics of NPR, including former President Donald Trump.

Conservative activist Christopher Rufo is among those now targeting NPR's new chief executive, Katherine Maher, for messages she posted to social media years before joining the network. Among others, those posts include a 2020 tweet that called Trump racist and another that appeared to minimize rioting during social justice protests that year. Maher took the job at NPR last month — her first at a news organization .

In a statement Monday about the messages she had posted, Maher praised the integrity of NPR's journalists and underscored the independence of their reporting.

"In America everyone is entitled to free speech as a private citizen," she said. "What matters is NPR's work and my commitment as its CEO: public service, editorial independence, and the mission to serve all of the American public. NPR is independent, beholden to no party, and without commercial interests."

The network noted that "the CEO is not involved in editorial decisions."

In an interview with me later on Monday, Berliner said the social media posts demonstrated Maher was all but incapable of being the person best poised to direct the organization.

"We're looking for a leader right now who's going to be unifying and bring more people into the tent and have a broader perspective on, sort of, what America is all about," Berliner said. "And this seems to be the opposite of that."

Conservative critics of NPR are now targeting its new chief executive, Katherine Maher, for messages she posted to social media years before joining the public radio network last month. Stephen Voss/Stephen Voss hide caption

Conservative critics of NPR are now targeting its new chief executive, Katherine Maher, for messages she posted to social media years before joining the public radio network last month.

He said that he tried repeatedly to make his concerns over NPR's coverage known to news leaders and to Maher's predecessor as chief executive before publishing his essay.

Berliner has singled out coverage of several issues dominating the 2020s for criticism, including trans rights, the Israel-Hamas war and COVID. Berliner says he sees the same problems at other news organizations, but argues NPR, as a mission-driven institution, has a greater obligation to fairness.

"I love NPR and feel it's a national trust," Berliner says. "We have great journalists here. If they shed their opinions and did the great journalism they're capable of, this would be a much more interesting and fulfilling organization for our listeners."

A "final warning"

The circumstances surrounding the interview were singular.

Berliner provided me with a copy of the formal rebuke to review. NPR did not confirm or comment upon his suspension for this article.

In presenting Berliner's suspension Thursday afternoon, the organization told the editor he had failed to secure its approval for outside work for other news outlets, as is required of NPR journalists. It called the letter a "final warning," saying Berliner would be fired if he violated NPR's policy again. Berliner is a dues-paying member of NPR's newsroom union but says he is not appealing the punishment.

The Free Press is a site that has become a haven for journalists who believe that mainstream media outlets have become too liberal. In addition to his essay, Berliner appeared in an episode of its podcast Honestly with Bari Weiss.

A few hours after the essay appeared online, NPR chief business editor Pallavi Gogoi reminded Berliner of the requirement that he secure approval before appearing in outside press, according to a copy of the note provided by Berliner.

In its formal rebuke, NPR did not cite Berliner's appearance on Chris Cuomo's NewsNation program last Tuesday night, for which NPR gave him the green light. (NPR's chief communications officer told Berliner to focus on his own experience and not share proprietary information.) The NPR letter also did not cite his remarks to The New York Times , which ran its article mid-afternoon Thursday, shortly before the reprimand was sent. Berliner says he did not seek approval before talking with the Times .

NPR defends its journalism after senior editor says it has lost the public's trust

Berliner says he did not get permission from NPR to speak with me for this story but that he was not worried about the consequences: "Talking to an NPR journalist and being fired for that would be extraordinary, I think."

Berliner is a member of NPR's business desk, as am I, and he has helped to edit many of my stories. He had no involvement in the preparation of this article and did not see it before it was posted publicly.

In rebuking Berliner, NPR said he had also publicly released proprietary information about audience demographics, which it considers confidential. He said those figures "were essentially marketing material. If they had been really good, they probably would have distributed them and sent them out to the world."

Feelings of anger and betrayal inside the newsroom

His essay and subsequent public remarks stirred deep anger and dismay within NPR. Colleagues contend Berliner cherry-picked examples to fit his arguments and challenge the accuracy of his accounts. They also note he did not seek comment from the journalists involved in the work he cited.

Morning Edition host Michel Martin told me some colleagues at the network share Berliner's concerns that coverage is frequently presented through an ideological or idealistic prism that can alienate listeners.

"The way to address that is through training and mentorship," says Martin, herself a veteran of nearly two decades at the network who has also reported for The Wall Street Journal and ABC News. "It's not by blowing the place up, by trashing your colleagues, in full view of people who don't really care about it anyway."

Several NPR journalists told me they are no longer willing to work with Berliner as they no longer have confidence that he will keep private their internal musings about stories as they work through coverage.

"Newsrooms run on trust," NPR political correspondent Danielle Kurtzleben tweeted last week, without mentioning Berliner by name. "If you violate everyone's trust by going to another outlet and sh--ing on your colleagues (while doing a bad job journalistically, for that matter), I don't know how you do your job now."

Berliner rejected that critique, saying nothing in his essay or subsequent remarks betrayed private observations or arguments about coverage.

Other newsrooms are also grappling with questions over news judgment and confidentiality. On Monday, New York Times Executive Editor Joseph Kahn announced to his staff that the newspaper's inquiry into who leaked internal dissent over a planned episode of its podcast The Daily to another news outlet proved inconclusive. The episode was to focus on a December report on the use of sexual assault as part of the Hamas attack on Israel in October. Audio staffers aired doubts over how well the reporting stood up to scrutiny.

"We work together with trust and collegiality everyday on everything we produce, and I have every expectation that this incident will prove to be a singular exception to an important rule," Kahn wrote to Times staffers.

At NPR, some of Berliner's colleagues have weighed in online against his claim that the network has focused on diversifying its workforce without a concomitant commitment to diversity of viewpoint. Recently retired Chief Executive John Lansing has referred to this pursuit of diversity within NPR's workforce as its " North Star ," a moral imperative and chief business strategy.

In his essay, Berliner tagged the strategy as a failure, citing the drop in NPR's broadcast audiences and its struggle to attract more Black and Latino listeners in particular.

"During most of my tenure here, an open-minded, curious culture prevailed. We were nerdy, but not knee-jerk, activist, or scolding," Berliner writes. "In recent years, however, that has changed."

Berliner writes, "For NPR, which purports to consider all things, it's devastating both for its journalism and its business model."

NPR investigative reporter Chiara Eisner wrote in a comment for this story: "Minorities do not all think the same and do not report the same. Good reporters and editors should know that by now. It's embarrassing to me as a reporter at NPR that a senior editor here missed that point in 2024."

Some colleagues drafted a letter to Maher and NPR's chief news executive, Edith Chapin, seeking greater clarity on NPR's standards for its coverage and the behavior of its journalists — clearly pointed at Berliner.

A plan for "healthy discussion"

On Friday, CEO Maher stood up for the network's mission and the journalism, taking issue with Berliner's critique, though never mentioning him by name. Among her chief issues, she said Berliner's essay offered "a criticism of our people on the basis of who we are."

Berliner took great exception to that, saying she had denigrated him. He said that he supported diversifying NPR's workforce to look more like the U.S. population at large. She did not address that in a subsequent private exchange he shared with me for this story. (An NPR spokesperson declined further comment.)

Late Monday afternoon, Chapin announced to the newsroom that Executive Editor Eva Rodriguez would lead monthly meetings to review coverage.

"Among the questions we'll ask of ourselves each month: Did we capture the diversity of this country — racial, ethnic, religious, economic, political geographic, etc — in all of its complexity and in a way that helped listeners and readers recognize themselves and their communities?" Chapin wrote in the memo. "Did we offer coverage that helped them understand — even if just a bit better — those neighbors with whom they share little in common?"

Berliner said he welcomed the announcement but would withhold judgment until those meetings played out.

In a text for this story, Chapin said such sessions had been discussed since Lansing unified the news and programming divisions under her acting leadership last year.

"Now seemed [the] time to deliver if we were going to do it," Chapin said. "Healthy discussion is something we need more of."

Disclosure: This story was reported and written by NPR Media Correspondent David Folkenflik and edited by Deputy Business Editor Emily Kopp and Managing Editor Gerry Holmes. Under NPR's protocol for reporting on itself, no NPR corporate official or news executive reviewed this story before it was posted publicly.

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New footage shows woman who used dead uncle to ‘sign’ bank loan arriving by taxi — with driver helping move the body.

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It should have been a dead giveaway.

The Brazilian woman who took her dead uncle into a bank to sign a loan in her name arrived there by taxi — with video even showing the driver helping her move the corpse from his car.

Érika de Souza Vieira Nunes was arrested Tuesday after taking the body of her 68-year-old uncle, Paulo Roberto Braga, into a bank and then moving his hand to sign a key document to get her a $3,400 loan.

Newly emerged video now shows Nunes — who reportedly told cops that she didn’t know her uncle was dead — arriving at the bank by taxi, with her motionless uncle in the front passenger seat next to the rideshare driver.

The footage, which has no sound, shows Nunes placing a wheelchair outside the car door and reaching inside to grab her late uncle.

The driver then helps her pull him out and into the wheelchair, where the uncle slumps with his head tilted to the right.

At one point, a man walks by and does a double-take. He turns around and appears to speak with Nunes while motioning to Braga, but then continues on his way.

Nunes then wheels Braga into an elevator, before another CCTV camera captures her making her away along a hallway.

Another video, taken the day before, showed Nunes bringing the visibly alive Braga to an emergency room.

Nunes insisted she did know her relative was dead when she took him to the bank to sign documents that would have allowed her to take out a $3,400 loan.

Braga’s autopsy found that he died between 11:30 am and 2:30 pm local time Tuesday, with his cause of death being determined as respiratory aspiration of stomach contents and heart failure.

Police Chief Fábio Luis said the way the man’s blood had pooled within his vessels suggests that Braga did not die seated but rather lying down.

Braga’s toxicology tests are still pending.

Nunes is now facing charges of theft by way of fraud and desecration of a corpse.

Her attorney claimed that Nunes suffers from mental health issues and might have experienced a mental breakdown.

“Érika undergoes psychological treatment and takes prescribed medications,” lawyer Ana Carla de Souza Correa said.

“I believe she was having a breakdown at that moment because of the medications. She appeared visibly disturbed.”

In a viral video recorded by a bank employee Tuesday and first aired by TV Globo, Brazil’s largest broadcaster, Nunes was seen talking to the dead man and lifting his drooping head.

“Uncle, are you listening? You need to sign [the loan contract]. If you don’t sign, there’s no way, because I can’t sign for you,” Nunes says in the clip, while thrusting a pen between his limp fingers.

“Sign so you don’t give me any more headaches, I can’t take it anymore,” she adds.

When a bank staffer notes that Braga’s color looks off and he appears unwell, Nunes replies.

“He is like that. He doesn’t say anything.”

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