AES41 Math Anxiety

Yesterday I was just casually scrolling on my youtube homepage and then a saw a video by ted-ed about math anxiety. There’s the video if you want to check it out (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7snnRaC4t5c). So, what is math anxiety? Maths anxiety has been defined by Tobias and Weissbrod (1980) as “the panic, helplessness, paralysis, and mental disorganization that arises among some people when they are required to solve a mathematical problem” and it is thought to affect a large proportion of the population.

The symptoms of math anxiety include: 

1. Emotional symptoms: the feeling of helplessness; lack of confidence; fear of getting things wrong. 
2. Physical symptoms: heart racing; irregular breathing; sweatiness; shakiness; biting nails; feeling of hollowness in the stomach; nausea. 
3. Frustration from trying to do maths and not being successful. 
4. Not knowing where to start with questions or never getting the right answer. 
5. Confused and just wanting to quit and go home. 
6. Very stressed before and during exams. 
7. Begin to shut down and stop listening in class.

The thing about math anxiety is that most people with math anxiety are actually capable to learn and understand math, it’s just there’s a feeling of fear that’s stopping them. I can relate to this because almost every teacher in my lifetime said that I am actually capable of doing math. Almost every year when I get my rapor, I swear every year with no skip it has to mention that I have a mental block towards math. And I feel like they just write it down and say “hey you should be scared to do math” and they think I will just wake up the next day and be like “omg math is so fun” with a smile on my face. 

In reality Im not scared that I will fail my math test, it’s more of the fear of people judging me. Because throughout my life people told me, that math is for smart people and when you can’t do the math you are just not smart. If I fail a math test I feel like there’s no room for me in the definition of being smart. If someone said that Im smart, I would think they’re making a joke. I just didn’t feel like Saskia Electra being smart is ever going to be a real thing. 

It’s kinda hilarious but in almost every math test, or even math class I feel like I could faint any second. It is that bad like I remember this one math test. It was when I was in 8th grade and I was so dizzy, my fingertips feel like someone just put pure ice cubes on them it’s just insane, to be honest. Everyone knows how I love talking, but after that exam, I think I only said less than 15 words in one hour. I was that exhausted, I slept for 12 hours non-stop, and when I woke up my headache was still there. 

Research also shows that when you do math a specific part of your brain lids up, and that is the exact same part of the brain that lids up when you experience physical pain. So math basically hurts. Now I know that math anxiety is actually a thing and that Im not alone. 20% of the world population has math anxiety, so yeah. To be honest, I really wish I could enjoy math. I hope I can in the future, let’s just see.

picture:https://id.pinterest.com/pin/346847608805465521/