Approaching the crucial period of doctoral graduation, what should one do when anxiety prevents them from doing anything?

Hello! I'm here for you. I can see the panic, anxiety, and helplessness in your heart right now, and I know you want to be

You need support, understanding, and comfort.

Accept your anxiety and unease. They're driven by expectations and needs. Identify what you need. If you're overly focused on passing your thesis, you're afraid of rejection and criticism. You crave acceptance, affirmation, and encouragement. When you understand your needs, you'll accept yourself and your emotions. You'll stop avoiding them.

You must also recognize that your anxiety stems from your inner lack of confidence. You don't believe you can pass the thesis assessment. You previously lacked reasonable arrangements and planning for your studies, so you're now unsure how to enter a state of efficient learning during the limited time available for intense study. This increases your sense of anxiety, panic, and uncertainty. You have doubts and lack confidence in your abilities.

You can relieve your current anxiety and unease so that you can devote yourself fully to your studies. Try the following:

First, accept that you might not pass the thesis assessment. Then, consider how this will affect your studies and life. Will you be unable to retake the exam? Will your teachers, classmates, and parents reject you?

You must accept your current self and move on from this setback. If you answered "no" to these questions, you realize this essay assessment is important but you can accept not passing it. You will not belittle or negate yourself because of this. You will actively reflect on it, summarize the reasons, and prepare for the next assessment.

Second, you have already achieved the results you want through your own efforts. This shows that you have a very good foundation. However, you may need to make appropriate adjustments to your learning methods to improve learning efficiency. You can seek help from your teachers proactively to get timely and effective guidance. You can also discuss with your outstanding classmates and seniors to learn from their experiences and methods to better improve your learning efficiency.

Finally, you can record your recent emotional feelings caused by preparing for the thesis assessment in writing by keeping an emotional diary. This is an effective way to better perceive and understand your emotions, explore the needs hidden behind them, and thus seek ways and means to better respond to and meet your needs. For example, when your anxiety sets in, tell yourself, "I can be anxious. I am anxious because I want to perform better. Although the result is out of my control, I can prepare better for the result I want (change my learning methods, improve learning efficiency; arrange my time reasonably, put in more effort; balance work and rest, get enough sleep, and maintain strong energy).

I am certain that your anxiety will ease or even disappear. What do you think?

Anxiety is like a big basket. It's time to stop classifying all those other emotions as anxiety, like fear, worry, irritability, and helplessness. You need to get along with your emotions, experience and feel your emotions, and then be able to name and describe them. Imagine the emotions you feel at that moment as specific things in your life, and then feel the convenience and benefits they bring you. This is also a good way to relieve emotions.

Any emotion is an expression and response to physical feelings. When emotions arise, it is crucial to prioritize the body's instinctive needs for relief. This is an effective approach for enhancing self-awareness and self-care.

I am Yang Lili, and I am here to support you.

From what you've told me, it seems like you're feeling pretty anxious at the moment.

Your research results are great! Your teachers have recognized that, but in the process of writing your thesis, you realized that you haven't planned as systematically as you could have. Some data quality wasn't as high as you'd hoped, and there's a chance you'll have to rework it. This makes you worry that you'll be late for graduation, which I'm sure you're trying to avoid!

The delay makes you feel anxious, and you regret not planning better in the past. I know this can be really tough! It bothers you and prevents you from concentrating on your work, and you always feel down.

I think we can definitely take a look at the dilemma you're currently facing and how to adjust your emotions.

I can see you're feeling anxious, and I'm here to help. It seems like you're feeling dissatisfied with your experimental results and worried about the risk of extending the deadline.

You might want to ask the questioner to first take a look at what is behind your anxiety. That is: why do you think your current experimental results need to be redone?

I'm so sorry you're feeling anxious! I'd love to help if I can. How many experimental results do you think need to be redone? And how much time do you think you'll need to spend on it?

I'd love to hear how you'd feel if you had to extend the deadline. What are your thoughts on extending the deadline?

I'd love to know how you think others will perceive you in this situation.

Once you've had a chance to think about your anxiety, it might be helpful to start thinking about solutions to the things that are worrying you. For example, how do you plan to deal with the experimental results that need to be redone?

We all face risks of delay in our lives. It's natural! But what can we do to alleviate these risks? What methods can we use to adjust or alleviate anxious situations?

Once you've got some plans in place to tackle a tricky situation, it can be really helpful to write them down. That way, you can see exactly what you need to do to achieve your goals. Putting your anxiety into concrete actions and taking it one step at a time can help you feel more secure and better equipped to handle whatever comes your way.

To relieve anxiety, it's really helpful to first understand it, then find a specific solution to deal with it, and finally take that first step to implement the solution. When you can take that first step, you'll also be able to gain a greater sense of security, which will help relieve anxiety.

I really hope these suggestions will be helpful to you!

I wish you the best of luck!