Stuck on a Loop

This therapeutic story focuses on intrusive thoughts and repetitive behaviour, linked to exam anxiety. Everyone knows Gemma always gets thing 'right' and is top of the class. However she feels under pressure to do well in the Year 5 tests and is becoming increasingly worried. She thinks she has to do certain things to continue to do well and get 'top marks', such as avoiding the cracks in the pavement. This habit starts to take over and Gemma wonders why she is doing this.

As the story progresses, Gemma is helped to understand how it can be normal for anxiety and stress to affect thoughts. The metaphor of having a bully in her mind, making her do things she doesn't really want to do, is introduced. She decides to stand up to her inner bully before it takes over. The accompanying, 'Let's talk about when thoughts get stuck' highlights how stress and pressure can affect us, including some of the 'catastrophising' and 'black and white' thinking errors that can be linked with exam stress and pressure.