GCSE anxiety

[Rosa2023]

My DD is approaching her exams this week and is suddenly struggling. She has suffered with anxiety and school avoidance before, although not for a while and I thought we had it under control.
she has been complaining of tummy aches daily and spends a lot of time sat on the toilet.
She has mentioned she feel trapped in the exam room as she can’t leave if she gets a bad tummy.
she was bullied at a previous school and one of the bullies was added to a group chat she is in this week and started being mean again and I think this has set off all the big feelings she has struggled with.
Does anyone have any ideas of anything she can take to settle her tummy. I take CBD as my insides go to water when I’m stressed too but not sure if that’s wise tbh. I was wondered about mentioning to the school but I’m sure all the children are feeling anxious so I don’t want to make a bigger deal than it needs to be.

Contact the school exams office and head of year and ask them to seat her near an exit

@MrsHamlet oh do you think they’ll do that? I was worried it might be too late.

We can reseat students on the day of the exam if we need to - but the more notice you give, the easier it is to sort.

contact her head of year and let them know - people in the exam room should be told that she has stomach problems, and keep an eye on her

Hi
you have my every sympathy as my daughter has had similar problems.
since Jan/Feb she’s had symptoms of ibs an dc after investigation the gastro consultant said it was stress related. She only has symptoms on school days and exacerbated by exams/stressful school days. It was almost like she was in a viscous circle of being anxious about having a bad tummy at school and then this causing the symptoms.
we bought her some peppermint capsules which seemed to help- whether it was a placebo effect we are t sure but don’t really care! Might be a bit late but we also booked her in for a couple of sessions of hypnotherapy which have really helped. Did German oral last week and no tummy issues and iwe are feeling positive about next week. I wonder if there are some guided meditations on YouTube which may help,.
fingers crossed for you x

These are the peppermint capsules she’s been using

They keep an eye on everybody, that is literally their job!!
It might be better for her to be in one of the small rooms though so she doesn't feel as self conscious, or disturb as many people if she needs to leave for the toilet.
There is a thing were the clock can be stopped if the candidate needs to go to tge toilet, but I'm not sure whether arrangements need to be made fir that on advamce of exams starting

Thanks so much @DippyDoo98 im going to order some now and I just spoke to her about sitting at the back and she feels that would help. She’s worked really hard on her studying and getting over school refusal I just hate to think of her falling ( not at last hurdle as it’s not end of the world if she fails ) but at the last point of school.

I'd encourage her to come off the group chat or at least mute it & then archive it so it's not even flashing up until after the exams
I can't think of one helpful thing that WhatsApp chat will add over the exam period other other than reminding each other of which days exams are which you are probably aware of anyhow. It will all be full of 'I've done no revision' BS or 'I've revised for 10 hours yesterday' beforehand and then unhelpful post mortem stuff after the exams at which point they should be parking it and moving on to focus on the next exam.
My DD is autistic and gets terrible stomach churning when she is very anxious...I didn't realise that physical manifestation of anxiety is a thing! Peppermint oil is brilliant for it. She also sits in a quieter, smaller room with others like her and gets to sit near the door.

Thanks @Paperclipp totallu agree with WhatsApp thing. She did come off it. They kicked her off it anyhow.
good to hear the peppermint is helping! That sounds hopeful. I have bought some now so fingers crossed.

Buscopan seems to be helping my DD with her anxious tummy (spasms). Available everywhere. X