# School Assemblies



## Blau (Mar 4, 2012)

Up until about 2 years ago I enjoyed school assemblies, now I absolutely dread them. Every monday we have one and on Wednesdays we have an hour long one.
During these assemblies, I feel as though I am about to faint (hearing loss, blurred vision, fast heart rate, sweating) and because of these symptoms, I start to panic as to what could happen.
I take a bottle of water and a mechanical pencil into assemblies to distract myself, I imagine I look very strange.
I think it started because my friend fainted in an assembly a couple of years ago and people still rip him for it.
Does this happen to anybody else, and if so what do you do to tackle it??

I'm 17 by the way and the Social Anxiety thing is really starting to take over my life :/


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## Water Girl (Feb 19, 2012)

We have whole school assemblies Monday, Wednesday, Friday and year assembly Tuesdays. I used to freak out because you have to walk down a load of stairs to get to a seat and I always think people are looking at me, then because assemblies are before break my stomach always rumbles even though I eat breakfast everyday. So that would make me really self conscious, then to make it worse I would think I am swallowing really loudly (for no reason!) which of course made me panic. 
Now I help with the tech for the assemblies so I don't sit with everyone else, but at the back of the hall, so the only time I freak out now is when everyone is filing in and I think they're staring at me.
I would just try to phase everything else out and concentrate fully on what's being said in the assembly, or try to distract yourself with something else, thinking about work (boring I know, but trying to work out a calculation or something might help). 
I always used to tell myself that I was being completely stupid which obviously didn't help, then I realised that everyone reacts to various scenarios differently, and copes with them in their own way, so although I may panic about going to assemblies, someone else might have a huge fear of their own about something else.
Oh and I used to worry for ages beforehand where I could put my bag, so I would be fretting all morning too. 
Hope some of that helped 
Water Girl


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## kanra (Nov 27, 2011)

Oh my gosh, I hate school assemblies. Especially in Paraguay. Considering I stood out and looked strange even in America, here I stand out even more because nearly everyone has dark colored hair. I have blond hair, so I stand out a lot more. Someone could easily pick me out of a crowd. We also don't have many seats so sometimes I'm left standing around. My friends usually sit down without me so I end up being alone. And while I'm standing up I have practically nothing to do, so I must look very strange. They usually push me on our way out and call me retarded because I end up getting squeezed between two people or getting stuck behind someone slow. Someone even put his hand on my head. -.- We have them usually on mondays and wednesdays. I ****ing hate assemblies.

You could mess around with your phone, really concentrate on what's being said, etc. I've done that before with little success so I'm not really sure what to suggest. xD


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## seafolly (Jun 17, 2010)

I'm sorry you're going through this. We had them twice a week and I felt the exact same way. So did my best friend who had an anxiety disorder a few years before mine cropped up. I'm not sure what it is about that environment but it definitely triggered fainting worries in me too. The thing is my fear became reality a few years after high school. That's pretty darn rare. So basically just tell yourself, "I've never fainted before, there's no reason I will now." Can you sit during these things? Water is excellent, that helps me a lot as well.


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## millenniumman75 (Feb 4, 2005)

I would end up working in the office - answering phones, etc. I could still hear most of what was going on, but I would not have to go in there and face the possibility of being teased.

I did that for all four years of high school, but didn't make the yearbook until my senior year! The secretary said I should have been in all of the other pictures, too.


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## Xtraneous (Oct 18, 2011)

In my school we had to sit in whatever row(s) my teacher's class was assigned to. We also had them like once every 2 months, lol. So can't say I relate.


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## Blau (Mar 4, 2012)

It's really hard to explain. I almost fainted in today's assembly, went really light headed and fuzzy hearing & vision, when these symptoms happen, I always end up thinking "everyone will see me faint", do you recommend I mention it to my head of sixth form and potentially avoid going to them?


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## seafolly (Jun 17, 2010)

Yes, I did. My school was a bit religious so to not attend these assemblies (prayer among school announcements and skits) was tricky but they did allow me to skip it after I talked to the guidance counsellor. The awkward part was explaining why I wasn't lining up with the other girls to the other girls. As a work around I showed up to school late sometimes. Or, a little more sneaky, got in the back of the line, then darted off into another room we walked by. The staff were fine with it. It was the students I tried to avoid as it gets tiring as you can imagine.


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## Taylorshane (Mar 9, 2012)

i hate going to assembles , i used to just skip them since they were at the end of the day but everyone was doing that so they made the assembly in the middle of the day so i started going but sometimes i cant find my friend so i end up sitting by myself and thats when my anxiety starts up


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## NatureFellow (Jun 14, 2011)

I was sat by a random girl in an assembly back in my first ever school, and she kept asking to go to the toilet but the teacher wouldn't let her, next thing I know, she's peed all over the floor and it soaked into my trousers. :clapHad to change trouser, and believe me, she really needed to go.....It was probably the most unnattracted I have ever felt to a girl.


....and you thought YOU had a lot to worry about. :teeth

^^^^^
It happened to me years ago when I was a little boy in my first school 
Funny now, but wasn't at the time of course :ninja:


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