Expert reveals how to comfort your teens after the 'post-exam emotional slump'
According to Lindsey Wright, who is a child learning specialist and Senior Tutor at leading education platform Tutors Valley, this post-exam emotional slump is far more common than many parents realise and it has both biological and psychological roots.
'A lot of students feel totally lost when the pressure lifts,' Lindsey explains. 'They've been in survival mode for so long and, once it ends, they don't know what to do with themselves. Some even feel guilty for not feeling happier.'
While it can be unsettling to see your child experience this emotional dip, the good news it there are things you can do to help them reset.
Lindsey revealed parents can help comfort their teens with five easy steps, including letting them sleep in and encouraging them to do some exercise.
Meanwhile the expert stressed how important it is to 'praise their efforts' instead of focusing too much on results.
She explained: 'The first step is simply recognising and validating how they feel. Let them know it's normal to feel a bit lost or low after a major event like this.'
Next, Lindsey warned to avoid rushing to 'fix' the mood or dismissing it with 'you should be happy now' messaging. Instead, listen and let them speak openly.
As we know, exercise boosts serotonin, which helps regulate mood, energy and well-being and this can be used to their advantage if feeling low.
She said: 'You don't have to send them to the gym. A walk, a bike ride, or even something like swimming can help release stress and improve their mood.'
Meanwhile Lindsey revealed that exams often come with significant sleep debt, which can worsen mood, anxiety and cognition.
She said: 'Let your teen catch up - but aim for a balanced routine. Short-term catch-up sleep, including naps, can help. But restoring a regular sleep pattern is better for long-term mental health.'
Elsewhere she added that students should be encouraged to reconnect with things that brought them joy before revision took over; that might be an old hobby, a creative outlet, or time with friends.
Lindsey said: 'Even a small environmental change, like rearranging their room or taking a family day trip can help to mark the transition and take them away from a space they've been associating with stress.'
Finally, avoid focusing solely on future results and make sure to praise the effort and resilience they've shown, regardless of what the grades might be.
She added: 'Students need to hear that their value isn't tied to exam grades. If they learn that now, it will help protect their mental health far beyond this exam season.'
Why some students feel worse after exams
Post-exam blues are a well-documented phenomenon but they often catch students and parents off guard. Lindsey points to several causes:
Cortisol crash
During exam season, the body produces high levels of cortisol, a stress hormone that helps students stay alert and focused.
But once the immediate pressure ends, the sudden drop in cortisol can lead to mental fatigue, disrupted sleep cycles, and a general sense of emotional 'crash.'
'It's like the body's been running on adrenaline and now it's empty. We expect a feeling of triumph, but many feel deflated instead.'
Burnout from preparation
The intense build-up to exams often includes months of revision, a lot of pressure, and possibly some sleep deprivation.
This level of sustained stress leaves students physically and mentally exhausted - often too drained to enjoy their freedom.
Anxiety about results
Even when exams are over, the outcome still looms. Many students become preoccupied with 'what ifs,' worrying about missed questions, imagining worst-case scenarios, or obsessively comparing their performance to others.
Perfectionism and self-criticism
Students with perfectionist tendencies may find themselves ruminating over every answer, replaying their decisions, and focusing more on perceived mistakes than on the effort they put in.
'We see students who did brilliantly by any standard, but they're upset because they didn't answer one question perfectly'.
Peer pressure and comparison culture
Even after the exams are done, many students stay locked into competitive thinking. Social media posts and casual conversations about how others felt they did can intensify stress and prevent them from properly relaxing.
Cultural and identity pressures
In the UK and other academic cultures, achievement is often tied to identity and self-worth.
The pressure to succeed can leave students feeling like exam results define their value, whether it's from parents, teachers, peers, or internalised expectations.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
2 hours ago
- Daily Mail
I lost two stone on Mounjaro and I'm terrified of putting it back on - this is the scientifically backed diet experts have told me will let me eat MORE and stay slim...
If you're one of the hundreds of thousands now taking weight-loss jabs and are happily watching the numbers tumble on your bathroom scales, it can be seductively easy to think you'll never be fat again. I've lost nearly 2st on Mounjaro, taking me from 13st to a few pounds off 11st (I'm 5ft 7in), and I 'm beyond delighted to be in the 'healthy' BMI category for the first time in decades. I love how the GLP-1 medication subdues my appetite and silences the food noise. It still seems miraculous to be able to say 'no' to cakes, desserts and biscuits (with not the slightest tinge of regret or temptation) and to push away a plate of half-eaten food at the first sign of feeling full.
Daily Mail
2 hours ago
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE The breakfast that helped me lose four stone: Mother, 42, reveals three simple changes that saw her drop from a size 16 to a size 8
A mother who used to order Deliveroo five times a week after a back injury left her in agony has revealed how she lost more than four stone by making simple changes to her routine and diet. Allison Huff-Ritchie who grew up in New Orleans and moved to London 12 years ago, ballooned to 205 pounds (14.6 stone) after a serious back injury left her barely able to move. When she was pregnant with her youngest child in 2022, the 42-year-old slipped and fell while getting into a bath and was later diagnosed with degenerative disc disease after being blue-lighted to hospital. But because she had a baby on the way, doctors were not able to prescribe anything other than paracetamol, leaving Allison in severe pain all day, every day. This impacted her ability to exercise and so she turned to fast food and alcohol for comfort and to help ease the agony, drinking a bottle of wine a week when she wasn't pregnant. 'I gave birth to my daughter, my career was in shambles, I was in complete agony, I couldn't move, I gained a lot of weight, I was in the worst mental and physical state of my life,' she said. 'I was eating total garbage, non-stop. We were eating so much junk. We were getting constant Deliveroos, four or five times a week. It was easy and fast but very expensive.' Allison - who has two daughters aged five and three years old - believes she was suffering from postpartum depression after having her children, adding that her previous career in tech was 'in shambles'. 'In what should've been the most joyful time in my life where I had my girls and my family, it was the darkest, deepest part of my entire life,' the businesswoman said. 'I felt like I had no purpose, I didn't feel like I had a direction. I felt completely lost.' Allison wolfed down almond croissants most mornings along followed by fried chicken sandwiches and barely ate any fruit or vegetables, along with chowing down dinner at 10pm some nights. 'We had cookies and sweets in the house all the time,' she said. 'The first step is to take it out of the house. When it's not there, it's really hard to eat it, because then you have to travel to the shop to get it. 'When it's a treat, it makes it more special. But if it's Tuesday and you eat cake and then on Wednesday you eat cake again then it's not a treat anymore - you're using food to emotionally regulate and that's not helpful.' But after taking control of her life, Allison has gone from wearing a UK size 16 to a UK size 8 and now weighs a healthy 140 pounds, losing around 65 (4.6 stone) pounds on her weight loss journey. She credits walking around 10,000 steps a day, starting the day by eating eggs and using infra-red light therapy. She discovered infra-red light therapy when she visited her parents in the US. Allison wolfed down almond croissants most mornings along with fried chicken sandwiches and barely ate any fruit or vegetables before taking control of her diet. Pictured left, before losing weight and right, after losing weight The studio was next to their house and she decided to give it a try as she was still experiencing intense agony from her back injury. 'I put on so much weight, I was depressed and I felt terrible in all regards and there happened to be an infrared sauna near my parents' house,' she said. 'I went and within three times, my back pain was gone. I went from being in near-constant agony to being able to move again. 'I decided to bring the solution back to the UK, I ended my career in software and I thought other people deserved to live a life without pain.' Allison decided to leave her role in tech to set up SweatLounge, an infrared light therapy studio in Chiswick in May 2023. She built up the business using her savings and had it up and running in ten months, opening the doors to SweatLounge in March 2024. She said: 'Once I was able to utilise this therapy to help with the pain, I was able to sleep again. When I could sleep, I made better food decisions, I wasn't eating ultra-processed foods anymore, I was going to the gym. I am fitter now than I was in my thirties. 'I'm in the best shape of my adult life, I feel the best I've ever felt. I wake up in the morning excited for the day with positive energy and wanting to make good decisions. 'I do [infrared light therapy] three to five times a week because I know if I don't, my back will hurt.' The mother-of-two now walks most days rather than driving or taking public transport to help get her 10,000 steps in and starts the day by eating eggs. She said that is much easier to alter your routine when you live in a metropolitan area because the infrastructure is set up to encourage walking - which is not the case for much of America. She said: 'Walking is by far the best possible exercise you can do for your heart health and your mental health. Walking is free, it doesn't cost anything. 'One of the most beautiful things about living in a metropolitan area is that you can make slight changes to your lifestyle and all of a sudden you've walked 10,000 steps. 'This is the big problem with America. LA is one of the worst cities in the US for walkability. You have to drive everywhere, that's the culture. You drive to the gym and then you walk on the treadmill.' Allison also goes to the gym at least three times a week and alternates her exercises between strength training, Pilates and spin and ensures she sticks to healthy portions by using Gusto - a meal subscription box service - for family dinners. What is degenerative disc disease? Degenerative disc disease is a condition where your spinal disks wear down. When the discs wear away, the bones start to rub together. According to Cleveland Clinic, the condition is common in those over the age of 40, even if they don't develop symptoms. However, around 5 per cent of adults get back pain. Symptoms include getting neck pain and back pain that: Comes and goes, lasting for weeks or months at a time Radiates down your lower back and buttocks Worsens with sitting, bending or lifting Source: Cleveland Clinic For lunch, she will eat low-fat protein with grains and cottage cheese and incorporate roasted vegetables into her snacks and meals. Whereas before, she would consume a lot of beige foods such as pizza or hamburgers with bacon. But one of the biggest changes that has impacted her life is massively cutting down on her alcohol consumption. 'I had to have a really strong look at myself in regards to my relationship with alcohol,' she said. 'I like to have a glass of rose when the sun is out, who doesn't like to do that? However, because I am now tracking my sleep on my Oura ring, I can see what happens to my sleep after drinking two glasses of wine after 8pm. 'I'm sure I was over-consuming so many calories with alcohol because I was in pain and I wanted to dull the pain. [Seeing how alcohol affected] my sleep was the number one thing that changed my relationship with alcohol.' When Allison was at her largest weight, she said she felt 'absolutely terrible' about herself and lacked self-esteem, but added that she was 'grateful' that her body was able to give her children. 'It's important not to hate the body that got you where you are today,' she added. 'A lot of people said they would die for their kids, but I wanted to live for my kids. I'm an older mum and I thought, I can't live the rest of my life like this. 'I want to be around for my grandchildren. I want to be the kind of mum that is running around with my kids. I didn't feel like I had the capability to do that and I had to have a really strong wrong with myself.' Allison said she wished she understood how much her alcohol consumption was affecting her sleep, mood and weight. 'I wish I understood nutrition better. I wish I had understood the power of certain supplements and I recommend everybody to take a couple of supplements,' she said. Many people have noticed Allison's weight loss which she described as 'wild' because she feels like 'the same person inside'. 'You still see things in the same way but then you see an [old] picture of yourself,' she said. 'It's so wild to go back to those pictures because I just can't believe it. You're still the same on the inside. 'People say to me "Oh s*** Allison you lost a lot of weight didn't you?" Maybe people do treat me a little differently. 'I'd be lying if I said it didn't make me feel good because it was hard work, I don't want to underestimate it.' Allison's advice to people who are trying to lose weight is to focus on cleaning up their diet and walking more - but she warned not to do too much at once because you risk burning yourself out. 'It starts in the house, it starts with the diet. You exercise to feel good, you eat to change your body. It will take time but don't be intimidated by the path ahead of you. Just start walking. 'If you walk over 8,000 steps a day and you change your diet, you will be amazed at how much better you feel and sleep. Slowly build it into your routine, it doesn't have to be something you do at once. 'If you try to do it at once you will burn yourself out. My mum has a saying "You can't outrun the fork". When you're sleeping well, you're going to make better decisions the next day. Be kind to yourself, your body got you to where you are today, you should honour it.'
The Guardian
3 hours ago
- The Guardian
Weedkiller ingredient widely used in US can damage organs and gut bacteria, research shows
The herbicide ingredient used to replace glyphosate in Roundup and other weedkiller products can kill gut bacteria and damage organs in multiple ways, new research shows. The ingredient, diquat, is widely employed in the US as a weedkiller in vineyards and orchards, and is increasingly sprayed elsewhere as the use of controversial herbicide substances such as glyphosate and paraquat drops in the US. But the new piece of data suggests diquat is more toxic than glyphosate, and the substance is banned over its risks in the UK, EU, China and many other countries. Still, the EPA has resisted calls for a ban, and Roundup formulas with the ingredient hit the shelves last year. 'From a human health perspective, this stuff is quite a bit nastier than glyphosate so we're seeing a regrettable substitution, and the ineffective regulatory structure is allowing it,' said Nathan Donley, science director with the Center For Biological Diversity, which advocates for stricter pesticide regulations but was not involved in the new research. 'Regrettable substitution' is a scientific term used to describe the replacement of a toxic substance in a consumer product with an ingredient that is also toxic. Diquat is also thought to be a neurotoxin, carcinogen and linked to Parkinson's disease. An October analysis of EPA data by the Friends of the Earth non-profit found it is about 200 times more toxic than glyphosate in terms of chronic exposure. Bayer, which makes Roundup, faced nearly 175,000 lawsuits alleging that the product's users were harmed by the product. Bayer, which bought Monsanto in 2018, reformulated Roundup after the International Agency for Research on Cancer classified glyphosate as a possible carcinogen. The new review of scientific literature in part focuses on the multiple ways in which diquat damages organs and gut bacteria, including by reducing the level of proteins that are key pieces of the gut lining. The weakening can allow toxins and pathogens to move from the stomach into the bloodstream, and trigger inflammation in the intestines and throughout the body. Meanwhile, diquat can inhibit the production of beneficial bacteria that maintain the gut lining. Damage to the lining also inhibits the absorption of nutrients and energy metabolism, the authors said. The research further scrutinizes how the substance harms the kidneys, lungs and liver. Diquat 'causes irreversible structural and functional damage to the kidneys' because it can destroy kidney cells' membranes and interfere with cell signals. The effects on the liver are similar, and the ingredient causes the production of proteins that inflame the organ. Meanwhile, it seems to attack the lungs by triggering inflammation that damages the organ's tissue. More broadly, the inflammation caused by diquat may cause multiple organ dysfunction syndrome, a scenario in which organ systems begin to fail. The authors note that many of the studies are on rodents and more research on low, long-term exposure is needed. Bayer did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Despite the risks amid a rise in diquat's use, the EPA is not reviewing the chemical, and even non-profits that push for tighter pesticide regulations have largely focused their attention elsewhere. Donley said that was in part because US pesticide regulations are so weak that advocates are tied up with battles over ingredients like glyphosate, paraquat and chlorpyrifos – substances that are banned elsewhere but still widely used here. Diquat is 'overshadowed' by those ingredients. 'Other countries have banned diquat, but in the US we're still fighting the fights that Europe won 20 years ago,' Donley said. 'It hasn't gotten to the radar of most groups and that really says a lot about the sad and sorry state of pesticides in the US.' Some advocates have accused the EPA of being captured by industry, and Donley said US pesticide laws were so weak that it was difficult for the agency to ban ingredients, even if the will exists. For example, the agency banned chlorpyrifos in 2022, but a court overturned the decision after industry sued. Moreover, the EPA's pesticides office seems to have a philosophy that states that toxic pesticides are a 'necessary evil', Donley said. 'When you approach an issue from that lens there's only so much you will do,' he said.
