Are my anxiety attacks caused because I feel stupid?

I think your anxiety attacks are probably caused because you feel and seem trapped in your life. But you and your counselors would probably know best.

@RedDeerGuy1, there’s no way one of us here can know what causes your anxiety attacks. But whatever else you may or may not be, you aren’t stupid. Something else is getting in your way, probably something that your therapy can help with. It’s not lack of brains. We can see that in your long history of participation in this site.

I come from a deeply academic family, with professors and scholars on all sides. But I have a first cousin whose intelligence just isn’t of the classroom variety. He’s a successful dairy farmer. I have a son, too, whose brilliance doesn’t shine in academe. Left-brain scholarly discipline and structure aren’t for everyone. The trick is to find where your strengths lie and go in that direction, even if it doesn’t follow a conventional path.

Wow. That was so well stated. GA ++++

More likely because you feel that everyone is looking at you.

I can’t speak to your anxiety, but I might suggest that the evidence of your participation here in the lagoon suggests you are far from stupid.

@RedDeerGuy1 Over the few months that I’ve been around here, you always seem to express yourself clearly and intelligently. You also seem to have a good sense of humor, which in its own way takes intelligence.

As others have indicated above, many people throughout history have been brilliant in their own way, but were not necessarily book-smart.

They’ve also said that no one here can help you with absolute certainty, and that’s true. But my instinctive guess is that you are more lacking in confidence than intelligence….

Wow and extra wow answer @Jeruba. We can’t ALL be the same.

As for the question. I think you are confused about what you want to do. You have created a tangled ball of wool consisting of desires, ideas, ambitions and dreams. Somewhere in that mess is what YOU really want. Since you haven’t discovered that yet you keep burning out before you have even set off. It has NOTHING to do with intelligence.

You need a plan B. My guess would be that you are feeling anxious because you don’t see a way of improving your situation. Don’t go around beating up on yourself just because of some exams. An academic route does not appear to be suited for you. You gave it your best shot and it did not work out. As @Jeruba pointed out, that does not make you stupid. Now you need to find an alternative path.

@RedDeerGuy1 , There is something that you said that I don’t understand. Who imposes the rule as to what subjects you are allowed to study based on the testing? Is that a rule made by the Canadian government? Does that mean you can’t take non-liberal arts classes, or just that they will not give you money for taking them? One other thing. I assume that if you can take liberal arts classes, that you did okay on the language tests, but not math. Am I right about that? Not that any of this matters. What I said previously still holds. I was just curious about the details.

I think when we are anxious we are often also down, or depressed and then we think we are all sorts of negative things. I’ve always thought you to be quite smart from your answers here.

@LostInParadise You usually can’t take science classes In university unless you have all high school grade 12 science. Biology, chemistry ,physics and math.

Just go with the Liberal Arts for now, and see what develops. Maybe you can branch off into something else later on. Or if you need a hiatus, go serve a hitch in the Air Force for a few years. And no, I’m not a recruiter, just a suggestion. As far as the military goes, the Air Force isn’t as messed up as the other branches, and once you graduate Basic and get past the some asshole yelling at you part, it’s not a bad life. You can travel, and maybe learn a trade or skill you can put to use later in life, and use you GI Bill to fund your college.

@NomoreY_A He’s Canadian.

Never mind then. I know nothing about the Canadian Military. Soorry, Red

@RedDeerGuy1 , I am still not understanding. What impact does your test scores have on what university classes you can take? What you are saying is that it only depends on the classes that you took in high school.

@LostInParadise You need all grade 12 science classes to get into any science in most universities that I know of in Canada. You need at a minimum 70% average with no class being under 50%. You need English ,social, math, biology, chemistry and physics and sometimes calculus.

Where do the diploma exams fit in? That is what you said might be causing you anxiety.

@LostInParadise Grade 12 is the link to university.

Learning Styles

@RedDeerGuy1 , Do the diploma tests cover everything you studied in high school? It would be understandable if you forgot some of the material all these years since you attended. Maybe you could do better if you study for the tests on your own.

@LostInParadise Yes. You're right. I’ve been out of school for a long time. I will write practice exams from the exam bank and see how much I remember. Thanks : )

Thanks @all when I pay off my debt at Dec 20th I will save money for exam bank on the internet and slowly learn more about science and math.