{"id":9911,"date":"2026-07-10T06:37:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T06:37:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thehindustnexpress.com\/?p=9911"},"modified":"2026-07-10T06:37:18","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T06:37:18","slug":"dr-shripuja-siddamsetty-exam-anxiety","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thehindustnexpress.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/10\/dr-shripuja-siddamsetty-exam-anxiety\/","title":{"rendered":"Dr. Shripuja Siddamsetty on Positive Exam Thinking"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>From the &#8220;Worst-Case&#8221; to the &#8220;Best-Case&#8221;: Rewiring Your Brain<\/strong> <strong>to Ask, &#8220;What If It Goes Right?&#8221;<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>HYDERABAD <\/strong>\u2014 The human brain is naturally wired to protect us by scanning for threats, an evolutionary trait that often goes into overdrive during high-stakes school evaluations. When facing major exams, the adolescent mind frequently falls into catastrophic thinking, mentally mapping out every worst-case scenario from failing a test to ruining their entire career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To disrupt this default loop, a simple Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) technique is being repurposed online into an incredibly popular positive trend: flipping the narrative to ask, &#8216;What if it goes right?&#8217; Students are challenged to spend equal mental energy mapping out the absolute best-case outcomes for their upcoming milestones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;Catastrophizing turns everyday academic pressure into an immobilizing wave of physical and mental anxiety,&#8221; says Dr. Shripuja Siddamsetty, Consultant Clinical Psychologist and Corporate Trainer. &#8220;When an adolescent constantly visualizes failure, their body responds as if that failure is already happening, raising cortisol levels significantly. Forcing the mind to vividly imagine a positive outcome\u2014like remembering an answer perfectly or feeling calm at their desk\u2014actively disrupts that stress loop. This cognitive pivot doesn&#8217;t just lower anxiety; it builds the optimistic mindset necessary for lifelong psychological resilience across all stages of adolescence.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From the &#8220;Worst-Case&#8221; to the &#8220;Best-Case&#8221;: Rewiring Your Brain to Ask, &#8220;What If It Goes Right?&#8221; HYDERABAD \u2014<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9912,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2007],"tags":[25060,25064,25059,25061,25065,25075,25077,25066,25072,25070,25074,25068,25063,25076,25067,25069,25071,25073,25062],"class_list":["post-9911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-achievement","tag-dr-shripuja-siddamsetty","tag-dr-shripuja-siddamsetty-academic-stress","tag-dr-shripuja-siddamsetty-catastrophic-thinking","tag-dr-shripuja-siddamsetty-cbt-techniques","tag-dr-shripuja-siddamsetty-cognitive-behavioral-therapy","tag-dr-shripuja-siddamsetty-confidence-building","tag-dr-shripuja-siddamsetty-emotional-wellbeing","tag-dr-shripuja-siddamsetty-exam-anxiety","tag-dr-shripuja-siddamsetty-exam-preparation-tips","tag-dr-shripuja-siddamsetty-fear-of-failure","tag-dr-shripuja-siddamsetty-mental-wellness","tag-dr-shripuja-siddamsetty-positive-mindset","tag-dr-shripuja-siddamsetty-positive-thinking","tag-dr-shripuja-siddamsetty-positive-visualization","tag-dr-shripuja-siddamsetty-psychological-resilience","tag-dr-shripuja-siddamsetty-stress-management","tag-dr-shripuja-siddamsetty-student-mental-health","tag-dr-shripuja-siddamsetty-student-wellness","tag-dr-shripuja-siddamsetty-what-if-it-goes-right"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thehindustnexpress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thehindustnexpress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thehindustnexpress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thehindustnexpress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thehindustnexpress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9911"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thehindustnexpress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9911\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9913,"href":"https:\/\/thehindustnexpress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9911\/revisions\/9913"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thehindustnexpress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thehindustnexpress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thehindustnexpress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thehindustnexpress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}