“If I have decided to work at 6 PM and I see the clock hitting 6:10, I just feel like not doing it!” – Many of us have often gone through the same, haven’t we?
22-year-old Anagha had also experienced the same. Anagha is currently pursuing her BTech in Metallurgical and Material Engineering from IIT Madras. As much as Anagha enjoys dancing and music, she never fails to participate in any extra-curricular activities that come her way. Anagha also teaches Sanskrit in her free time, owing to her love for the language and its history. She has been fond of teaching Sanskrit to students voluntarily for 6 years now.
“I am not comfortable sharing a lot of things which makes me introverted in that particular area.”
Anagha had landed at such a point in her life where she had started to notice a few issues that she was going through. As much as ambitious Anagha was, she was preventing her progress by piling on her chores. Anagha’s sheer will to finish her daily tasks often used to clash with her procrastination tendencies.
Anagha secured an internship opportunity for herself. Although the internship wasn’t offering a stipend, she was initially satisfied with the fact that she liked working for the company and in the said profile.
“Eventually, I dropped the internship due to my procrastination leading to a loss of interest. This affected my mental health a lot.”
Anagha also realised her tendency of being over organised. Before initiating any task, Anagha had a habit of pre-planning it thoroughly. But this led her to inculcate a habit of dropping the plan too easily if she fails to stick to her routine. Anagha couldn’t manage to continue to fulfil the rest of the tasks if she failed in achieving the goal midway. This connected dots to her procrastination propensity.
“My procrastination led me to pile up my work that was a part of my pre-planned schedule. This created lags in my chores and eventually, I used to lose interest in the same.”
With the onset of Covid-19, Anagha was finally at home, alone with her thoughts. Soon, Anagha started overthinking her problems and found herself trapped in the spiral. There came a point when Anagha was getting triggered by very small things. Being a bright kid from her childhood with excelling records both academically as well as in co-curricular, Anagha had started to feel belittled in her college environment that was very competitive.
“I was going through frequent episodes of anxiety followed by minor panic attacks. My overthinking forbade me to be productive.”
This also led Anagha to feel sleep-deprived by the night and her mind would be mostly engulfed by extreme negative thoughts. Eventually, Anagha started locking herself out of everyone.
Anagha, as a child was very playful and energetic. Her hyper activeness led her uncle to suggest a counselor to her. This had created a stigma in her head back then in her childhood was she knew that nothing was wrong with her. Just like most of the Indian families, her family was also offended by the same.
Coming back to the present, Anagha’s friend suggested counseling to her to which Anagha agreed. Anagha came across Mamata Iyer, a counselor from YourDOST with whom she got in touch via audio calls.
“I was advised to maintain a journal that she had to update every two hours. She was also suggested on ways to start her chores in the beginning and stop procrastination.”
As deeply the problems had hit Anagha, so did the techniques help her to get back on her toes. Now, Anagha describes her problems to have lessened drastically as she is going through the process. Instead of confining within one person emotionally, Anagha seems to have developed bonds with more friends. She also has fewer episodes of panic and anxiety which led to a reduction in overthinking.
‘Most importantly, I no longer procrastinate and this is giving me more clarity on my day-to-day activities.”
Anagha extends warm gratitude to her counselor who was very empathetic and she appreciates the fact that she could share anything with her counselor. Anagha rates her overall progress through counseling with a 3.5 out of 5 by stating that there is more room for improvement. She also backs it up by calling the experience a “great” one. We, at YourDOST, wish her all the best in her future endeavours
Anagha’s Warrior Tips:
1. I think everybody needs help at times. Talking to a counselor sometimes can be more comfortable and fruitful than talking to a friend.
2. Counselors give you practical solutions with no judgements.
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