School anxiety is something everyone feels at some point.
When the feelings are intense or felt most of the time, a therapist or physician may diagnose it as a medical condition.
For some, school anxiety can become crippling. It can manifest as stress disorders, separation anxiety, panic attacks, obsessive-compulsive disorder, social anxiety, and more.
Pre-pandemic, school anxiety affected 2-5% of school-age children, according to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA).
Today, 25% of children ages 13-18 have an anxiety disorder, and slightly fewer than 6% have a severe anxiety disorder, according to the US National Institute of Mental Health.
In US college students, 63% felt overwhelming anxiety in the past year, with 23% reported being diagnosed or treated by a mental health professional for anxiety in the past year, according to the American College Health Association Fall 2018 National College Health Assessment.
As the COVID-19 pandemic goes on, experts expect the school anxiety numbers to increase.
Looking at the impact COVID has had on children worldwide, this week in a Journal of the American Medical Association meta-analysis of 29 studies including 80,879 youth globally, estimates of clinically elevated child and adolescent depression and anxiety were 25.2% and 20.5%, respectively.
The causes of school anxiety vary, but the many ways anxiety manifests are varied and intense. Whether the source of the anxiety is trauma-related or not, TTC can help kids and teens reduce their school anxiety to manageable levels.
For parents/caregivers, we’ve created this list of six school anxiety management tips.
School Anxiety Tip #1: Don’t Let Your Guard Down. The 2021-2022 School Year May Be Doubly Anxious
In addition to the general COVID-19 PTSD, this year’s rapidly changing school landscape (remote vs hybrid vs open) means that students and their families are grappling with a daily state of uncertainty.
As mandatory mask-wearing, frequent COVID testing, and other restrictions are reinstated, in-person learning this year will be doubly challenging for teachers, students, and caretakers.
Most educators have warned that, despite their best efforts, the quality of education students received last year under distance learning left huge shortfalls that must be addressed in the coming year. Students suspect they will have to fit two years of learning into one incredibly stressful year. Some are already freaking out about it.
School Anxiety Tip #2: Look for the Signs of School Anxiety
Because children and teenagers may not vocalize when something is bothering them, parents/caregivers have to be vigilant for signs of stress.
We have written in the past about how to handle the stress of school reopening. Here’s a brief recap:
School Anxiety Signs
Acting out in school
Anxiety or nervousness
Avoidance of activities they enjoy
Changes in eating or sleeping patterns
Constantly asking questions such as: What if? Is someone going to die? Are you coming back?
Excessive worry, anxiety, or sadness
Fear of being alone
Fear of making minor mistakes
Frequent urination
Headaches, body pains, skin rashes
Impulsive or risky behavior
Regressing to behaviors they have outgrown
Saying "I can't do it" without a reason
Strong startle response
Suddenly avoiding all social interaction
Suddenly wetting the bed
Trouble falling asleep
Withdrawal or isolation
School Anxiety Tip #3: School Anxiety Can Manifest As Other Conditions
In addition to the signs mentioned above, school anxieties often manifest as school refusal, test anxiety, and social anxiety. These are symptoms of several anxiety disorders.
Generalized anxiety disorder
School is only one topic that the child is anxious about. They can also worry about their health, a family member’s safety, general perfectionism, the future, sexual/gender orientation, etc.
Specific phobias
School anxiety may manifest as any number of phobias. These phobias don’t have to be related to school itself or any actual past experience (fear of sharks, spiders, enclosed spaces, etc.). They are usually a symptom of larger anxiety.
Stress disorders
PTSD can happen when a person relives a past traumatic event with the same intensity as if it is happening again right now.
Separation anxiety
This usually happens with very young children who are separating from their caregivers for the first time.
Every parent has told the story of a child who wails with operatic fury when they are first left at daycare/school, and then five minutes later they are laughing with their friends having totally forgotten about their parents.
For some kids, separation anxiety lasts all day until the caregiver returns. If separation anxiety doesn’t go away with time, you might want to try some of the steps outlined below.
Panic attacks
A panic attack is when something triggers a person’s fight or flight response and they feel intense physical symptoms (racing heart, sweaty palms, a sense of foreboding/dread, etc.) even when no threat is present.
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
Kids who don’t feel in control of their lives will sometimes try to ease their anxiety by compulsively performing repetitive rituals like washing their hands, cleaning their rooms so that everything is “just so,” etc.
Social Anxiety
Like school anxiety, social anxiety is something that many people face from time to time. But introversion, shyness, or uneasiness in certain social situations isn’t a disorder.
Social anxiety becomes a problem when the student can’t participate in class, socialize with peers, or even do regular school activities because they are constantly afraid of being judged.
Social anxiety is mostly a fear of being judged, so it can show up in very specific ways at school.
Indications include:
Selective mutism
Doing homework but not handing it in
Doubting their ability to understand a subject
When they are actually having trouble with a subject, they won’t ask for help for fear of being judged
If the child has a learning difference, dysgraphia, for example, they would rather take a bad grade than display that difference in class
Some kids may pretend to be uninterested in a topic so that they aren’t held to a performance standard
Anxiously fidgeting during the class may be mistaken for ADHD when it is just nervous energy
Refusing to eat snacks or lunch at school
Refusing to participate in gym or any physical activity
Refusing to use the school bathroom
Unable to accept any criticism, even when it is constructive
School Anxiety Tip #4: What Family Members/Caretakers Can Do
One of the first rules of rescuing someone is to not become a victim yourself. If you’re stressed about your child’s school experience they will catch and match your anxiety.
Manage your own stress before you try to manage your kids’. You need to be their oasis of calm, their rock. That means listening to their fears and not dismissing them with empty happy talk.
Sometimes a child isn’t looking to you for a solution to fix their problems, they just want you to hear and validate their feelings.
Expressing confidence in them can help. Be supportive in your language about how, as a team, you can work together on solving the problems.
Here are a few steps you can take to be your youngster’s effective advocate at school:
Contact the school early (before school starts is ideal) to let the staff know if your kid has known struggles..
If your child is going to a new school, visit the campus with them before school opens so that they can learn the lay of the land. Practice walking from their first-period classroom to the next so that they can help navigate the school. If your youngster is entering a new school after the term has started, ask if you can tour after hours or on the weekend before they start.
On your school visit, if possible, have your kid meet with as much of the staff as possible. Sometimes you can have a designated support person like the school counselor or nurse.
Ritualize your morning routine to provide a sense of repeatable calm.
Ask your child to write out their concerns in a “worry journal” as a way of processing them. (This can also be useful in identifying triggers throughout their day.) Or if they are too young to write, put physical items (like drawings) representing their fears in a “worry box.”
Arrange accommodations like a reduced number of days, flexible start or end times, reduced workload, hours where they meet with a tutor/counselor, etc.
If you feel that the school isn’t doing enough for your youngster, document everything in real-time so you can take it up the school management chain.
After every meeting, you have with school officials and teachers, send an email to them with your understanding about what was agreed upon.
If your kid is college-age (or at a boarding school), encourage them to use all the on-campus counseling and tutoring resources.
School Anxiety Tip #5: How a Student Can Help Ease School Anxiety Themselves
Kids need to understand why they are feeling their fears so intensely
The part of the brain that senses whether we are being attacked, the amygdala, activates the fight or flight response to a given situation. To an outside observer, the stimuli may appear minor, but to the brain of someone with school anxiety, the situation can feel like a life-or-death struggle.
This fight or flight response can be seen as a powerful ally, like a warrior protecting them. Students just need to become the general in charge of training their warrior when to activate.
In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, after the Avengers no longer need the Hulk to smash things, they trained him to use a trigger to calm him down to turn back into mild Bruce Banner.
Your child’s amygdala can be calmed in the same way. One popular technique is called Hot Chocolate Breathing. Imagine your holding a cup of hot chocolate. Sniff in for three seconds and then blow out for three seconds. Most people find this very calming.
School Anxiety Tip #6: When You Need Professional Counseling for School Anxiety, We’re Here
If your kid/tween is showing symptoms of significant school anxiety, we can help.
Schools are overwhelmed with such a large influx of students needing attention right now. That’s why so many New Mexico school psychologists refer children to the Trauma Treatment Center. School referrals are the most effective way to get the kids the help they need.
Because of this increased demand we’ve expanded our programs to help relieve stress and assist youngsters with focusing on school, sports, and social pursuits.
Our very successful teen counseling program serves Albuquerque and Rio Rancho adolescents aged 13-17 and their primary caregivers.
Our intensive outpatient program is a 16-week course focusing on trauma with topics including:
Substance use/abuse
Trauma processing
Parenting (for the caregivers)
DBT (dialectical behavior therapy) skills (mindfulness, interpersonal effectiveness, distress tolerance, and emotion regulation)
Body-based trauma processing
Peer support
We’re very proud of our IOP program because it’s a great fit for adolescents who are:
In need of more than once-a-week therapy
Are stepping down from an inpatient program
Have been engaged with juvenile justice but are not making progress
Referred by a mental health provider
If the return to in-person schooling has revealed that a child or adolescent in your care needs support, please contact us immediately. We can help.