For some youngsters, September can be a source of trauma. The return to school can mean the prospect of scary assignments and scarier bullies — a prospect that translates into serious, debilitating unease.
But kids aren’t alone in their end-of-summer disquiet, according to psychologists. Back-to-school season, it turns out, can bring dread that lasts a lifetime.
“I see it all the time with my patients. A lot of the time they’re not even aware of it because they’ve been out of school for so long,” said Dr. Oren Amitay, a Toronto psychologist and lecturer at Ryerson University.
“You’ve spent so many years with this pattern, from the earliest days, so it’s really ingrained.”
Essentially, as Amitay explains, the waning days of summer can “trigger” the childhood anxiety that people experienced when their holidays were ending and they had to return to the classroom. That feeling can echo into adulthood, recurring every fall when school buses begin rolling again.
“People really lament all the things they hadn’t done in the summer,” said Amitay, describing the crunch of time as a source of this mental discomfort. “That transition (to fall) can be distressing.”
Anna Baranowsky, a psychologist, said that the lingering pain of back-to-school memories typically affects people who experienced real trauma as children during that time of year, whether it was through teasing at school or immense academic pressure.
“Those kind of things get wired in your system ... It can absolutely reignite strong feelings.” (more...)
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