Back to School: How to Manage Anxiety?

The return to school is a crucial time that triggers anxieties in students and parents. Google searches show an increase in terms like "school anxiety" and "fear of going back to school." Around the start of the academic year, symptoms can include stomach aches, sleep disturbances, irritability, and difficulty concentrating.

Unlike fear (a response to a specific external threat), anxiety is a diffuse apprehension without a clear cause. Anxiety is not the problem itself, but a symptom of an underlying conflict that deserves to be addressed.

The two main sources of back-to-school anxiety are: Separation Anxiety, particularly in young children: the fear is not of school itself, but of separating from attachment figures (especially the mother). The other more common source is Self-Ideal Anxiety: Internal pressure to meet parental, social, and peer expectations. The fear of not achieving that idealized image (not being good enough) generates paralyzing anxiety.

The most common emotional manifestations are irritability, mood swings, sadness, and frequent crying; the physiological manifestations include palpitations, gastrointestinal problems, sleep disturbances, and headaches; and cognitive manifestations include difficulty concentrating, memory problems, and catastrophic thinking.

School anxiety is not simply "first-day jitters." It is an essential symptom: the disguised return of something repressed. It can include unresolved fears (failure, humiliation, abandonment), unexpressed aggression toward authority figures (parents, teachers, the education system), or fear of not living up to the ideal self ("being the best," "the smartest").

In cases of school phobia (not wanting to go to school or constantly being late), what appears to be fear or rejection of school is actually separation anxiety from the mother figure. The child or young person cannot consciously articulate this conflict, so the anxiety is "displaced" onto school.

However, parents also experience anxiety during the back-to-school season, and this can be unconsciously transmitted to their children. It's helpful to reflect: What expectations do I have? Am I projecting my own fears? How am I managing my uncertainty?

To support your children, here are some strategies:

1. Listen to the message: Instead of quickly dismissing anxiety with phrases like "it's nothing," "everything will be fine," "you can do it," ask: "What worries you the most?"

2. Gradual routines: Adjust sleep schedules and reduce screen time.

3. Therapeutic support: When anxiety interferes with daily functioning, psychoanalytic therapy seeks to bring the unconscious to consciousness, transforming the root of the anxiety, not just its symptoms.

The return to school, with all its anxieties, can be an opportunity for growth if we approach it with curiosity and compassion. Anxiety is not an enemy to be eradicated, but a messenger inviting us to explore internal conflicts and repressed desires. I'm here for you.