Stop the stress
Pupils should be warned against the danger of burnout, think the initiators of Stress at school. They therefore organize workshops. "Feel your heartbeat, feel your breathing."
Picture: Fred van diem
"We are concerned about stress in society and especially at school." That is why Diane Bos and Lotte Lancee from Stress give workshops on this subject at school, today at 5-vwo of the Christelijk Lyceum Zeist.
Bos and Lancee ask the students to sit in groups of four. “We are going to send messages to each other. Just like you do with Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Whatsapp, but on paper. As much as possible and as quickly as possible. But first feel how you are doing. Watch your heartbeat and your breathing. Okay? Good: here we go. ”
The students begin to press down on strips of paper that they pass to each other. 'Are you mad at me? No, it is not. How was your weekend? Nice and sick. OMG, Bis is hot, Bis is going to break through! I hope so.' The messages fly back and forth. "Shit, shit, shit: this is too much."
During the exercise Bos and Lancee walk around: some students are instructed to stand up or turn around so that they cannot write messages. Others have to solve a maze puzzle on paper before they can continue.
All of this increases stress and that is exactly the intention. "We want the students to experience what happens in their body and brain when they get stress, so that they learn to recognize the signals of stress."
Bos herself has become wise through damage and shame: she got a burnout around her thirtieth birthday. “I hear from more and more people that they are getting stressed. We have apparently created a society in which even teenagers are at home in stress. That's not okay. ”
As a school social worker, Lancee had many overstrained students in her consulting room. And the third partner in Stress at School, Guiot Duermeijer, noticed that more and more stressed students came to his desk. "I thought: I have to do something with that."
The symptoms of stress can vary greatly from student to student. Just like with adults, by the way. Bos: “I myself was hyper-productive. I've never gotten as much done as before my burnout. But the reverse also occurs: lethargy, tiredness and no longer wanting to do anything. ”
I always want to do more things than I have time for
The students in 5-VWO seem to get little stress from sending all the messages. “Shit, I don't have a social life”, jokes a boy who doesn't get any new messages for a while. But they do recognize that their heart rate and breathing have clearly increased.
“It's great that you don't experience stress from social media,” say Bos and Lancee. “But maybe somewhere else in your life gives you stress? Is there anything that makes you sleep badly, that keeps you worrying about? ” A few fingers rise gently, they do not rise above shoulder height.
“I always postpone my homework,” admits one student. “I always want to do more things than I have time for,” says another. “You bet that that will only get worse,” Bos responds. "Especially if you are going to study and live on your own."
Does something relax you too? From dancing, says a student. "Fine. Sport is really a great way to relax. Just being busy, not receiving any new information. Because that is a major culprit. People in the Middle Ages had to process just as much information in their entire lives as we nowadays in one day. ”
“If you are under stress, do you have to let go of your schoolwork or your hobbies,” a student wants to know. Good question. And the answer is, neither is actually. “Because the danger with stress is that you no longer do things that you enjoy and that would relax you. Maybe you should let go of your side job? ”
An important tip from Bos en Lancee is: if the stress is getting too much for you, ring the bell at school. Although the signals from students are not always recognized. Duermeijer: “The first reaction is often: 'Overstrained students? That problem is not an issue here. ' But a care coordinator often recognizes it immediately. ”
Once a student is exhausted, the way back is difficult and long. “Companies have a reintegration plan for stressed out workers,” says Lancee. "Schools have those plans too, but not for their students." And that's why it often goes wrong. “I was recently at a school where an overstrained student immediately started up again after the summer vacation. That already went wrong before the autumn holidays. ”
The best reintegration for students, just like for employees, is small steps, says Bos. “Teachers and fellow students sometimes find that difficult. Why does the stressed student not have to take all the lessons, why does he not have to do all the exercises? ”
Remember that it is not laziness on the part of that student, says Bos. “People who get a burnout are often people who want to do everything as well as possible for themselves. That is their problem. They are people who keep going to the very end and then: Bam. ”
Anyway: prevention is better than cure. “We hope you learned something from it,” Bos and Lancee say to the class. Then the bell rings. Many students quickly check their Facebook on their way to the next lesson. The real one, this time.
