More and more students suffer from burn-out

Pressure to perform leads more and more to overload and exhaustion

03/12/2015

Chronic stress, excessive demands, existential fears or permanent conflicts in the workplace: More and more people get sick of a so-called „Burn-out syndrome“, which is characterized by a massive emotional exhaustion and feeling, internally „burned out“ being characterized. But that „Being burned out“ Not only affects adults, but children also suffer from pressure to perform and constant overwork. Accordingly, experts advise again and again to take changes in students absolutely serious.

Line pressure already in elementary school
School until 3pm, then straight home and back to the desk to do the homework or spend hours learning class. For many students a normal and everyday scenario, with only one goal in mind: best grades, all under one „very well“ is not accepted by yourself. As a result, there is hardly any time and energy left for other activities such as dating friends, having fun playing football or just for fun „do nothing“. However, what looks like discipline and hard work turns out to be a problem on closer inspection, because more and more young students are reaching their limits - or even more. This is not without consequences, instead there is a permanent fatigue, weakness and physical symptoms such. Headache, dizziness or sleep disturbances.

Two to three percent of the students affected
„Five years ago, I increasingly saw depressed and exhausted children who did not fit into the normal category of depression, "reports Prof. Michael Schulte-Markwort of the University Hospital Hamburg-Eppendorf on the occasion of the German Teachers' Day 2015 in Leipzig, told the news agency „dpa“. He had long puzzled what could be the cause of the depressed mood of the students until he came to the realization that it was already in the children to a burn-out syndrome. According to Schulte-Markwort, these are no longer exceptional cases; instead, an average of two affected students would report on a weekly basis. Although there are still no valid studies on this topic, it can therefore be assumed that currently two to three percent of students are affected by burnout, the experienced child and adolescent psychiatrist continues.

High school as a desired goal builds up early pressure
Also from the point of view of Udo Beckmann, Federal Chairman of the Association of Education and Organizer of the Teachers' Day, an increasing exhaustion of students can be seen: „Many teachers have noticed changes in the students, "he explains „dpa“. „The colleagues see that children are often overtaxed at an early age. "Since a successful high school diploma is the desired goal, the girls and boys would often be in elementary school under pressure and tension.

„Helicopter parent“ not always to blame for overworking the children
But who has „fault“ Because students are increasingly struggling with exhaustion and overwork? Contrary to popular belief, not the so-called „Helicopter parent“, who constantly circle around their children and are often accused of overtaxing them with countless extracurricular activities, according to Prof. Michael Schulte-Markwort. „Rather, these are the achievement orientations that we have anchored in our society, coupled with the children's sense that if they do not get a good A-Levels, then their lives have run their course“, explains the expert, who has recently gathered his experience in the book Burnout-Kids.

Always take behavioral changes in children seriously
Despite the lack of studies and statistical surveys, the Federal Association for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (BKJPP) confirms the observation that burn-out can affect even children. „In our practices very often children are presented because of school stress and stress ", so the BKJPP chairman Gundolf mountain opposite the „dpa“. It would often occur in the students several symptoms at the same time, such as sleep disorders, difficulty concentrating or moods. Accordingly, according to Schulte-Markwort, it is particularly important that parents and teachers closely monitor the children and take sudden behavioral changes seriously: „If parents feel that they have a problem for some time, then they should go to a specialist. "An important and promising step, because so far in his practice all those affected could have been helped.

Solving the problem only through social rethinking
In general, however, from the therapist's point of view, the problem could only be solved by a rethinking of society: "We have to ask ourselves: does it really have to be more, does the lath really have to be higher and higher?" This rethinking included a restructuring of the school with, for example, smaller classes, improved teacher training. „If schools are to succeed, if successful educational biographies are to be designed, then teachers need significantly more support than is the case today“, Wilmar Diepgrond, chairman of the association Bildungsmedien, in his opening speech to the German Teachers' Day. (No)