On Conquering School Anxiety During the Pandemic

Are you nervous about going back to school during the pandemic? Or nervous about sending your kids to school or back to college? We wanted to take a break from our storytelling posts to give you some concrete tips to help you manage anxiety about school and covid-19 during this time.

The pandemic took the world by storm and is making people nervous about being in close proximity. Some cities even ban gatherings of more than five people as a precaution to keep the virus from spreading. However, it's come to the point where we need to start returning to some sense of normalcy.

This is because most businesses and humans have had trouble adjusting to the pandemic. Education is an essential part of many of our lives and thus, lots of us are navigating the path to go back to school. Returning to school anxiety not only affects students and their families, but teachers, too.

How can you function well if school anxiety is gripping you? We'll help you by giving some tips to conquer anxiety as both students and as teachers. Read on and learn how to better address your fears around school during this pandemic.

anxiety management for students

School can be anxiety-provoking enough without the backdrop of a pandemic! For students, this means that they're in for a rough ride if they don't know how to conquer their anxiety. Here is how you can help yourself overcome your anxiety while returning to school.

1. Accept That it Takes a While to manage Anxiety

What many people fail to realize is that it's impossible to conquer feelings of anxiety overnight. To start, you may not even be aware that you’re feeling anxious. Unknowing can make you feel blindsided and an anxiety attack may feel even more unmanageable.

The best way to safeguard your mental health is to accept that you will become anxious. This is an incredibly bizarre and anxiety-provoking time and feeling worried or afraid is a healthy, normal response. Accepting some inevitable fear and anxiety helps you to prepare yourself in case a panic attack comes. Considering how you will soothe your anxiety while you have a calm mind helps you to come up with logical ways to manage moments of worry.

2. Stick to Routines You Are Familiar With

A good way to overcome anxiety about the pandemic is to stick to a familiar routine. This is a good way to keep yourself calm in times of uncertainty. When you do something familiar, your brain thinks you're keeping yourself out of harm's way!

Familiar acts can be anything from wearing face masks to washing your hands. Creating rituals around these acts is helpful because you have learned to associate them with safety against the virus. These precautions are simple, but knowing how they safeguard you against the threat of Covid-19 can help you feel more secure. These acts will also help you know that you're doing what you can to lower your risk of infection.

In the face of so much uncertainty, familiar routines and activities help to provide a sense of stability as well. Identify a few supportive activities that you can work in throughout the day that help to ease your anxiety, like eating lunch at the same time followed by a walk around the block.

3. Don't Overestimate the Threat

Many people become anxious because they fear the threat of contracting the virus. It’s natural to worry about getting it even if you’re doing all you can. You can prevent this fear from overwhelming you by arming yourself with factual information.

Learning the facts is essential to helping keep you from feeling too helpless. Know that simple precautions like wearing a face mask and face shield can do a lot to prevent you from getting sick. The filters of the face masks help prevent any airborne diseases from getting to you. A face shield also does this by blocking transmission via sneezes or coughs. Keeping them on while you're in school is the best way to prevent yourself from getting sick. Also, make sure you know how to properly wash your hands. So, keep washing your hands and sanitizing your space when you can. Practicing these precautions will help you to take a load off of your mind.

4. Let the Anxiety Pass

What to do if you feel the symptoms of a panic attack coming? The best thing to do is to try to let it pass over you. First, try to learn how you feel when it happens and observe the sensations that arise in your body. Use this to help yourself in the future and reduce the impact of anxiety attacks.

Most people try to distract themselves when they feel anxiety coming. They listen to loud music, eat food, or watch shows on their mobile devices. Doing this and trying to avoid facing the issue can perpetuate the worry, though. You have to feel it, to heal it! A better way of handling these moments is to accept that panic happens to us to keep us on our toes; it’s a result of our nervous system becoming activated to try to keep us safe. It's a part of the human experience and we shouldn't feel ashamed about it. Use this to learn how it feels instead.

Learning through experiencing allows you to accept it as a normal, regular occurrence. You can then reassure yourself that it will actually pass and that it likely isn't as bad as you think it is. Describing sensations of anxiety to yourself as it happens allows you to understand what's happening, label it as “anxiety” and to know that it will be over in a few minutes. It will also help you to know why you're panicking, which will be the key to overcoming it. If it's uncertainty about the threat, read the newest updates to know how you can continue to protect yourself and how likely it is that you may actually become sick. If it's because of an unsanitized surface, then clean it. Learn what works best to help you respond to your anxiety. This will help you keep yourself calm, even in the midst of a panic attack.

5. Keep your distance

With schools reopening and if you are going back in-person, it's unavoidable that you will be close to some people. This is where school anxiety may be at its peak—not knowing if other people have contracted the virus and may expose you. What's great is that there's an easy solution to this...keeping your (social) distance.

Practice social distancing and try to keep yourself away from being too close to others. The threat of contracting the virus is significantly reduced if you reduce exposure to it. Keep this in mind even when someone asks for your help. When someone asks you for help with something that involves physical contact, consider saying no. The risk to your health is too great to allow yourself to risk exposure because you don't want to feel guilty or to disappoint people. Boundary setting and saying “no” can be difficult to do, but it is important to respect and prioritize your own comfort right now. This is a great moment to practice self-compassion and put your welfare first.

6. Allow yourself a worry time

Knowing that you will have time to be with your fears is a great way to keep yourself calm throughout your schoolday. Most of the panic you may feel right now is because what lies ahead is uncertain. As humans we prefer for things to be predictable and stable; facing uncertainty tends to be nerve-wracking and most of us struggle with it! Set aside 20 or 30 minutes of your day to be with your worries, and set a timer. You can even write them out on paper to help get them out of your head. You will likely find that this exercise invites some anxiety and that’s okay. Try to remind yourself that many of the worries you’re facing are only hypothetical. Then when your timer goes off, it’s time to leave worrying behind and get back into your day.

7. Seek Professional Help

If worry is becoming hard to bear or you feel you are needing more support right now, we recommend getting connected to a therapist. Therapists aim to help you process what you're feeling. Many schools will have a counselor or counseling center to offer mental health support.

Feeling uncomfortable with meeting with someone face-to-face during the pandemic? Most schools and therapy practices are offering online therapy sessions through secure, video platforms. Times are incredibly challenging and anxiety provoking; support is essential.

anxiety management for educators

With the pandemic making everything scarier, you are (unfortunately) tasked with trying to prevent mass anxiety from taking over school. This is no small feat given how you’re likely feeling many of the same concerns your students (and their families) are! Here's some quick tips for how you can help your students navigate the complex feelings arising during this challenging time:

1. Support the Students and Their Grievances

A great way you can help your students process their anxiety and fear is to create space to inquire how they are coping and truly listen. Being heard and understood is what we all need when things become too overbearing. Consider creating a routine of holding a check-in at the same time each day where everyone gets to share about how they are feeling. This allows your students to process their feelings, get resonance from their peers, and you can let reflect how they are feeling and sometimes provide solutions (when appropriate).

2. validate students feelings rather than Reassuring Them

Reassuring someone isn't a bad thing. Reassurance can help people through initial feelings of anxiety. However, it is easy to fall into a pattern of reassurance-seeking to avoid momentary feelings of fear or discomfort and this can lead to becoming afraid of experience feelings altogether. Phrases like "everything will be fine" are promises we can’t make right now and it’s important to be honest and set realistic expectations. Instead, focus on validating their fears, like: “I know this is a scary time right now, it’s very normal to feel afraid. I sometimes feel afraid too. Come sit next to me for awhile.”

3. Help Them Face the Fear

As a more experienced adult, you probably know that no amount of planning can keep us from feeling afraid or preventing against all risk. Anxiety is likely to show up for your students in one way or another. Instead of ignoring or suppressing the feeling, teach them how to tolerate it. Feeling our feelings is much more effective, as avoidance only perpetuates anxiety and the power that it has. Facing the fear helps kids to learn that feelings are okay, normal, and an important part of being human and cultivates resilience for discomfort. You can help them learn to cope with fear and anxiety by asking them to describe the sensations in their body, slow their breath and imagine the feeling wave. Like a wave, emotions slowly rise, crest, and then fall. You can teach them that if they ride the wave, the feeling will pass and their nervous system WILL return to equilibrium again.

4. Reward Courage

The pandemic instills fear in all of us. It is very natural to have a hard time adjusting to the new normal and many students may have a hard time coming back to school. We’re all getting used to new procedures and ways of being and most schools, like the ones in Germany, have vastly different approaches to how they are handling things. A good way to help students through this transition time is to acknowledge that things are different from what they are used to and cheer them on as they come back to school. Realize that it takes a lot of courage on their part to leave the safety of their homes. Showing that you recognize this and taking the time to celebrate it will help them overcome their fears.

5. practice good self-care

Similar to being on an airplane, it’s imperative that you put your oxygen mask on first before trying to offer support and care to anyone else. Keeping yourself calm and grounded will help support you to avoid bringing your own feelings of panic to your students. Modeling your own self-care and staying grounded lets the students know that they are safe with you. Don’t completely hide your feelings, but do try to give yourself outlets to fully feel fear and worry outside of school. And make sure to engage in as many activities that are soothing for you as you can-exercising, eating yummy foods, zoom calls with friends, meditation, etc. will all help! If you can remain mostly calm in front of your students, they are less likely to become overwhelmed with anxiety themselves.

6. Know Your Limits and Don't OverExtend Yourself

Some students will be experiencing grief because of the pandemic. The loss of a family member or loved one will result in a much more difficult time and a myriad of complex feelings. You should extend increased support to these students, within your limits. You are merely human and cannot be responsible for caring for your students on your own. Lean into any and all supports you have available to you. Talk with school counselors and help them identify and get connected to the students who may be needing more support right now. Talk to your school directors and ask for more resources to support both you and your students. Remember: everyone needs more care right now, but this doesn’t fall exclusively on your shoulders. Your students really need you to be a consistent presence and show up for them. You can’t do this if you’re too worn down or burnt out.

conquer school anxiety today

Whether you're a teacher or student, facing pandemic anxiety is normal. These quick tips will help you have a place to start to care for yourself better. Do you need more guidance and help navigating pandemic anxiety? We're here to accompany you in navigating this difficult time together. Don't hesitate to contact us here and we'll get in touch with you as soon as we can!