The pandemic is also affecting children and young people in particular. Many students are already wondering how things will go on for them in the new school year. What can help
An expert recommends children and young people look for “islands of joy” in Corona times and to enjoy them consciously. “Young people live in great insecurity, so they have to consciously savour the current freedoms such as meeting, partying, swimming and playing,” said the child and adolescent psychotherapist Helena Dimou-Diringer in Heidelberg. Because the development of the infection could lead to alternating classes or even to lockdown.
Uncertainty remains
The discussion about the pros and cons of vaccination for younger people and the advance of the D variant also unsettled the boys and girls. It is particularly difficult that the beginning of the summer vacation did not end the phase of uncertainty. “The students are already wondering how things will go on for them in the new school year.” They had been confronted with their deficits in the last few months of face-to-face classes before the holidays. “The pressure to perform was very high.”
To start drumming immediately after the holidays is the wrong way: people develop through dealing with others. “This is where you get energy, not the fresh air that we now have in abundance.” Therefore, the focus must be on regular joint activities such as excursions. There are young people who feared that they will not be able to celebrate their birthday for the third time in a row next winter because of Corona. “Two years are very long for these years.”
Many clutter remains under the radar
According to Dimou-Diringer, the number of 300 to 400 young people who are treated weekly in the outpatient department of the Heidelberg Academy for Psychotherapy of the SRH has not increased significantly. “But the children and adolescents who are already sick come to us sicker,” said the head of the ambulance. The children have disappeared from the radar of the teachers or the youth welfare office, so disorders such as social anxiety, anorexia and compulsions have remained untreated.