Back to school anxiety and what to do about it

Parents and students alike may be experiencing some back-to-school anxiety after the past two disruptive school years.

Dr. Brent Mulrooney, a clinical psychologist with the Centre for Interpersonal Relationships Ottawa, told The Sam Laprade Show on Sept. 2 that concerns about children being behind socially, learning struggles, or life transitions like parents getting divorced or moving to a new school are common reasons people seek help.

“We also see kids with learning disabilities, or ADHD, or gifted designations, finding it really difficult because they have particularly unique struggles around how to do lots of different transitions,” Mulrooney said, adding that there are lots of kids who have undiagnosed learning disabilties due to the last few years of learning at home.

Lilly White, an author of several books, told The Sam Laprade Show on Aug. 30 that when it comes to back-to-school anxiety, it's essential to take things one day at a time and make things like dealing with COVID-19 prevention fun by having kids make their owns masks or songs up.

“A lot of the anxiety comes from the fact that we're thinking about what happened yesterday, and we're really anxious about what's going to be tomorrow,” White said, adding that although setting goals is important, people shouldn't be addicted to the outcome.

“We can set the goals, but we don't know how they're going to unfold because, you know, everything is shifting and changing… it's okay to have a bad day, it's okay not to feel wanted by your friends. But it's just for that moment,” she said.

Listen to the full interview with Dr. Brent Mulrooney below:

Listen to the full interview with Lilly White below: