It’s Not Spring Fever, It’s Burnout

Students who mask at school can only keep it up for so long

Every spring I hear from parents and school staff that the children and students are getting “spring fever”.

This may be true for some, but for disabled and neurodivergent students, it’s likely something a bit more serious. Spending 30 hours per week in a public school system that often doesn’t meet their needs — surrounded by peers who also don’t understand them — is exhausting.

For students who mask, hiding their struggles in attempts to fit in and avoid getting in trouble at school, the consequences are often internal. Camouflaging or suppressing our needs for the benefit of others is not sustainable and leads to fatigue, anxiety, and burnout.

For kids who attend school September through June, this usually starts showing up after spring break, around April or May.

After enduring eight or so months of holding it all in, working twice as hard as their peers to meet the school’s over-generalized (and neuronormative) expectations, something’s got to give.

Not to mention the sensory overload related to attending school: hot, loud bus rides; loud, crowded hallways, classrooms, and lunch rooms; flickering fluorescent lights; uncomfortable chairs, among many others.

Burnout can show up in many different ways, especially in children, who won’t have the neurological maturity or the language to understand or express what they are experiencing.

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Signs of student burnout

It’s important to remember this list is not exhaustive, and the signs of possible burnout will be different for each person.

Some of the possible signs are:

• Disengagement, apathy

• Difficulty focusing or concentrating

• Frequently late (when they weren’t previously)

• Becoming sick more often (or needing more sick days)

• Shutting out family and/or friends, withdrawing

• Increased irritability and negativity

• Less interested in hobbies, sports, or other extra-curricular activities

• Increased anxiety and avoidance

• Exhaustion or fatigue

A lot of school staff and clinicians still push parents and students to “push through” spring fever. They warn that a pattern of school refusal or avoidance can be difficult to stop.

This may well be true if it really is just spring fever. It certainly wouldn’t be helpful to allow a child to stay home whenever they want to eat snacks, watch tv, and play video games.

However, it’s very important to understand that school avoidance and student burnout are much more complex issues, and they cannot be solved by simply “pushing past” the resistance.

When a child is well and truly burning — or burnt — out, trying to play through the pain could have a significant negative impact on their health and wellbeing.

It sure as hell won’t help improve their perception of school, especially if school is the cause of their struggles in the first place. If nothing changes in the environment, then conditions cannot improve for the student.

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How to help

Read my full article for free on Medium.