Mut-Camp helps teenagers confront school anxiety

While many children and teenagers enjoyed the final week of their summer holidays, the approaching start of school was a major burden for some, SRF reports. A five-day residential programme at Zurich University Psychiatric Clinic’s Life crisis intervention service helps teenagers confront their fears.

“Through the exercises, I realised that it wasn’t so bad. I learned to talk about my feelings. Standing in front of the class and giving presentations has also become much easier,” said Linus, who is now 18.

He attended the Mut-Camp a year ago. Before that, he had repeatedly missed more than six months of his apprenticeship as a design engineer and eventually ended it. His psychologist recommended the camp in the hope that he would learn to cope with his fears.

His mother, Denise, said the programme had been a major relief for the family. “We immediately knew that he was in good hands there,” she said.

The camp is aimed specifically at teenagers aged 13 to 18 with anxiety disorders who have only recently begun missing school, said Sandra Koenig, the Life service’s senior psychologist. The five participants work intensively on their fears to make returning to school easier. They must already be receiving psychotherapy to take part.

The Mut-Camp began four years ago as a pilot project and later became a permanent part of Life’s services after receiving positive feedback. It is held during the final week of the summer holidays and is consistently fully booked. Similar short-term holiday programmes are now also offered by other child and adolescent psychiatric services.

Life’s specialists stress that treating anxiety disorders is a lengthy process. One week of intensive treatment cannot end prolonged school absenteeism. The camp addresses anxiety, but the reasons children and teenagers stop attending school vary.

The longer teenagers are absent, the greater their fear of returning becomes, mental health specialists say. The summer holiday break can increase that fear. School absence is a form of avoidance, Koenig explained, involving situations that frighten teenagers.

The camp seeks to reduce this avoidance through exposure exercises. Participants first discuss their individual fears with their therapists and support people to determine their origins and assess how realistic the perceived threat is. They then face situations that make them anxious, such as making small talk with strangers, speaking loudly in front of others or travelling on public transport.

The aim is to give teenagers what Koenig called a “corrective experience”, so they will be less likely to avoid these situations in the future. Former participants described the camp as demanding and challenging, but said they were grateful to have learned more about anxiety, how it works and how to overcome it. Some, like Linus, have found lasting ways to cope with their fears.