“It’s not laziness, but stupor”: psychologists have revealed the main problem of high school students

The main problem of modern high school students is procrastination, aka the so-called “delayed task syndrome” – this is pointed out by adolescent psychologists who work with schoolchildren experiencing difficulties in learning.

We found out who and how exactly the syndrome of postponed tasks prevents from living, making friends and studying, and whether it can be overcome.

Psychologists who specialize in “unreasonable” problems with the educational process (if a teenager is capable, trainable, studied well for the time being, and then suddenly seemed to fall into a stupor), emphasize that the main mistake of adults is to confuse procrastination with laziness.

“Not only many parents, but even teachers are guilty of this,” says teenage psychologist Natalya Krylova. – Such a substitution of concepts can occur from a lack of sensitivity and true attention to the child and student.

It turns out that laziness and procrastination have completely different backgrounds. A teenager, like an adult, can be lazy – that is, persistently avoid his responsibilities both in school and in the rest of life – from a lack of responsibility, lack of goals and motivation, under bad influence, as well as from “burnout” – physical and physical fatigue. emotional.

“Overwork in adolescence with its hormonal storms is not uncommon,” recalls Natalya Krylova, “and this is the only thing that laziness and procrastination syndrome have in common. Otherwise, procrastination is a disease of hyper-responsible perfectionists. For example, a child has always been an excellent student and is used to holding a high standard. And when he feels out of shape – due to fatigue, hormonal changes, personal reasons, etc. – he subconsciously postpones the action that he is afraid of not being able to cope with until later. He says to himself: I will definitely do this, but after, when I’m in good shape.

The “official” definition of procrastination, if it exists at all (the concept came to us from overseas), really sounds “lazy”: the habit of putting off difficult things for later, replacing them with simple and enjoyable ones. I’ll finish watching the series and start doing my homework.

“But only a lazy person speaks in such a way that parents and teachers fall behind and is not tormented by a feeling of guilt from bargained idleness,” a teenage psychologist points out the difference. – And the procrastinator, waiting for the “return of tone”, watches the series – but, unlike the lazy person, he does not enjoy doing nothing, does not rest, but torments himself with a feeling of guilt. Hyper-responsibility does not allow him to forget for a second that what he needs to do now is not watch TV, but do his homework. But perfectionism prevents him from sitting down for these lessons, since he does not feel in proper shape. Simply put, the child is just tired. But he cannot admit this, since adults will immediately declare: everyone is coping, but you, you see, are tired! And here a dead end arises.

And in this impasse, according to the psychologist, the student is left alone with his own feelings of guilt (he himself knows that he needs to “pull himself together and do everything”) and with the condemnation of his elders. The most impressionable really begin to feel “weak” and less resilient and effective than their peers. At this point, according to experts, the teenager may begin to have problems with his peers: “Cramm your lessons, kick your ball, and I’m different.”

“This is a very dangerous trend,” agrees psychotherapist Andrei Morozov. – If, figuratively speaking, a whole heap of postponed tasks has accumulated, then the procrastinator begins to be afraid of it. Unlike a lazy person, he cannot simply get her out of his head, he constantly thinks about her and suffers. We all dream from time to time that we are in danger, we understand that we need to run, but our legs seem to fall through somewhere. These are the “flashbacks” of procrastination – a feeling of guilt for putting things off, anxiety, fear and stupor.

“Our Kirill was the best in the class in physical education and mathematics until the 8th grade,” shares the mother of a 14-year-old Moscow schoolboy. – I won regional Olympiads and Spartakiads and got used to being the first. His father and I were glad that holding the bar stimulated our son to study and play sports, leaving no time for nonsense. But as soon as Kira lost first place to his comrades just once, it was as if he was going downhill. He stated that he was no longer interested in mathematics and sports at all, made friends with some dubious company not from school – we are in shock, we don’t know what to do.

“Judging by the description of Kirill’s character, this is the procrastination of a perfectionist: a teenager who has been striving for many years in a row to maintain leadership in his disciplines and has spared no effort in doing so is most likely preparing an impressive revenge for those who took away his championship,” says Natalya Krylova. “But he may turn out to be not at all mathematical or athletic – this is where attentive mentors and sensitive parents are needed.

Experts urge parents and teachers to listen to teenagers in order to distinguish a malicious sloth from a self-harassed procrastinator-perfectionist. In the second case, it is recommended to conduct a hormonal examination of the teenager, in particular on the level of neurotransmitters (they transmit signals between brain cells, “managing”, among other things, satisfaction with oneself and one’s actions). If everything is in order at the physiological level, then the teenager should not be “kicked”, demanding to pull himself together and carry out his daily duties even through force, but give him the opportunity to “reboot”. Organize a rest, a “window” free from routine stress, answer the questions for yourself: what do I expect from life? What can I do for this? What are my short-term goals and what are my global goals?

“In essence, this is a minimum program, a maximum program and a personal comprehensive plan from the Soviet past of our schools, no matter how much they make fun of it now,” sums up Natalya Krylova. – Sometimes a timely, competently and clearly formulated goal for oneself turns the consciousness and actions of a teenager in a fundamentally different direction.