Elsa (12) is still suffering severely from the effects of the lockdown, her mother is helpless

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Tuesday evening. 6 p.m. A meeting room somewhere in the center of Hamburg. A self-help group of parents of mentally ill children meets here regularly. Twelve families have come together to form the group. Today there are seven mothers.

Children lost their footing during lockdown: ‘The upper arm was covered with a lot, a lot, a lot of lines’

“My daughter is 14. It started in October,” says one woman. She was with her daughter at the pediatrician. When the girl took off her sweater for the examination, she saw it. “The upper arm was covered with very, very, very many lines.” It was scars that the shocked mother got to see. And fresh cuts. Inflicted with a razor.

The mothers take turns telling about the self-injurious behavior of their children. Most cut themselves. Others bang their heads on the floor or against the wall. Still others are so exhausted that they can only lie in bed. They are all children from middle-class households who have lost their footing during the lockdown. Who were thrown off course.

Her parents reacted quickly. They tried to get help. But to this day they keep bumping into walls. Because the psychotherapeutic supply situation for children is difficult in Hamburg. Almost none of the boys and girls are able to go to school regularly anymore. Some only go two hours a day. Some not at all. A child dropped out of school. Most have been in the hospital. The future is uncertain.

Student: “I cried a lot. I didn’t want to go there anymore”

Elsa is twelve years old and lives in Altona. She was always a happy and sporty girl with many friends.

When the lockdown came, she went back to bed after breakfast and watched TV. So much so that it even annoyed her at times. “But there was nothing to do,” she says. And she wasn’t allowed to meet her friends. “My creativity has been lost,” she states, sounding like an adult. Or like a child who thinks a lot.

She ate a lot in bed. Sweets. “At some point I saw in the mirror that I had become fat. I no longer felt comfortable in my body. I ate more chocolate out of frustration.”

After the 2020 summer holidays, the lockdown was over. Elsa went to high school. A new school. New kids she didn’t know. Everyone wore a mask. Next lockdown coming soon. “I got scared of school. I cried a lot. I didn’t want to go there anymore.”

She often went home after two hours. She rang the bell on the front door, lay down on the doormat until her mother answered it, and was so exhausted that she couldn’t even get over the doorstep. At some point it was no longer possible to go to school.

The daughter cried a lot. It was particularly bad in the evenings. “She lay trembling in my arms. Because she was afraid of the next morning.” To this day, the girl can only fall asleep next to her mother in bed. The 48-year-old can no longer lead her own life. Also because it has been a matter of life and death for a year and a half.

“First she said more and more often that she didn’t want to live anymore,” says the mother. Gradually, the questions became more specific. “Mom, are you sure you’re dead if you jump off the balcony?” Or: “Mom, I wanted to cut my wrists, but I didn’t know where they were.”

Mother even goes to the mayor – she doesn’t get any help

The mother called all the child psychiatrists. The waiting time was seven to 14 months. With child psychologists, things are not much different. Families also have to wait a long time for a place in a clinic. For the mother and her fellow sufferers from the self-help group, this is “society’s failure to provide help”. After all, without therapy, the children’s symptoms would only get worse.

The mother wrote letters – even to the mayor. However, from the replies, the mother concluded that the problem was not known. It was even said that there was an oversupply in Hamburg. She can only shake her head at that.

The 48-year-old hardly ever takes her eyes off her daughter. The situation is also stressful for the siblings. Since we managed to put Elsa in a clinic for two months in January, things have gotten a little bit better.

But although Elsa has meanwhile dropped a grade, her school performance is still questionable. New classmates, new teachers – the fear has remained. It is unclear whether she will ever find the connection again. And the suicidal thoughts have not gone away.

You can read Elsa’s whole story, the situation in Hamburg’s schools and what a psychologist says about it at mopo.de.