to feel quite shocked that DH has PTSD from teaching?

If you have a mental breakdown you have no choice. A different job will feed your family how do you think every other person on the planet who isn't a teacher feeds their families and pays their bills

You can't "plan" for a mental breakdown, people are trying to leave teaching all over the country but if it's going to leave you unable to feed and house your kids you have no choice.

I have no idea how to restart a career at 45. I'm not a keen 21 year old recent graduate with tons of energy and don't have the career experience in other sectors ...

But if you had a mental breakdown you wouldn't have a choice so surely having a plan before that happens makes sense

This what I saw in our school too. The teachers were nice but the behaviour of the SLT was eyewatering.

I think the problem is partly that outstanding schools are not inspected. I think the inspections should go back to be being regular even for outstanding schools.

That comment is massively out of touch. How much do you think teachers earn? If you're living in the SE on a teacher's wage, you are already living in a tiny house, eating unbranded food and wearing charity shop clothes.

It's not "less holidays." Those holidays are for the children, teachers have to work through half terms and holidays, they get maybe 3-4 weeks in the summer before having to start prep and classrooms to go back in September. Do you think when the children turn up on the first day back after Christmas or Easter, the teacher swans in at 8:30am to find all the planning and resources ready to go and the classroom decorated by fairies? That's on top of working 60 hour weeks. The biggest group of people leaving teaching are mothers with children, because you don't get any time with your family as a teacher.

You cannot support a family on minimum wage. For most people in their 30s and older, restarting your career from the bottom is financial ruin. The alternative choice isn't unbranded food, it's no food and potential homelessness for you and your children.

All the PTSD symptoms my husband and I have experienced came from systematic bullying from senior leadership, not the children.

Tell me you vote Conservative without telling me you vote Conservative.

My union was brilliant in the 25 years l was a teacher. Why would they ‘work’ with a Tory government? They don’t exactly support teachers, and mainly it was the government refusing to engage. And Gavin Williamson (with his whip) during the pandemic was just beyond the pale.

And as the parent of an ND daughter who became a school refuser due to teaching methods like you mention above, yeah l would have preferred her to do less well in a less rigid environment. As it is she’s been out of school 2 years and missed all her A levels.

I've been obsessively looking at job adverts all summer. I'm not getting anywhere and feel so overwhelmed. I'm really not enjoying being off. Im going to try and not look/think about it til Monday but it's exhausting.

I have two relatives in a similar situation - both have significant physical and mental health issues caused by the stress. This is not new though. I have two older relatives who retired from teaching decades ago, also with wreaked health. One has been on antidepressants for nearly 30 years from the last years of teaching onwards. I only taught for 5 years, 25 years ago and I still get nightmares. We also have a friend, still teaching, whose leg was badly and permanently damaged from breaking up a fight. It is a hell of job.

The unions are usless, too political and not practical enough. They also won't work properly with the Tories - how does that help their members when the Tories are bound to be in power for a good deal of most teachers' careers?

Many teachers don't help themselves though. Look at the vitriol in Katharine Birbalsingh's timeline - serving teachers insult her when she does what most schools do not - get excellent results for children from disadvantaged backgrounds. Phillipson was on the TV yesterday saying this was a priority - they have a school modelling this and yet just kick it and its staff. Some (not all be any means) teachers and all the unions would rather kids did less well than they 'compromised' their politics and the self-image they get from that. The rest of us get caught in the cross-fire.

This 100%. That diagnosis was already in the psychiatrists head before I opened my mouth as I was a young female. If I'd been a middle age man that conversation and diagnosis would of been very different. A eupd diagnosis is used to blame patients for things they had no control over.

@Differentstarts I think it's become much clearer as you've posted that you're coming from a place of concern and advising people to protect their mental health. Perhaps because your traumas (which I'm so sorry about) are in the past and you can't step away from them as an unwell teacher could step away from work. That stepping away is so difficult though, beyond the financial side, because most teachers have gone into the role with an element of moral obligation to their pupils. Especially when they see the struggling with poverty and traumas like the ones you went through. Even when their own mental health is at rock bottom they know the kids, have a relationship with them and feel awful about letting them down.

The media coverage doesn't help when one strike day is seen as ruining children's lives. And things like discussing shortening summer holidays because so many children aren't fed or looked after when schools are closed. It all reinforces the notion that teachers and schools are the only ones holding the fort for disadvantaged kids. All that makes it very hard to step away even if it's making you ill.

You can’t just leave when you’ve a mortgage to pay. Also when your confidence hits rock bottom it’s hard to even think about changing jobs.

EUPD diagnosis seems to be more often applied to women, I’m so sorry.

Absolutely I think everyone agrees their is a problem my point is it's not up to the individual to fix. So all I'm saying is if it's having a serious impact on your health leave and I don't mean that like oh if it's really that bad leave. I'm genuinely saying do not end up in a situation where your harming yourself or having panic attacks multiple times a day no job is worth that.

It's so rare to see older teachers in the classroom.

My point is that the SYSTEM needs to change. Individual teachers can and do leave. It doesn't solve the systemic problem of how teachers are treated in the UK.

I got eupd diagnosis instead as soon as that's on your record the nhs hate you and arent interested in the actual diagnosis. Iv had counsellors, gps , cpn ect say sounds like cptsd but it was never ever made official by a physchiatrist so never got put on my records or treated. Because of my diagnosis I'm not allowed talking therapies which is under primary care as I'm to high risk so only have access to secondary care which is the cmht to help and that's more focused on medicating you and helping you function in day to day life rather then actual therapy.

So sorry that’s awful.

Surprised to hear you havent got a PTSD diagnosis. Everyone is different of course so the same trauma won’t affect us all the same, but a friend of mine got a CPTSD diagnosis as a result of childhood rape and some violence she suffered as a young adult. She got the diagnosis, therapy and EMDR fairly quickly once she started NHS therapy and she’d never been under any MH intervention before.

I’m shocked that you’re shocked. I don’t work in education but I know plenty that do.

A couple of generations of gentle parenting and we are raising a society of obnoxious entitled teens who gave no respect for their elders.

Teachers should be allowed to teach. The fact there’s even talk of a diagnosis of PTSD - whether it is or isn’t - shows the dire state of things in education.

How have we reached this point?

Why are so many kids so violent these days?

We had it in our primary school. A boy from care who was adopted but was already so damaged he could not be controlled.

Hed randomly jump on other kids and pin them to the floor. He threw a laptop out of the window.

He got a load of music stands and hurled them around the room at the music teacher, at other kids.

He stabbed a kid with a compass in his class.

He got a one to one intervention but still he’d kick off. In the end he was excluded permanently and sent to a special school. He was 10 years old. I’m pretty sure the teachers were on edge who taught him.

The system is absolutely the problem because we have teachers burning out, becoming seriously unwell (mentally and physically) and generally, under immense pressure and stress that goes above and beyond “normal” work stress. On an individual level, if a friend told me some of the stories on this thread, I’d encourage them to leave the job. I am aware this doesn’t resolve the systemic issues but you are only one person and you have to take care of yourself. So, I don’t think it’s unhelpful to suggest an individual makes plans to leave their career if they get really unwell and I don’t think everyone is shrugging and saying “just leave”. I think we genuinely mean it for the sake of the person.
I really hope this government steps up and proves they value education which includes the teachers and all other staff who work hard to keep educational establishments running. People are so shortsighted; society cannot function without well educated and well rounded children. Teachers cannot provide this in a substandard environment. We need excellent educational establishments and we need to invest in it for the future.

I still stand by that if anyone is getting to the point of being diagnosed with ptsd due to a job they absolutely should leave like I said previously I was raped regularly as a child before being taken into care and it's been 10 years since the last time I was raped and I still have flashback and can feel like I'm being pinned down and strangled. Iv attempted suicide multiple times as i cant handle the flashbacks as their so vivid its like its happening all over again repeatedly, I can also still randomly smell him. Iv been under secondary mh services most of my life and been sectioned on a few occasions and my physchiatrist won't give me a ptsd or cptsd diagnosis or emdr so I dread to think what's happening in schools that means multiple teachers are getting these diagnosis. you need to leave for your own sake.

I'm really sorry to hear that. My DS is the same and we start formal home ed in two weeks. I'm nervous about it but so relieved not to have to send him back into the school.

Good luck to you and your DH with his recovery.