to feel quite shocked that DH has PTSD from teaching?

What the govt need to ask it why our schools are so hard to be in both for the kids and the teachers too.

Something is fundamentally flawed in our school system

Parent blame seems to be the road the govt are taking and I can't see change any time
Soon.

Go on the Facebook page not fine in school if you need insight.

I think people thinking "it's the parents" is a bit of a distraction actually. I think the govt and piers that be would like us to blame "feckless parents" when actually its teaching and the way education is run and set up. It's systemic and harming so many teachers. It's wrong and it a important the blame is placed with those who can make the change. The current isn't sustainable without the real harm we're seeing to so very many children too (rates of children not in school rising..)

Over a decade later I still have nightmares. There is nothing on earth that would induce me to go back to teaching.

I worked in a support role for a number of schools in my previous job (so not actually teaching). Dealing with the HT/SLT left me with severe mental health issues, anxiety, and at its worse suicidal.
I am in the FB mentioned up thread, it’s what helped me out of the situation into another role away from education.
I would never recommend anyone goes to work in schools.

^This.

I am sick to death of parents who don't value education, don't treat staff with respect, and consider school to be no more than free childcare. It's a brave person who wants to be a teacher these days, in my opinion.

I'm not surprised. I only managed 3 years in a primary school and I am absolutely wrecked. I'm jumpy, can't sleep properly and constantly feel on edge. I hope your husband makes a good recovery.

It's shocking but i am not sure why the profession don't speak out as it appears to be a widespread endemic problem based on the comments.

Er, what? What makes you think that the profession hasn't spoken out?

The problem is that people haven't wanted to listen.

I can't edit my previous post, but all of that was before the constant hassle from management about targets etc. I'm glad I am out.

This does happen in education, social work and healthcare when a highly invested professional is not able to do a "good job" according to his/her standards due to the burden being too heavy. Like the system is set up to make you fail and the more you care about your job and your patients/students the harder you struggle to make up for the system failures (lack of funding, management etc) until you literally "burn out". It is a tragedy on all levels; for the individual and his family but also for the society as a whole that depend on a well-functioning public sector.

I am so sorry for you and your DH. Make sure to show him links on PTSD due to burn out in a professional setting. He needs to know it's fairly common and it happens to the best of them. Dont let him consider himself a failure (with depression as a result), the system failed him. Sending my best wishes for his recovery 💐

Bizarrely, after 15 yrs of teaching to near burn out point this is exactly what I did...best decision I ever made. All the best of luck to you both.
The "caring profession " is what makes it worse because "you're in it for the children" and so made to feel like you have to do more and more or you are failing them. Vicious cycle really

Parents that don't respect authority. Who don't teach their children to actually understand that they're not in charge and not able to bend adults to their will.

I'm not surprised. I'm a retired public sector worker and had to retire due to mental health issues. I was constantly stressed because I was dealing with people who were themselves stressed, most of my job was managing expectations, telling people why they couldn't just have something, trying to deal with unreasonable people in a reasonable manner. Having people shout at me, threatening to kill me, throwing things if they didn't get what they wanted when they wanted it, being aggressive from the start of the interview. It just takes its toll on you, and eventually it's too much. After 35 years I couldn't go on
He really has my sympathy.

Not surprised at all.

My close friend from school has been off sick from her university teaching job now for almost six months with PTSD. Her students like and miss her.

The constant bullying, vindictive behaviour, gaslighting from senior 'managers' plus national surveys and league tables became too much.

I’m so sorry your husband has ptsd and I hope he gets the help he needs now and gets his life back!

I’m not surprised either. teaching sounds unbelievably stressful in many schools

I got burned out in another public sector job and I’m sure I have ptsd but I’m having private counselling so have not been diagnosed.

I can tell some friends are confused as to why I’m still affected 9 months on, and I never thought work could take me to such a dark place but the demands and relentless emergency situations (and lack of sleep from long and odd hours) piled up and sort of broke me.

I am feeling a lot better after a lot of therapy and a different less demanding job. I never thought I’d recover and felt hopeless (which is what I attribute to part of the ptsd symptoms) but new life is emerging.

Well done to him for getting out!

I'm a secondary teacher and sadly, I am also not surprised 😥

My previous school (was there 6 years) almost sent me under in the last year I was there. Workload was horrific - I was head of a dept, no support from above, lots of long and short term staff absence to deal with.

Thankfully, I got a new job. My new school is much better in many ways although the job is still very tough.

I wish your DH a speedy recovery and all the best in his new role.

This is so widespread. The victim blaming post saying "why doesn't anyone speak up" made me laugh (not in a happy sense!), Teachers do... hence only a few posts later someone talking about "teachers moaning".

Usually it's not listened to or taken seriously or people think it's juts to do with "naughty children" when actually the whole thing is systemic and putting people in an impossible situation to perform near impossible goals. It is the way Education is in England as the expectations placed on schools and lack of funding for TAs and support staff mean that probably quite nice people end up going into management and then fuelling the whole thing again. It's a verybroken system and no, noone in govert. has listened to the teachers.

When I started you needed a qualified teacher in the class. The move to saying anyone can means so many schools of course use hltas now as cheaper. For about 1/5 at least of junior school my daughter was taught by a non qualified teacher.

And all my previous points. The system then fuels kids who can't cope to kick off.

Anyway my posts are too long and it's about Funnys husband - but I think the unanimous "it's not surprising" from teachers is yes both shocking on one sense but not at all surprising and shows something is deeply deeply wrong.

So sorry that your DH has ended so poorly after trying to do a useful and important job.
I hope he sues the pants off the school for not picking this up and supporting him

Parents allowing kids to disrespect authority.
Parents not supporting their kids in relation to homework/sports
Gentle parenting causing feral behavious because no consequences

Not surprised and incredibly saddened.

I love teaching, it still brings me so much joy but it is getting harder and harder and incidents at school with children’s behaviour and attitude towards any adult can be absolutely horrendous.

Glad your husband is out of it and settled and hopefully he can move forward in his recovery.

FWIW I have also seen trauma in primary school aged children from having children in class who are extraordinarily challenging. I honestly think it has led to school refusal in gentle, quiet children.

The Education system is breaking!

In the UK you'd probably need to be under secondary care to get diagnosed with ptsd, not primary care which is talking therapies.

Not surprised at all - I’m from a teaching family.

So often people talk about unsupportive and openly bullying management. Why isn’t this dealt with? Presumably these people start off as teachers so they should be aware of the situation - yet they turn out to be bullies and psychopaths? Does the promotional structure in teaching tend towards the wrong people getting into management? Or is there so much pressure from above that even decent managers end up as tyrants?

"It's why you have unions."

In my experience in academies etc there is usually not a representative in school anymore . They end up with targets on their back during performance management observation etc.

You have to be at the stage you need union advice to get them involved at all.

As pp have said ultimately, whilst some may be sympathetic, overall the public don't care about teacher welfare.

I burnt out from teaching about 18 months ago.

I do not have a ptsd diagnosis but I do have a dissociative disorder diagnosis and that came from teaching.

It's common for people in teaching to develop mh problems.

All teachers are exposed to violence and some incidents do leave teachers in fear of their lives.

Teaching during covid was particularly fear-inducing and a lot of teachers developed mh problems during that time.

I hope that your dh is able to recover and I wish him well.

Doesn’t surprise me at all, teaching has become so difficult in recent years. Last academic year affected my mental and physical health significantly. Considering my options for the future because I’m not living my life like this until retirement.
Slightly rolling my eyes at the what-about-ism from some posters. It’s obviously not the only job that can cause stress and trauma, but this thread is specifically about teaching.

I have personally been called every name under the sun, punched, pushed, kicked, headbutted, hair pulled, spat on repeatedly, bitten and scratched. I have had my wrists grabbed and threatened with rape. I’ve been asked if I take it up the arse and whether I swallow.

I had a colleague who was kicked in the eyes and was blind for two weeks. Another colleague who was kicked so hard they developed cellulitis in both shins. Another colleague who had a student tip hot coffee down his shirt, causing scald injuries. Another colleague who had a student spit directly into his mouth. A member of admin staff who was left with permanent deafness after a close range firework incident. I have had to take large knives from students.

These were all quite traumatic events but at the time they seemed normal.

I was once urged by the nurse who did my smear test to get a hepatitis B injection because of all the scratches and bite marks on my arms. I didn’t get the injection because the side effects might have caused me to need time off work.

I have also been in a 6-person prone restraint, not allowed but the student would have killed someone - where the police were called but refused to attend. Everyone involved had carpet burns to their hands and knees.

I’ve seen horrific self harm injuries and had to phone parents to tell them their child was suicidal, many times. I could go on but it’s the early hours of the morning.

Not a tough job at all, you’re right. I did 27 years before resigning.

Edited for spelling.