completely overwhelmed/mental block

[boilerhouse2007]

When i was at school i had terrible organistation and planning skills and failed all my GCSE, however i repeated them all and with the help of my mum who helped me priorite tasks and break them down and she checked them i did ok in the end. I went to uni after and considering my degree was challenging i used these skills and did well. Anyway now at work and in my job I find myself completely overwhelmed this year like when I was at school. I have a huge backlog of tasks going back months and i honestly dont know where to start. It's like been back at gcse where i just give up as i wanted it all done perfectly but was too afraid to start so abandoned it. Now at work its the same, i know what has to be done but i just cannot start-its like a mental block and i seize up mentally rather than face the tasks. Its like im waiting to be rescued again, this is affecting me now all the time cos i keep worrying about the tasks but i just leave them and spend many days wasting hours at work. The longer it gets the harder it becomes.What should i do?

Why not book a drs appointment today for the next time it is half-term/school holidays. Take the meds etc, make lists, meditate and exercise. See how that helps.

I assume that it isn't the teaching that is the problem, rather, the administration tasks that need to be completed. Could school secretaries/administrators help with any of it? If you get an assessment of ADHD, aren't the school required to make reasonable adjustments to your working life to help you?

Can you cut your list at all?

Anything you can decide just doesn’t need doing, or doesn’t need doing now? Put a calendar reminder to do it next month.

This next bit is a bit dodgy. Is there anything you can bin? Any request that came in by email that you can just pretend you didn’t get? If it is important enough, they will ask again. I once worked with someone who binned a whole load of invoices as they were so stressed about the pile. They came in again gradually.

Hope you get on top of it a bit.

'English with a bit of science' - no wonder you're stressed. How different could those subjects be in terms of teaching methods, prep and brain power. Ditch the science if English is your main subject. Say you can't do both.

What helped you when you retook GCSEs? What did you do to get through uni?

You don’t need to tell me, but you do need to tell yourself. These strategies have worked twice for you, so if you can use them now they may well help you.

Are you a NQT? I’ve heard the first few years are the hardest, so if you can keep going it will eventually get easier.

There will probably be someone at your school who is there to help the students with study skills, which with a bit of tweaking would be helpful to you. Could you ask them to talk you through what they would do for a panicking, disorganised student? You don’t need to say it’s for you, you could say you’re doing a session on it for one of your classes.

Don’t beat yourself up about binging, focus on getting your work back under control then when you feel better about that I’d bet your eating will be easier to manage.

Being a teacher is hard enough as it is.

Have you got a planner? You need planner, postits, lists and put it all down on paper. Everything you think of.

then you can streamline into daily/weekly/termly/one off tasks and get it put into your planner. I use outlook to make sure all my to-dos are in there and give myself time to do them.

What can you drop? Forget these

What is essential to today and tomorrow? Do those first.

Review the list in the evening so that your brain is clear to sleep.

When you have time, you might want to look at bullet journalling.

www.additudemag.com/slideshows/what-are-adhd-executive-functions/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=diagnosis

Some of it is aimed at the parents of ADHD children, but there is some useful stuff here.