to feel quite shocked that DH has PTSD from teaching?

[FunnysInLaJardin]

Its feels pretty awful tbh. He has just today received this diagnosis and has been referred for priority EMDR.

He has taught for 25 years in a secondary school, and got out last year due to clinically diagnosed burn out.

I knew it was bad, but I never realised it was this bad.

How can this be allowed to happen?

No sadly this is not surprising given how frequently teachers are physically and verbally assaulted. I was a HLTA but I’m glad I decided not to train as a teacher and retrained in something completely different and now work in a joB with way less stress and greater flexibility.

I agree about lack of parent support being a factor. I’ve had to stop speaking to an old childhood friend because she infuriated me so much with her constant tales about challenging her children’s teachers. She says daft things like “I can tell when my children are lying to me “ when it’s obvious her children have behaved badly and are smug in the knowledge that their mum would fight their corner if they just lying through their teeth . Her youngest has hit TAs in the past too. She’s alway firing off critical emails to the teachers and gets angry when they don’t reply immediately. She seemingly has no idea of how overworked and busy they are
despite having 3 kids and the fact I’ve literally told her. Not saying she has to believe me but it wouldn’t be hard for her to research it herself using google if she apparently doesn’t know how hard teachers work. I feel it’s wilful ignorance at this stage.

Teachers aren’t perfect and some can unfairly pick on kids,so I get her being vigilant but it’s the fact she is ALWAYS defending her kids when it’s clear most if not all the times they are to blame.

Not surprised. It used to be that some pupils would carry trauma from high school into adulthood from pupils/teachers bullying them, nowadays the kids are untouchable and they know they don’t have to adhere to the rules because excuses will be made for their bad behaviour.

My husband and I both have PTSD symptoms from teaching, we're much better now after a few years out of it. It's appalling.

I’m a teacher, being teaching for 12 years , I know three people who have had extremely bad mental health problems due to the job- two had mental breakdowns,. I also have had time off sick with anxiety and depression, I know many more colleagues who live with constant stress every day and every year at my school staff go off work to sort out their mental health for a couple of weeks

Also, although my child has aged out of school I can tell kids must be a nightmare for their teachers because they’re awful in public and have no respect, they will literally say anything to or about anyone, and have no shame in the same way previous generations did.

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. Whilst it is terrible for the adults involved, at the end of the day this is a job and they can leave. If schools are so toxic that the adults are this badly affected then I am probably more concerned about the impact on the well behaving children who witness this and don't have the same option to leave but just want a decent hassle free education. i think i am missing something here, but teachers soldiering on in these circumstances rather than standing up or lobbying their union sound like they are sadly also part of a systemic problem impacting the children they are wanting to support? sorry if this is offensive to teachers, but from an outside view it's worrying that people put up with this for so long and whilst traumatic for the adults to suffer abuse, this will also be traumatic for the children exposed to but not directly part of it too. the adults have more agency to do something about it surely?

I am a teacher and am not surprised. I wish your husband the best and hope he recovers soon. Schools are tough places. Management can sometimes lack the courage to back you up. Some parents (not all) have little understanding of how their children behave and the impact this has on others. Schools preach kindness to the children, but managers can be quite unkind towards staff - unrealistic expectations, little flexibility, no appreciation, blame and more blame.
I am sorry he is going through a tough time.

Yes, you are missing something. Pack it in with your victim-blaming and derailing the thread. "Sorry but".. Pfft.

The OP's husband's experience was massively at the hands of management who for the most part, don't carry out their actions, or lack of them, in front of the children.

@NameChanged112 there is often a lack of support from management, unions and parents. Dare I say it - schools preach anti-bullying whilst employing it themselves.

He is not the only one. Hope he gets the time he needs to recover. Hope he finds something to enjoy and work in once he is well enough. Very likely he won't teach again, so will need to build a new life.

I can totally understand it. I'm a youth leader for a certain youth group. I had a 14 year old tower over me, very aggressive and very angry. I kept my cool but I was shaking after. That was just one incident for me and it affected me for a couple of weeks and I didn't want to see the teen, I can only imagine if I had to teach them and deal with it week in and week out

Also interested to know if he was diagnosed by a psychiatrist or qualified psychologist.

I have no doubt people can experience extreme stress and mental health issues from their job (not sure why you wouldn’t just resign though) but unless he was in fear of his life, being abused or tortured, or witnessed extremely traumatic events happening to other people, it rather denigrates PTSD sufferers who have experienced that and live with true lifelong trauma.

Of course, I am going to be flamed by the large amount of teachers on here who are insistent that they have the toughest job in the world though……

Not surprised at all

People don't give a shit about teachers

Why not try teaching @BossMadam ? Then you’ll understand and empathise.

Caring? Teaching is based on years of power abuse, control, physical abuse.so it’s not as straightforward as “all teachers are good and suffering ptsd.” Plenty of them are out there causing it.

School was made compulsory to try to tackle child labour. And existed “to prepare people for life, equipping them with the knowledge and skills to contribute to a thriving society.” (ie be a cog in our machine, thank you signed the government.)

it’s an institution riddled with problems.

This country is riddled with problems.

there are very few industries where people aren’t treated like shit or overworked or underpaid (not necessarily by their company, but our “leaders” who have brought a growing number to poverty).

but your husband faced the public and the public are shit - another consequence of poverty and people not giving a shit and lack of resource (and shitty schools often). It’s exhausting to deal with entitled people all day every day.

many people don’t come out with ptsd though.

how did he get emergency emdr - I know people who have had traumas which caused ptsd that are undeniably ‘traumatic’ and are still sitting on waiting lists years later! Who decided that he needed it and who decided it was from teaching? Need to know this doctor because most just shrug!

I've met several teachers with severe MH issues just from trying to do their jobs.

Imo in the same way as for other public services, nobody should have to deal with the abuse that teachers are forced to put up with. The children displaying the abusive behaviours that make everyone's lives a misery for 7 hours a day should be excluded and the parents punished and forced to take responsibility. Instead, the abusers with no respect are facilitated and encouraged to achieve 100% attendance.

So sorry to hear about your DH, OP. I hope he makes a full recovery and can find some peace of mind and enjoyment of life.

DD y8 just yesterday told me a teacher was bullied so hard by the abusive little shits in her class (the "top set" in a sink school) that he walked out in tears halfway through a lesson and has now left the job.

Nurses, doctors, police etc are all at risk of developing it so I imagine some teachers will be too. Not surprising unfortunately for the public sector these days, especially after Covid.

@Yousay55 , entirely feasible to get PTSD from teaching, it can be a perfect 'breeding ground' of adverse conditions which could trigger PTSD. It's not necessarily about a single, dramatic event or assault but rather the regularity with which teachers are placed in 'impossible' situations where each of the possible courses of action will have dire consequences, having to chose the least detrimental and live with the consequences, often under immense pressure and coercion. A bit like in an abusive relationship.

@FriendlyRobin "...always having more work than you can do" is the killer. The relentlessness of never really being able to finish a 'project' or deliver on an assignment, but always having to tap out before you've got to the end of the list, because you've got to catch sleep as it's 2 o'clock in the morning.

@DrinkFeckArseBrick your poor relative should not be routinely prescribed ADs. This is heartbreaking. Teachers are pathologised for buckling under unreasonable pressure: it's not individual teachers who are sick and requiring medication, it's structural, systemic and cynical mismanagement of education at policy level.

If you read what many teachers go through, day in day out, it IS textbook abuse - just because it happens in plain sight doesn't make it anything less than abuse. Indeed, the fact that it happens in plain sight probably adds to the trauma many teachers clearly feel. That many are unable to "just resign" contributes to the feeling of being trapped and not being able to get away from a situation that is deeply, deeply traumatising. I'm not a teacher but I witnessed my own teachers being subject to such abuse for hours every day. And this was in the 90s when things were supposedly nowhere near as bad they are today. And at one of the best state schools in the country. I saw them pelted with missiles (coins etc) that could have blinded them had they been hit in the eye and god knows what else. Things thrown at them - chairs, tables, etc. Threats made, racist nicknames given, their (fictional) sex lives discussed in loud voices for other teenagers to laugh about so they felt humiliated for being older women with greying hair and a little weight on their bodies. Horrible. Why anyone would think that wouldn't cause trauma in at least some is strange to me.

Unless you’ve been there it’s hard to understand. It’s hard to walk away from something you’ve been doing for 25 years because it’s all you know. Teachers went on strike last year and got a social media flaming because we “had two years off for Covid” - we didn’t. Many teachers are voting with their feet and leaving for lower pay to save their mental health. There is a culture of fear in schools and the unions are overwhelmed with case work. We are told to soldier on “for the children” and we do care about students, often to the detriment of our own health and our own children. I left three years ago and I couldn’t imagine going back.

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.

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 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.

"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.

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?