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?

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 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!

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

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

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.

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.

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!

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 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.

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.

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

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 💐

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.

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'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.

^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 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.

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

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..)

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.

This.
@NameChanged112 We have spoken out, it's been dismissed (including on here) as moaning and being told we're incompetent. So instead lots of teachers are leaving and there is a recruitment and retention crisis. That makes it harder for those permanent staff as all of the strategic and everyday tasks still need doing and thus more burn out. It's a vicious circle.

My late husband had a breakdown from which he never recovered. He tried to return to work after a few months, but couldn't even walk through the door, and that set him back even further.

It was so unexpected. He was such a calm man. The last person anyone would expect to fall apart. But that's what the job did to him.

What subject did he teach?

Clearly it's not EITHER a parent problem or a systemic problem. It's both. Actually blaming the parents, other than fines for absenteeism which unfairly demonise kids and parents dealing EBSA, is not popular with voters so you actually don't hear politicians saying anything about feckless parents who don't teach their kids discipline and respect, but a lot of teacher stress can come from that. The systemic element is a whole other issue. I often wonder if we ought not to have a cross party or even non political advisory board for education like the Bank of England is independent. Made up of experienced teachers and ex heads to advise and set policy. Stop education being a political football and put the guidance of it in the hands of people who know what they're about.

Isn’t it much more to be expected with toddlers? I’ve taught in secondary for 13 years and can’t remember a teacher getting hit or kicked once.