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?

Yes, I'm shocked about it too.
Meanwhile, there is a huge amount of vacancies in the economy.
May be worth exploring.

Just so awful reading the experiences of other teachers on this thread. There is so much pressure and gaslighting that is still so pervasive. I'm about to start the new term next week, will be 14w pregnant and I'm so anxious about going back and things like not being able to access a bathroom between 3 back to back classes if I need the loo or feel sick, rushing to duties before SLT with a clipboard radios my name round the school or having people pressure me to monitor the corridor while I set out books or not let them catch me teaching sitting down.

I've asked on teacher threads on here about asking for reasonable adjustments and people seem shocked I want to ask for any and that I'm overthinking it, but I find the intensity and time pressures of the school schedule (we have a 15 min breaktime and 30 min lunch) tough to manage at the best of times.

It also makes me want to just not come back after mat leave but that feels like a financial risk to leave without a job to go to as well.

Your relative could self refer for talking therapy via this link https://www.nhs.uk/mental-health/talking-therapies-medicine-treatments/talking-therapies-and-counselling/nhs-talking-therapies/
They will assess them and refer for the most appropriate therapy

Former supply teacher going back on supply from September after two years on a contracted job. Kids much the same everywhere, I left because of the toxic management, the gaslighting and the office politics. Planning to do bits and pieces of casual supply around travelling. I wish your husband well. Life is too short.

Sadly, another I'm another one that's not surprised. I'm a headteacher and I'm planning to leave this year , I've just had enough .
I do everything I can to protect my staff from the worst of cut backs , difficult parents challenging children and mostly I like to think I do .
However after 20 years of teaching I just can't anymore it's literally going to kill me .
It's so sad hope your DH is finding his way through this difficult time .

Not shocked in the slightest.

I still have anxiety dreams about my old school and the utter cunts in leadership there and I left coming on 12 years ago.

My old HoD, who left the school the year before me, was physically sick in the street when she had to walk past the school 3 years later.

The trauma is real and it stays with you.

Sending him a back pat of teacher solidarity! It does get better once you're out. It just takes time.

Really nice to hear a Head saying they care about their staff and want to protect them, rather than gaslight, blame and bully them, which is my experience of the profession.

What a shame to lose a good, caring Head.

You do have to put yourself first, though.

You should always ask for reasonable adjustments.

As a science teacher I had to (because I wasn't allowed to handle certain chemicals and materials) but it's always worth sitting with someone from site, your line manager and a mamber of SLT.

I had it written down that I could ask a technician to briefly supervise my class while I was being morning sick.

Thank you

Um, well I hate to break this to you but teachers ARE leaving in droves. Poor recruitment and retention means that posts can't be filled in many schools. You are more likely to have. PE teacher teaching your children maths than a qualified maths teacher. Who's going to teach your children when all the teachers are in McDonald's?

I had a diagnosis of PTSD from a non schoolm related thing, but interestingly it only came to be diagnosed after my management made my life hell. I just thought I wasn't handling the job alongside raising a young family, but talking to a psychologist made me see that my current work environment had triggered the same feelings and reactions as the original incident.

I had two years off work and left my job in that time. I honestly thought I'd leave teaching altogether but got back into it as supply teacher when I was well. The amount of people who are management or leadership but do not know how to manage or lead is astonishing.

I hope your husband's recovery goes well op.

Will he receive clinical supervision for this role though? He needs to look at how to protect himself from the potential emotional strain while he's still vulnerable.

Working with one or a few students at once though will be an absolute game changer. Good luck to him.

I'm not surprised, my heart goes out to your DH.

I developed PTSD after my first NQT job where I was systematically bullied and forced out by the head teacher, deputy head and my mentor.

I went on to be a brilliant teacher but it was always there, I had nightmares for ages about how I was treated and when I was observed in my classroom I would appear fine but I'd be dissociating and my heart would be hammering as I was re-traumatised again. After 8 years I packed it in for a new career and I still feel my heart rate rising when I get some critical feedback, but I'm much better at dealing with it and not immediately thinking I'll get sacked.

EMDR really helped me so hope it will be good for your husband too, it's a tough process and you need to make sure the therapist puts safety resources in place for you to manage the difficult feelings it will bring up between sessions. I had it for 2 years alongside person-centred therapy.

Break what to me? Nothing wrong with working in mcdonalds. Don't ever think your above a job or better then others. They should be leaving if it's causing them to have a mental breakdown. At the end of the day it's a job theirs millions of other ones. People need to put themselves and their families first.

I guess you don't have school aged children if you can be so flippant about the fact that they won't have a teacher in September.

I have 2 school age children, but they will have teachers you know they will I know they will but if I'm honest I wouldn't want them being taught by someone who is in the middle of a serious mental breakdown. I don't know why people are coming for me when I'm saying put your health about your job as someone who has been In a mh crisis multiple times it's not worth it trust me. But if you don't want to listen to me stay teaching, keep moaning and be miserable. Your an adult nobody is holding a gun to your head your making the choice

PTSD advocate, writer and former teacher Tin Field identified this as a huge problem more than 30 years ago. Bully causes PTSD and teaching is full of bullies.

There’s no teachers now. Loads of them have mental health issues caused by the workplace. Theyre mostly desperate to get out.

But you want your children to be taught by healthy teachers. Dont we all? But they aren’t. There’s too much stress in the system. Most teachers are in the middle of or close to a nervous breakdown.

Attitudes like yours add to it.

I have 2 school age children, but they will have teachers you know they will I know they will

There are thousands of unfilled vacancies for September and thousands of unfilled training places so there's no cavalry coming. I know there are kids out there who won't have teachers in September because there always are. There were kids at my school in the last year who didn't have a permanent maths teacher all year, we cobbled together supply so that there was at least an adult stood in front of them (not necessarily the same as the previous week), but the teacher who has them next year will have a hell of a job picking up the pieces. There were kids in my maths A-level class who were having to teach themselves the syllabus for one of their other subjects because they didn't have a teacher. This was in a different subject to the previous year that saw kids having to teach themselves. Same at GCSE. Y11s without teachers for their exam classes.

There will be kids at primary being taught by teaching assistants because the school can't recruit a teacher for them. There are often threads on MN about this.

So if you think that you can confidently state that you know your child will have teachers next year, then I'm afraid you don't know what you're talking about. It is entirely possible that they won't. And it will get worse if they're not yet in secondary.

My friends that are teachers are actually losing sleep over it. Unless you are currently a teacher you cannot speak for how they feel. A class size going from 27 to 30 is still 3 additional pupils with needs that should be met, 3 extra homework’s to mark etc.. Teachers are not supported enough. My friends are burnt out, struggling to quit and many are seriously considering resigning. In fact 2 have quit already.

Brilliant post.

Not surprised in the slightest

I think unless you have worked in education you have no idea the amount of abuse staff deal with daily on top of the pressures.

If you are abusive to hospital staff or airline staff you get in trouble

If kids are abusive to teachers and tas then nothing happens and you're told its not the kids fault etc

I’ve just stopped being one if that counts. I assume classes will be 30. 32 or 33 sometimes happens. 27 sometimes happens. It’s not something any teacher loses sleep over. Class sizes change all the time as pupils join or leave roll.

Edit: I’m not surprised some are leaving. Teachers are quitting all over. It’s not about potential private school pupils joining the school.

Hate to break it to you but there’s a good chance they are already being taught by someone mid breakdown

I used to teach a practical subject.

GCSE classes went from 20 to 34. I kind of did notice. 20 was the recommended size in terms of H&S