Hello,
I am an RMN, currently working in a CAMHS team. I love the work itself but the politics, beaurocracy and the fact that my workload has become increasingly unmanageable is getting me down. I work in a team with some lovely, supportive people but everyone is so stressed out, there's so much negativity about and I think we make each other worse. I have been coming in an hour early every day just to stay afloat and end up taking a lot of work home, not easy with a 2 year old DD around. I'm tense all the time and I'm not sleeping. I lie awake mentally checking off all the kids on my caseload, worrying about their various risks and what might potentially happen. At 3am this morning I got up and cleaned my kitchen as I couldn't sleep. I've never been a sickly person but started getting constant colds, mouth ulcers, my skin is a mess etc and I know it's my body's way of telling me im not coping. I only work 3 days a week but on my days off I'm so anxious about going back to work I can't enjoy the time with DD.
I know this isn't healthy. I'm worried that I'm heading for a breakdown if I carry on like this.
I'm regretting the career path I've chosen and have been thinking a lot about getting out but don't know how. I can't just walk out, we have mortgage and bills that need paying and my husband doesn't earn enough for me to be a SAHM at present. I'm not trained for anything except nursing and I don't know what else I could possibly do where I could bring in roughly the same money (about £26k pro rata). I know this sounds terrible but I've thought about TTC no.2 just so I could get away from work for a few months 
. I know that's a stupid, selfish reason to have another baby and I wouldn't actually do it but I think the fact that it crossed my mind shows how bad things have become.
I have always liked the idea of being a Counselor and practicing privately but I have no idea how to go about this and I imagine it would be costly to re-train.
Am I right in thinking i'm trapped or has anyone in my position successfully made the break from nursing and if so what did you go on to do?