TEACHER ANXIETY



It was about three years ago when I realized that the difficulty that I experienced as a teacher was much more than teacher burn-out. There were mornings when I would shower, get dressed, get in the car and then just sit there unable to move. On other days I would have dizzy spells in the middle of a lesson or while working during my preparation periods. There were days when I would be so overwhelmed that I would cry myself to the point of having a stress headache. On more extreme occasions, I would feel like I was paralyzed by stress and unable to even get out of bed. A later symptom was nausea and vomiting. After speaking to a psychiatrist and therapist, I learned that it wasn’t laziness or irresponsibility. I was experiencing G.A.D. (generalized anxiety disorder). And you know what? I was told that many teachers suffer from this as well. Our job isn’t easy. There are many demands placed on us and we are responsible for educating children who, many times, have the weight of the world on their shoulders and don’t know how to react in any way other than acting out.

 Now the question is: How do you navigate a career in teaching while living with anxiety? Well, therapy is a start. Many people choose to take anti-anxiety medication to help calm down. Others do yoga and meditate. Some turn to their faith. Some exercise. There are several approaches to take towards an improved mental health, but the anxiety may still be there and you will still have to deal with it.
When you are in a stressful situation, you may not be able to prepare for anxiety to hit you and you may shut down. If this is the case, you may want to request for intermittent FMLA. This will allow you to miss two to three days each month for mental health without you being penalized for numerous absences. In most instances, your psychiatrist will assist you with the paperwork to have this approved. They understand the stress that you are experiencing and the role that your job plays in contributing to your stress and anxiety.

 I confided in a colleague about this and was advised to take care of myself. If my health were to deteriorate and I could no longer perform the job or, god forbid, pass away, that I would be replaced in the blink of an eye. It is a job and my health and well-being should be my priority. How you spend those days when you take off is up to you. You can catch up with work, complete a creative project, relax, or reflect. Do something that will help relieve the stress and anxiety and make returning to work easier. Let’s be real, you need your job.

 Don’t be embarrassed about having anxiety. It is completely normal, especially in our profession. Just make sure that you address it so that things can get better. I’ve noticed that what adds to my episodes is when I put unnecessary pressure on myself and worry about things that I have no control over. I allow too many ‘what ifs’ to control my thoughts. I understand that this is a mindset that needs to be changed and am working on it. If you can pinpoint your triggers, and address them, you are one step closer to healing.

Popular posts from this blog

HERE WE GO AGAIN

Image
It seems that every year there are changes in pedagogy. However, in my opinion, these new concepts are really old ones that are just repackaged and given fancy new names. With the constant influx of theories and research that dictate how we are to teach comes the teacher training workshops usually run by well-paid consultants who have rehearsed their presentation dozens of times to schools across the country, but never actually implementing them and of course not with the at-risk students that I teach. And let’s say that they have worked with students in a school district similar to mine. They most likely worked with a group of hand selected students or at a charter school. Needless to say, this is the case for me yet again this summer. My Title 1 school was awarded a grant to make improvements and one of those improvements is working with a program to improve overall academic performance and to give all  students the option to attend college. That’s perfectly fine with me, but
Read more

WHY I DON’T FEEL LIKE TEACHING TODAY

Image
Early in my teaching career, I worked at a high school that made people gasp when I told them that I worked there. It was no big deal to me. I did not encounter many disciplinary issues at all. However, the majority of the students that I taught were not motivated to learn. Each one had their own story and I understood, but on this one occasion I was a bit fed up. I had been teaching them the structure of a persuasive essay for a few days and wanted them to write with a bit more command. I was teaching the counterargument. What I thought would be one lesson took several. With that said, on one particular night I was confused and frustrated about why my students were struggling so much to address the counterargument in their essay. At that point a light bulb went off. I decided to write a model for them to analyze (I found that the exemplars that I wrote for them helped a bit more than the exemplars found on the web because I wrote about topics that they could relate to, so that'
Read more

YES, I'M JUDGING

Image
Here I go again sharing my two cents on something that came across my feed on Facebook. The title of the post “My Title 1 Kids Have $300 Shoes. And It’s Nobody Else’s Business” immediately caught my attention, because 1) I teach at a Title 1 high school and 2) I do judge the students and their parents when I see them with expensive products. The author of this article wrote with a strong tone of sympathy and compassion for her, presumably, immigrant student and his choice to purchase a pair of $300 soccer cleats. She doted on the fact that his family struggled financially and that he actually paid for the shoes himself by working with his father doing landscaping. She complimented the student’s motivation to work hard to get what he wanted and warned teachers against making assumptions and judgements about what our students and their families chose to purchase with their money. Now this is all fine and good, but it is not the narrative for most of the students that I t
Read more