Teachers

The school year has just started and I am seriously considering quitting my job. It’s making my OCD worse. I’m constantly obsessing over my work performance, and the behavior of the students. This group of students this school year are so incredibly mean spirited towards each other and I can’t stop thinking negatively. There is absolutely no support and they keep giving us more to do. I feel like a failure and nothing will get better. I feel like I wasted my degree and I don’t know what else I could do for work. Any other teachers here with OCD? How do you cope? I’m on the verge of a breakdown.

Username: OCD33OCD33

User type: OCD Conqueror

Date posted: 2y ago

Teacher here!! I teach elementary and every decision I make my ocd latches onto. Also, parent emails give me so much anxiety and I read through them a million times, literally. I am telling myself this year that I cannot put myself on the back burner again. I’m gonna make it a priority to make it to the gym and do things for me. I’m cheering for you. You can do this!!! We are in this together as teachers and ocd suffers.

Username: alivia491alivia491

Date posted: 2y ago

@OCD33 Thank you! I needed this. I need to focus on leaving work at work. I am constantly reminding myself that I can’t help my students if I don’t help myself ❤️ hoping you have a great school year

Username: Anon2294Anon2294

Date posted: 2y ago

I'm also a teacher 🙋‍♂️ I can't begin to explain how stressful my first year was. My compulsions drove me to burnout and I ended up taking a week and a half off sick work as a result. I just finished up teaching in the school that I was in for 6 years. I was extremely fortunate that the community were amazing and extremely supportive but, even so, I had my bad days, especially before my diagnosis. As for coping, I eventually got into the habit of leaving at the end of the day and focusing on my recovery by going to the gym, cooking a nice meal for myself, journalling, etc., although this was largely helped by Covid and the fact that we had to vacate the premises for deep cleaning at the end of the day. However, I know some schools might not look favourably on such practice. I'm currently taking a career break as I'd like to travel but am also considering a career change, mainly to improve my long-term earning power. Trying to make such a huge decision has been extremely triggering for me as I desperately need certainty and a sense of direction so I've suffered multiple setbacks in recent months. I totally empathise with the feeling that we can't work as anything else but am hoping that my travels and break from the classroom will give me some much needed perspective on life. Don't worry though, you're not alone 👍

Username: alivia491alivia491

Date posted: 2y ago

@Anon2294 Thank you! I am going to make it a goal this school year to focus on my hobbies and mental health. I hope your travels are amazing and you find the perspective you are looking for!

Username: DutchgirlDutchgirl

Date posted: 2y ago

Teacher here too! I love my career choice although I struggle with contamination OCD daily! I am working hard to not let ocd steal my joy! If you are looking for a career change just because of ocd…don’t! OCD should not make your decisions! But if you are tired of the pertinent issues we teachers face, then self exploration can be fulfilling!

Username: salis1ja

Date posted: 2y ago

Teachers with OCD

Are there any new teachers out there struggling to manage supporting your students during these challenging times as well as being overwhelmed with intrusive thoughts and physical symptoms. My thoughts tend to be centered around my own performance: the OCD tells me that everything that doesn’t go exactly to plan is my fault and I deserve to feel ashamed. Comment if you’re a teacher struggling with OCD. It would be nice to know that we aren’t alone.

Username: NewToOCD8

Date posted: 1y ago

Teacher & POCD

Is anyone else a teacher with pocd? I taught High School for 5 years. I left, but now I need the consistent income again- tried real estate, but I just wasn’t making enough yet. I am now faced with an opportunity of returning to the classroom to teach, but my ocd is spiraling.

POCD

Username: Nerdwithocd

Date posted: 1y ago

Work related ruminations

Hey everyone! I’m new to this app, but not new when it comes to OCD treatments. A few years ago I had to leave school/ my job in order to work on my mental health which was hard but needed. Mentally things have more or less gotten better OCD wise but I still really struggle with protectionism. I started a new job within the past 6 months that is challenging, but I enjoy enough to hopefully stay at for a few years. As of the past two weeks I have been really struggling with ruminating over my performance at work. I have been trying really hard to learn all the moving parts of the job, but because of lack of mentoring and constant little hiccups I have been stressing. Currently I have been overwhelmed/ overthinking so much that I have been messing up my work and it seems like my coworkers are pretty annoyed by constantly having to correct me. It’s honestly my worst fear as a perfectionist to feel like a burden. My intrusive thoughts as of late is that they are going to think I don’t care or try hard enough, that they talk bad about me to each other, and that they are going to fire me. Has anyone else experienced this type of OCD perfectionism that affects there performance within school or work and if so is there anything that you did in order to help recenter yourself in the moment to stop your brain from running in circles?

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