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: salis1jasalis1ja

Date posted: 2y ago

Another big one I struggle with is contamination OCD, because everyone is always getting sick!

Username: Stacy QuickStacy Quick

User type: Therapist

Date posted: 2y ago

You are not alone, I have worked with many teachers who struggle. You are definitely not alone in this. Have you participated in any ERP? This might be very helpful with teaching you the skills to tolerate these feelings and thoughts. Remember OCD wants certainty- It wants you to know 100% that you are doing everything correctly, but the truth is that it would be impossible, no one can always do everything right. You got this.

Username: KillianKillian

User type: NOCD Alumni

Date posted: 2y ago

You are definitely not alone. I taught for a good part of the pandemic & am starting a new teaching job soon. I can already feel OCD trying to latch onto the same themes you mentioned (perfectionism and contamination). It helps to remind myself of the skills I gained in ERP. Specifically to name that this is OCD’s way of trying to take over by latching onto something I care about deeply, and to resist the urge to over-plan or do contamination compulsions. I tell myself, “yep, this lesson may not go perfectly. It may fall flat. I can’t know, so I’m just going to go ahead with it and try anyway.” I’m practicing being gentle with myself, and I hope you can do the same.💜

Username: elizabeth121017elizabeth121017

Date posted: 2y ago

I’m not a teacher anymore but I am a school counselor. I have definitely felt that perfectionism kick in during my classes, and I’ve also struggled with focus when my anxiety levels get really high while I was teaching. I tried to use it as a time to sit with my discomfort.

Username: alivia491

Date posted: 2y ago

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: 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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