Anne C

I’m retired now, but I worked part time as a mathematics and basic ed lecturer/tutor in an FE College.

I first struggled when I was simultaneously working, bringing up three children (my husband worked long hours and regularly went abroad) and looking after my Dad, a retired newspaper reporter who had lots of difficulties including alcoholism - and who lived about 100 miles away from us. I suffered from anxiety because of this and felt overwhelmed.

The car journeys to his home were very tiring. Sometimes I had to take one child with me around grimy pubs to find Dad, even though he’d asked me to visit, and afterwards I’d get home feeling very low. Then there’d be all the usual jobs of running a household with 3 children to take care of, and I just got to the point where I felt I couldn’t cope.

In the end I went to my doctor’s surgery. The first one I saw fobbed me off as if it didn’t matter, because I wasn’t physically ill. Then I saw my usual GP who was, luckily, very helpful. The most useful thing he said was; ‘Your Dad’s problems are not yours, so give yourself permission to let them go’. He also noticed that I was keen on books, and recommended some on the subject of mental health. I think there are better, updated ones now, but at the time they really helped.

The job was not a problem. In fact, being at work and concentrating on helping people to learn was a great release; helping me to forget about the problems.

I think many jobs in education are much harder and more anxiety-producing than mine was, so I do think teachers need a lot of support. I don’t have many answers on how educational institutions can help. I was offered a lunchtime Pilates class by the college for 6 weeks and I decided to give it a go; that was really helpful, and I’ve continued it ever since. I was more fortunate than many people working in education, in that I had financial security. This meant that I could take a job that I knew I would enjoy and be capable of doing properly without much stress, even if it didn’t pay well. I think some teachers have additional stress to do with their earnings.