“One in 83 teachers (3,750) are on long-term leave for stress and mental health issues.” (source)

And, “Unions are warning of an “epidemic of stress” as research revealed that 3,750 teachers were signed off on long-term sick leave last year because of pressure of work, anxiety and mental illness.” (source)

And the worst? 

“Altogether 1.3 million days have been taken off by teachers for stress and mental health reasons in the last four years.” (source)

1.3 million. 

Let that sink in. 

1.3 million days. 

And that’s teachers who finally decided to take a mental health day. 

IDK about you, but I have worked in a school culture where teachers prided themselves on having tons of sick days saved up. 

I thought that was normal.

I myself at times have known I was stressed and very #teachertired mentally and physically, but didn’t think I could take a teacher sick day because I wasn’t in the hospital for the flu or some type of physical sickness that made me turn green and was super contagious.

But there’s more. 

Another reason I didn’t wanna take a teacher sick day was because of SUB PLANS. 

OMGSH. Sub plans are the WORST. Amiright?

Do you remember that day you were feeling THE WORST and you looked at your iPhone’s 5:30 am alarm that was set to go off in the morning and your whole body just sank picturing yourself teaching the next day?  But when 5:30 rolled around you “toughed it up” and went to school because you didn’t feel like writing sub plans?

Yea, me too. 

Another reason I haven’t contributed nearly enough sick days to the 1.3 million days stat is because of #teacherguilt. Yep, teacher guilt. What’s that have to do with teacher stress and teacher mental health days? Let me explain. 

In my school districts that I have taught at, if I needed to take a teacher sick day, all I had to do was log in to a system called AESOP, and put in for a substitute teacher and attach my sub plans. That was it. 

But was it?

Was it reeaaally?

Of course not!

I would then obsessively check the site to see if a substitute teacher picked up my position. 

I can’t even describe to you the number of times I’ve been so sick and could not truly rest easy until I knew I had coverage. 

Have you ever deleted a teacher sick day bc you saw that you had no coverage from a substitute?

That’s teacher guilt.

Have you ever been told that there were no substitute teachers available so your class would be split up and join your teaching teammates’ classes? 

That icky feeling that comes with that is teacher guilt too, my friend. 

We spend so much time wanting what’s best for our students and not wanting to make any other teacher’s day harder so we pile on the teacher guilt which ADDS to our stress.

So to recap.

1.3 MILLION teacher sick days from just mental health and stress alone have ACTUALLY been taken by teachers, but I am willing to BET that number could be tripled if not quadrupled if we actually used our sick days as often as our bodies and minds cry out for us to do so. 

Okay. Enough with the startling facts.

Let’s do something about this.

We might not be able to solve an entire teacher epidemic of stress, because well let’s face it, my tiny teacher blog will not reach every. single. teacher. who needs to hear this, but it has reached YOU. 

So that’s where I am going to start. With YOU. The one reading this. 

You didn’t get here by accident. 

You related and your curiosity was peaked when you saw the headline and I am willing to bet that it’s because you know teacher stress and the true meaning behind #teachertired all too well.

So let’s stand together and do something about teacher stress start with us. 

First, we need to say right now: 

“Hi body, what do you need from me right now?” 

Just by stopping and asking yourself this question right now, and then continuously throughout the school year, we can start to catch things before we end up like the one in 83 teachers who took a month or more off from teaching because of teacher stress.

Asking that question then actively responding to your body’s needs at the moment will help us from snowballing our stress. 

I may be talking to myself here, but I am a champion at putting off what I really need (i.e. healthy nourishing foods, exercise, and a good night’s sleep) and giving my body false solutions that harm me in the future (i.e. fast food after a stressful day of teaching, Netflix bingeing instead of going to sleep and feeling rested to teach the next day). 

I have to stay on top of asking myself, “Hi body, what do you need from me right now?” or else I will spiral into the easy but bad-for-me habits. 

If you are nodding your head in agreement, try this: 

Set a daily reminder and title it with “Hi body, what do you need from me right now?” When it goes off. Truly ask yourself that.

When I say body that can be subbed for mind too. Even soul. Whatever you think you’ve been neglecting unintentionally.

Okay, moving on. 

More about sleep. 

Do it. And lots of it. 

You will find me talking a lot about sleep here on my blog in the coming months, even though this isn’t a lifestyle blog, it’s a teacher blog, I think sleep is so important to the quality of our lives and also to our teaching. 

Stress is a psychological but it impacts every system and function in our bodies. 

It can weaken our immune system (and we work in schools with all kinds of sicknesses as is)! 

It can make our hormones out of whack (and we work around students who naturally know how to press our stress buttons unintentionally)! 

To keep our bodies literally working, we need to sleep! 

So I am challenging you to sleep more.

This will be one of the biggest things you can do to combat teacher stress. 

If you are reading this and you’re on teacher break…sleep debt is real. Start repaying it asap. Utilize your breaks to catch up on sleep you missed out on. 

If you’re reading this at the beginning of the school year, commit to a new nighttime routine that puts sleep as your priority.  Starting tonight. I listen to the Angie Lee Show podcast and she’s always calling herself a baby grandma because she does all the things that grandmas do, like going to bed early, even though she’s in her 20s. 

We can learn from her #babygrandma lifestyle.

If you’re in the thick of it right now, put yourself on a 3 day sleep challenge. Why not 21 days? 

IDK.

I just want to be realistic with you and I want you to commit to something doable with hopes that it turns into a 5 day challenge and then before you know it, you’re showing up to school as the first one in the parking lot with loads of energy instead of rolling out of bed late and immediately stressing.  

And finally, let’s combat teacher stress by taking the sick days BEFORE they become severely sick days. 

Screenshot that and spread the word.

If you have a hard time taking a mental health day because you aren’t *cough* *cough* sick, then here’s a few little teacher hacks for you: 

At the beginning of the year, (for my non-teacher mommas), schedule out your personal days. 

These are days we often put off and then use them randomly. No. Put in for your personal days before the first day of school, then make them the first thing you write in your brand spankin new teacher planner. It’s a good feeling. Trust me.

Next, for my teacher friends who are recovering sick day preservers, I want you to purposely schedule a “two-for-one” special sick day(s) in advance.

This really helps with teacher guilt.

Schedule your annual appointments DURING THE SCHOOL YEAR, DURING A SCHOOL DAY.

Don’t wait for winter, spring, and summer breaks.

There are two great ways of doing this. One way is my favorite: I’d schedule my appointments for 11 AM. This means I would have to take the whole day off since the way my contracts hours are set up the AM is from 7:40am-11: 15 am and PM was 11:15-3:10. Having my appointment scheduled for 11 Am forced me to take the whole day. I’d sleep in and wake up with some amazing “Me Time.” I’d do things at home that sparked joy or made me feel a little saner. Then I’d go to my appointment and come home and continue relaxing. This really helped ease my teacher guilt. 

OR sometimes I’d schedule the afternoon appointment so that I could go to school, write my sub plans while I was there and had a chance to get a feel for the day, then go off to my appointment, come home and get my #selfcaredontcare on. Is that a hashtag? We should start using that when we are unashamedly taking care of ourselves. It reminds me of this quote:

Also, when you’re around someone who’s bragging about how many sick days but in the next sentence talking about how stressed they are, know that this is NOT #teachergoals. 

I fully grant you permission to use your sick days. Just be careful not to abuse your sick days, (i.e. going to Disneyland on a sick day is a no-no)

We could make this a really long blog post, about ALLLLL the things we could do to combat teacher stress, but if you start with regularly asking your body what it needs, focusing on sleep as a MUST, and actually taking your sick days before they become severely sick days, you will be closer to helping the teacher stress epidemic. Your body, family, and students will LOVE you for it. Please share this with your teacher friends and do your part of spreading the word to combat teacher stress.  

So don’t stress, just rest, we need you at your best.

XOXO,

Chynell

@thepinspiredteacher on the gram 😉