Published on 12, July, 2020
I would like to know if there are any autistic teachers here.
I would like to know...
How has autism had an impact on your teaching (in and out of the classroom ....positive and negative)
How has the job affected your autistic life? Im thinking here specifically in terms of the non-classroom elements of the job. For example how does the paperwork and planning affect you at home and your routines? How do you cope with the stresses of the job and a changing environment? How does it impact on your worklife balance as an autistic person? Do you have many meltdowns shutdowns or burnout episodes? Do you have any sensory problems at work such as information or social overload? How do you cope with these?
Why did you decide to take up the profession and did you know you were autistic before you started teaching?
What do you enjoy most about your job?
I am self-diagnosed and can relate to many aspects of autism throughout my life. Since self realisation i am able to use coping strategies Im an adult tutor and currently this is the only teaching job ive had so i cant compare with other teaching roles. I would be interested to know how much of my job is general stress and how much could be down to being potentially autistic which compounds any stress. But i also would like to know your positive stories and experience!
I am a fully trained teacher.
I struggled greatly as a teacher and no longer teach. I actually no longer work as the burnout was so bad that I've never fully recovered enough to return to work.
I initially managed just under 1 academic year and then returning after my first burnout, I managed just over 1 academic year before burning out badly again.
Teaching became all consuming as I'm very perfectionistic.
I also found it overwhelming and therefore felt the need to "over" prepare in order to feel in control. Of course, that didn't actually help as I was an anxious mess trying to perfectly over prepare to feel in control of a situation that I was never truly going to be in control of.
I basically didn't cope. It was all too overwhelming for me though there was never actually any complaint about my ability to teach. My teaching was fine, apparently. I, however, was far from fine.
I'd always thought I'd like to teach... The reality was that teaching and I were incompatible. I will never return to teaching. Since being diagnosed, I am even more sure of that. I had no idea I was autistic when I decided to teach though now that seems ridiculous because I've always known I was different, I just didn't have a label to explain that difference.
I "enjoyed" pretending I was a functioning adult... It was painful and difficult and my health suffered greatly but it was "satisfying" that I'd got there and was doing what was expected of me. I was working and that's important to me. At the time, I couldn't see that being a total mess outside of work was a huge sign that I wasn't a functioning adult but I didn't realise then that I experience the world differently. I thought it was normal to feel so anxious, overwhelmed and completely consumed by the need to control something because life felt so out of control to me.
I apologise that there are no positives. Looking back, I can't even pretend that my good "performance" was a positive because everyday was just that, a performance/pretence, I was not being true to myself and not looking after myself and that is not functioning.
I am also a fully trained science teacher and relate to so much of this , I also left my teaching post at Oct Half term, it was soon after that I self diagnosed with autism, I stayed in teaching 6 years but was on supply for most of it and took alot of breaks I would get quickly burnts.
When I was teaching then I was good at teaching but the rest of my life fell apart.