My friend Alex shot himself 6 years ago and he died four days later. I had been feeling down for a long time. Maybe a year maybe two years before he died but sadly his death or his death sadly was a turning point where I said I have to confront why I'm feeling bad because I know I don't want to get to where he got.
After he died I contacted a therapist and started meeting with her and it was one of the best things that I've ever done. I'm sure that most people say the exact same thing going to see a therapist or something most important thing they've ever done or the one of the best things they've ever done and what's interesting is when people say why don't or why doesn't everyone have a therapist and that's a great question.
As you can imagine with therapy it wasn't all about my friend Alex, and it wasn't about all about me but it was about why I felt the way I did. There were a couple things that emerged. I had previously had a superintendent and a principal that believed in me and trusted me completely I was now working with a superintendent and a principal who did not have that feeling. An example is that I had written a teacher evaluation under the previous superintendent that had been held up as an example of how to do evaluations by the previous superintendent and when I submitted a teacher evaluation that was identical the new superintendent talk to me about it being a perfect example of how not to write evaluations
I just never got off on the right foot with the new superintendent she was wonderful as a person and as a superintendent just our working relationship never really gelled. the new principal I'm not sure what happened I don't know if you didn't trust me or still thought of me as a brand new teacher even though I had been a teacher of her 12 years and and it's system principle for five by the time he started.
The more important point about all of this is taking care of oneself if this doesn't happen and if it isn't allowed in your organization or is an encouraged in your organization that is something that needs to be addressed if you don't have the power to be the one who addresses it then you need to speak to someone with a little bit more power who can help address it.
The other thing that I learned in the process of working with therapists eventually being diagnosed with major depression or severe clinical depression is that the right step to take are to contact your supervisors and the people in human relations as soon as possible so they do not think that you're taking sick days with no reason and instead they understand that you have an actual situation going on and that they can support you I have since advised many fellow Educators to do the same thing when they have come to me in distress with depression or other issues I always say to them talk to a trusted administrator about what is going on so that that administrator knows and can be a proactive supporter of what's happening with you
