Inside: Read about the shocking impacts of teacher stress on your body and why it’s so important to destress. Is stress a silent killer?
Stress often comes as part of the territory for many teachers, but it can eat you up if you let it!
According to a recent poll, 46% of teachers reported high daily stress, which ties them with nurses as the most stressful jobs.
In an article by The Guardian, it highlights the huge psychological health issues that teachers face from the record amount of stress they encounter each day.
This is worrying!
But if you are a teacher, this information is probably nothing new to you -look around at your colleagues. Some of them probably are aging before your eyes.
This was me! Stress was all-consuming.
So in the effort to help others avoid going down the same path, I want to share what I’ve been learning about stress on my journey to better health and why it’s so important to relieve teacher stress.
In this article, I will give you some useful information that will help you to look at teacher stress differently in the hopes to take better care of yourself.
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What is stress?
Stress seems to be a topic on everyone’s lips these days.
It’s a modern-day epidemic that many of us deal with in our jobs and everyday life, but no one seems to know what to do about it.
To help you understand what we’re up against, I want to make you more informed about what stress is.
According to Viki Thondley from the Mind-Body Food Institute, stress is the natural way that our body looks after itself, and is part of the body’s inbuilt protection system.
The ‘stress response’ that we all feel, is designed primarily for survival and is often termed ‘Fight or Flight,’ which was originally coined by Walter Cannon in the 1900s.
In basic terms, when you sense danger or a threat to yourself, the brain signals the body to provide it with the accessible energy supplies to be able to stand and defend itself, or to run away as fast as it can.
But before a person consciously understands if there is truly a threat, your brain has already sent out a message to the body to safeguard itself.
These messages come in the form of the hormones – adrenaline and cortisol.
The hormones prepare you to ‘Fight’ – stand and defend yourself, or ‘Flight’ – run away and hide.
Feelings of the stress response
If you’re ever in a stressful situation you might experience some of these feelings:
- elevated heart rate
- tense muscles
- a rise in blood pressure
- a rise in body temperature
- your muscle cell fill with oxygenated blood
- you use much more energy and oxygen
- there may be an evacuation of the bladder and bowels
In early times, this stress response would mean life or death for a person, but when the threat was gone, the body would return to its inner balance.
Sadly though, in modern times, the stress response is often activated for much longer periods of time because of the greater worries and the high pressured lives we lead.
Over time, your body builds up the levels of adrenaline, cortisol and other stress hormones and this accumulation keep your body on high alert.
Three Types of Stressors
There are a variety of stressors that can cause a stress reaction in the body. These can come from the many different aspects of modern living.
The three types of stressors are:
- chemical – things like; sugar, toxins, air pollution, cleaning products, skincare, drugs, caffeine, alcohol and nicotine.
- Physical – things like; lack of sleep, lack of movement, excessive exercise and accidents etc
- Emotional – emotions such as fear, anger, guilt, sorrow, jealousy, hurt, grief, resentment and anxiety etc
The problem with the continued ‘flight or flight’ response is that it can make you open to having an increased sensitivity to the various stressors that you face in life.
This is the danger!
And as people continue in highly demanding jobs, like teaching, you might find yourself in this stress response day-in and day-out.
If this imbalance isn’t corrected, you leave yourself open to develop a large variety of illnesses, diseases and disorders.
Teacher Stress Symptoms
There are an array of symptoms that people get from stress, including:
- heart disease
- sleep disorders
- skin diseases
- anxiety
- drug dependence
- chronic pain
- depression etc
But the good news is that not all stress is bad.
You can experience positive types of stress like when you’re excited, challenged or feel anticipation.
The healthy kind of stress helps to encourage you to do the uncomfortable things that challenge your continued growth and change.
When you think about it, much of it comes back to your own personal perception of stress – if you think stress is bad, you are more likely to be affected by the stressors in your life.
If you think stress is just a reminder to slow down and take more care of yourself, then it can be an important part of a healthy and balanced life.
Challenge your thinking about the perception of stress and don’t just see it as all bad.
What is Chronic Stress?
If you allow stress to build up and take over your life for prolonged periods of time, this is called chronic stress.
In a state of chronic stress you age more quickly, your brain can start to atrophy, your sleep gets worse, you might even start to experience digestive disorders and your immune system becomes compromised.
You might also feel agitated and moody, begin to have a negative outlook because of your extreme exhaustion, or you might not be able to focus clearly.
Any of these sound familiar?
Related Articles: 5 Easy Ways to Relieve Teacher Stress
What causes most of the teacher stress?
While stress affects all people differently, research reports the main reasons for teacher stress is from the workload, workplace conditions and climate, and expectations. In particular:
- Excessive workload and working hours
- Poor student behaviour including lack of motivation and effort, disrespect, violence, challenging authority
- Management of bullying, and reactive management strategies
- Aggression from pupils and parents
- Classroom and school climate
- Pressures of assessment targets and inspections
- Conflict with management and colleagues
- Adapting and implementing new curriculum
- Teaching efficacy and learning new skills… the list goes on and on…
I’m feeling you nodding.
And then, if you team these up with highly stressful personal issues like:
- marriage or relationship problems
- losing a job or not feeling secure in their job
- death in the family
- family problems
- a recent move
It spells a recipe for disaster in terms of the stress response on your body.
Teacher Stress and Burnout
Where the problem lies, is the tendency for teachers to push down the effects of chronic stress.
They tend not to slow down to look after themselves, but continue to work and look for ways to feel better in-the-moment; like throwing themselves into the job and letting the busyness take over their lives.
Then they use food, alcohol or distractions to tune out – You know teachers and their propensity for wine and chocolate when the job just becomes too much. (or was that just me??)
Do you see the correlation between the stress response and the high incidence of teacher burnout? Read my personal story about how I dealt with burnout.
These issues are real for teachers!
Teacher Stress in Australia
In Australia, the statistics for teacher stress is no different from our counterparts in other countries.
In the article by the University of Western Australia, researching teacher wellbeing, it reveals that Australian teachers report the highest levels of occupational stress, over the United Kingdon and America.
Another report by SBS Insight, states that over half of Australian teachers experience anxiety and one fifth is depressed. While other worrying statistics state that Australian teachers make more mental health claims than any other industry.
Wow! I’m pretty shocked at that.
A final word on Teacher Stress
Have you taken all of this in?
Does it worry you? It does me.
Can you see why it’s imperative for you to ward off the effects of teacher stress and the devastating impacts on your health?
I hope this has shocked you into taking action in your life.
I honestly didn’t realise the severity of stress on the body and what it would do to me until it happened.
And I certainly didn’t make it a high enough priority throughout the school year to ward off the impacts of this chronic type of stress.
Learn from my lesson and do something today to help yourself.
Related Article: Stress Management Tips Every Teacher Should Know
It’s a learning curve like anything else.
But when you learn to become intentional about stress management and start to look at the stress response differently, you’ll improve your situation or slow down any further decline.
I hope you can use this to remind yourself to stop the old habits of neglect and start looking after yourself before it’s too late.
Remember you’re worth it!
Michelle x
Other Related Articles
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