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Precisely.
How couldn't you? All you'd be doing is re-iterating the advice you've been trained to give. Being depressed/cutting yourself obviously doesn't automatically preclude you from being able do that.
You'd only be thinking that if the person left marks uncovered - something which i seriously doubt any teacher is going to do.
If i was to become a teacher (something i briefly thought about but decided against), being a habitual drug user wouldn't prevent me from teaching children the ins and outs of drug use just as well as someone who didn't. In fact, the advice given would be backed up by personal experience and understanding - something which is largely missing from drugs education in schools.
I wouldn't be lying in the staff room smacked off my tits, i wouldn't snorting coke in front the pupils. To them, I'd be just another teacher giving advice i'd been trained to give - backed up with personal, private understanding.
I know people who cut themselves, work stressful jobs and study stressful courses and manage fine. If you didn't know them on a personal level or see the marks, you wouldn't even suspect it.
perhaps you missed the word 'personal'?
sadly teaching is a wee bit more complex than simply reading off a script. no, being depressed and actively self-harming doesn't automatically make you shit at rehashing information. but it's not like kids come with a manual, and to deal with a selfharmer you just need to refer to the flowchart on page 9. and you also forget that kids learn by example, so obviously someone who is emotionally healthy is a better role model.
i think you are underestimating how perceptive kids are. you might think that they can't tell what kind of mental state someone has, but i'd disagree there. i remember being at school and knowing exactly which teachers we could break, and which would cry and leave if we pushed them hard enough.
call me crazy, but if they're cutting themselves, i don't think that counts as 'managing fine'.
Please explain me to me how someone who's happy clappy is an instrinsically better role model than someone's who depressed? As I said, you wouldn't even suspect quite a few of the people i know who cut themselves of doing so without actually knowing them on an intimate personal level.
Do you teach? Because if you do, then i'm sure you'll know the importance of maintaining the divide between teacher/pupil. Being a "role model" to pupils is therefore merely superficial.
I don't know the specifics of the English system of education, but certainly up here in Jockland it's a minority of voluntarily selected teachers who deal with personal issues. Most teachers just teach their own subjects and have no other involvement.
I've already said this. That's why it think such a person becoming a teacher is inadvisable. Maybe you missed that bit?
I was talking about managing fine under pressure from work/study, not privately. Obviously.
May I ask if you know why you are doing it?
Convicing yourself there is nothing wrong with it is tha basic of all addiction.
You know there is something wrong and you know dealing with it is going to
be really hard and not trying is a way for you to escape or try to avoid failure, because you know failure would only make you feel worste that you do already....
Ok, here it might not be the case here, just stating by personal experience.
I have been self-harming myself for years and even did much worste in my time but I manage to stop completly.
I won't lie to you, it has been hard work and took me years to finally stop
completly. It's not a walk in the park, it's hard, and frankly getting help never
did anything for me, all they did is give me some pills, which I took once and felt like I was half asleep all day. But here getting help depends on some people, if you feel you need it and it is useful get it, if not do it yourself, cos you can! Also I would say if the only thing they offer is pills, don't take them, pills don't fix problems, they hide them, but when you stop the pills, the problems come back as they have never left. The only one that can cure you is yourself.
I don't know your reasons and all about your situation or anything, just wanted to share my personal experience with you and let you know that if I did manage to stop it, you can do it too and you will get stronger by it.
If you ever feel like talking about it to someone that have been there and that is more likely to understand, just contact me, I'll be glad to to try to help you or even just listen to what you have to say.
TBH, I don't want to go to a councillor/therapist/shrink/whatever. I done half a psychology degree and left because it was a load of bull. Everything was by the textbook and I know that's not how it works.
I would never go on meds, if they gave me them I'd chuck them. I've never taken them but Ive heard stories and know how they work (the course I'm doing at uni now has a module on drugs and human interactions) I don't want to wander around in a dream world and get hooked on something that ultimately, imo, will just make things worse.
This is all just totally my opinion and I'm not, in any way, getting at people who are on meds. I know they do help some people but I think you have to believe they will and I don't.
It's the same with councelling, if you believe it will work then it most likely will. I don't think it will help me at all.
I have to be honest and admit I don't really want to stop or get help. I say I do but its more seeing it from other peoples point of view rather than what I want. If I do go to the councillor at the uni it will be to get people off my back. Very doubtful it'll do any good though.
I stopped drinking, drugs and smoking on my own with support from my friends and, imo, this isn't any different. I can do it by myself when I want to so I agree with you there. I've tried many times for other people. Everytime I've failed and, yea, it does make you feel bad because you kind of think "what's the point?".
I don't know what I'm going to do about the teaching. I'm thinking that if I don't feel like I can do it this year then I can always defer entry and see if the situation's improved next year.
It'll work out fine.
Thanks for the reply and the support I appreciate it.
Self harming never stop me for having a job or having a normal social life.
Good luck, I hope you'll soon tell us you are teaching :thumb:
Kx
When I applied for my nursing course I didnt tell them about my ED, even though it was a specific question on the application form (another friend had one in the past too and she didnt mention it on the form either) I think youre the only one who`ll know whether you can handle the course, and if you cant, that might have nothing to do with your S.H. It might even help you get over it??? I dont believe it should be a barrier to you doing the course. Just apply, dont tell them, and see how you get on.
Not at all - it isn't a moral issue.
Nope, it's not something i've ever done.
Fair enough - but do the skills actually address the reasons for cutting? As opposed to merely the cutting itself?
Studies have shown a correlation between depression and improved perception. People deal with depression in different ways, not everyone who's depressed can't function well in other aspects of life...it varies greatly for person to person...a lot of people deal with it privately and lead otherwise normal lives with people unaware that they're depressed.