Why is my first year of teaching making me physically sick?
New teachers are frequently thrown into classrooms without adequate training on software or behavioral crises, leaving them constantly confused and burdened by an ever-growing workload. This lack of support prevents them from maintaining basic life habits, forcing them to sacrifice sleep, nutrition, and hobbies just to stay up past midnight trying to prepare. The resulting extreme stress causes them to cry daily or throw up in the mornings, leaving them feeling miserable and entirely unequipped for the job.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1seeking medical or therapeutic help for physical stress symptomsDid this help you?
- 2transitioning to substitute teaching to reduce workload and paperworkDid this help you?
- 3simplifying routines and lowering personal expectations to survive the school yearDid this help you?
- 4reaching out to trusted teacher mentors for adviceDid this help you?
- 5staying up until 1 or 2 AM to prepare for the next dayDid this help you?
- 6entering grades over the weekend while remaining days behindDid this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“I throw up from stress in the mornings (not every day but often enough), I feel absolutely miserable, I'm overwhelmed and feel unsupported, I keep having things added to my plate, and honestly I also just don't think I'm good at this job.”source ↗
“Yesterday when things got bad with one student, I evacuated my classroom. I was never trained on what to do during such an event”source ↗
“I don't get enough sleep, I don't eat properly, I'm behind on classwork for my credential, I have no life, my hobbies are on indefinite hold, and every time I learn how something works, everything switches up on me.”source ↗
“I had maybe the roughest fall of my entire life so far. I would cry on the way into work, and I still cry almost every day in the way home from work.”source ↗
“I was basically thrown into the deep end and not shown how to navigate any of our 200 apps we use.”source ↗
“I was so overwhelmed and stayed up until one sometimes two am just to feel “prepared” for the next day. I never was.”source ↗
“it never feels like I’ll get caught up, I feel like I hardly have anything ever figured out and like I’m the only team member who literally doesn’t understand what’s going on.”source ↗
“the throwing up from stress thing is way past normal first-year jitters though. i'd talk to a doctor or therapist if you can, that's your body screaming at you and it's not sustainable”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 22How to stop teaching from taking over your entire life
- 2Why does the classroom chaos never go away?
- 98How to stop letting accounting stress ruin my life?
- 12What should I do on the first day of teaching?
- 49Why am I so tired and burnt out teaching?
- 4How to stop replaying a near-miss accident with your child