Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Support Group
Find support with others who have gone through a traumatic experience. Whether you have chronic or acute PTSD, we are here for you.
As y'all know, I was a Spanish university prof for 12 years, then a hospital chaplain for 10, and now a community college instructor for nursing and other students for 10. In other words, my career hasn't chased promotions as much as it's been about PTSD recovery, my own and that of others with PTSD I came to know.
I'm one year away from my retirement date of July 1, 2021 as this pandemic is complicating school work for us all. Today my state's governor and federal authorities starting talking on tv about back to school plans for this Fall.
I got kidney disease when Seroquel for my PTDS nightmares met diabetes and caused me permanent renal damage. I collapsed while teaching in the classroom in 2018 and spent the night in the hospital to come out and find my supervisor had replaced me with another instructor. I collapsed again at home Feb. 24, 2020 and hit my head and spent another night in the hospital during this pandemic.
I'm one of those COVID-19 risks from pre-existing conditions, then. Returning to the classroom now has to take that into account. This past Friday I got word from my supervisor and administration granting my request not to return face in the classroom this Fall so I could live stream teaching from home and stay safer. I'm really happy about that.
Today's TV news about returning to school this Fall, though, reported that the federal government may cut funding for schools that don't return teachers to classrooms. I teach at one of the poorest community colleges in Appalachia, so we're really dependent on federal funding. Today's news reports alarmed us where I live such that our state's governor, Republican Gov. Larry Hogan, went on TV to respond to these reports of political pressure.
On DS we agree according to our Rules of the Road not to politicize here nor proselytize for religion, so I struggle with how to express my anxiety about this debate over my workplace conditions in an apolitical way. It's not politics to me, it's about my kidney disease and my PTSD. Again, I was in the hospital just this past Feb. 24th, so I'm not being paranoid.
I just want my community college supervisor and administration to stick to their good decision for me to let me live stream my teaching from home this Fall.
Please, if you pray, would you pray that they can stick to their decision for me?
If you're not a person who prays, could you send good thoughts and wishes hoping their decision sticks?
I really need just to get through this one last year safely and I can retire. Support welcome.
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Hey All...I hope that you have a lovely, peaceful beginning of your weekI have a bunch of chores that need doing but may put them off til tomorrow and just hang out with my landlord/roomie todayWhat about you?...Anything special going on?Have a great day and take good care of you!!..Xo
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Once again I've had a fever today. I'm not going to the hospital because that's a huge waste of time but I did schedule a dr appointment for Wednesday afternoon.
Puma support! :-)
Thor Support! :)
https://www.msnbc.com/morning-joe/watch/state-won-t-be-threatened-to-reopen-schools-says-maryland-gov-87272517539
I try to ration my tv news intake during this pandemic but since this was about return to school decision-making I watched it. Now I wish I hadn't.
It's been a few years since I was a student, but even back then a lot of classes had substantial online components (often class discussions or interactive practice exercises) and some classes were even fully online. So, there is some pre-pandemic precedent for fully online classes, though they were less common than in-person classes.
Still, prayers for you and the decision makers at your community college.
There is no question that you should not be with a high volume of people with this pandemic still really active in the US..... Gentle hug.... I have no doubt that your doctors will agree with that...... xo
First, I'm doing that lovingkindness meditation I wrote about here on DS PTSD earlier this
week right now, "May I be filled with lovingkindness, may I be well, may
I be peaceful and at ease, may I be happy.
Second, I downloaded my
comedian Marc Maron's daily podcast to listen to on a walk to calm
myself.
Third, I called my next door neighbor D to make sure she
and her husband go with me down to the pub tonight for my nightly
margarita and distraction of watching sports on the bar tv.
That's in addition to your support, for which I thank you from my heart. It's not working yet, I'm still as jumpy from my PTSD getting triggered as a cat worried about its tail in a room full of rocking chairs. It'll take some time, looks like.
I think if the school is ok with it some professors can teach in the classroom and some online. That’s the way it’s always been. So if they offer your class as online it should be ok as long as they also have some classroom teaching. Colleges are a little different from elementary and high schools. Even the schools are saying that they will rotate students into the class rooms and on days the student is not in the class they will attend online and some schools are offering the option of rotation or online because a lot of parents are concerned. All meet the requirement. I think they are focusing on the schools that just closed down and we’re not successful in online programs.
I have faith that your college will accommodate you. They can write it up as an ADA accommodation. Hugs and prayers for you.
You have all my thoughts and prayers with extra gentle hugs of support.
I find the serenity prayer helps me when i get anxious about things that may not be in my control.
The other thing that helps me is my letting go ritual. I have a serenity box, and like the prayers asking for serenity to accept the unchangeable, the courage to change what can be and the wisdom to know the difference, the serenity box is where i go when my prayer is answered and i receive the wisdom to know understand it is not in my control.
This little box has small pieces of paper and a tiny pen or pencil in it. I take out a slip and write the issue down, thus trusting in the higher Spiritual power that has control over it, I let it go from my heart, mind , and soul and i place the slip of paper at the bottom of the pile back in the serenity box. I say amen and close the box.
Thus , I have said that I trust the higher spiritual power regarding how it will work out enough to now use that space in my mind , heart, and soul to address something I can change.
Hugs~
So teaching this Fall for me has been determined to be a matter of being allowed to teach via live streaming, which is safest for me since I was in the hospital in Feb. But there's financial pressure from the federal government to change that to face to face instruction, which is less safe. Day by day our administration changes its mind, so all of us working there are quite on edge.
I'm feeling down today because more COVID-19 outbreaks in border states in the USA have caused Mexico to close their borders once again. So I'll have to do the paperwork for a refund for my July 19th plane ticket. It will be the 4th time I've filled out refund paperwork for a plane ticket to Mexico since March. I was in Mexico on March 13th when my second best friend Deb died of COVID-19 suddenly, though, so I see that we're in danger from this and precautions are necessary. I just want to get to Mexico asap because I'm paying rent on a little house there and would rather be quarantined there than here in the USA where COVID-19 rates are higher.
I also work in the field of education (though not as a teacher), and my school district is also highly dependent on funding.
That said, COVID is an evolving situation, and to be honest with you, I am not sure that the government is allowed to withhold funding from schools that do not re-open. Is it even constitutional to do so? There is no precedent for this because we, as a population, have not lived through a pandemic before. So this is all unchartered territory for people, school districts, governments, and nations alike. So I am not sure that the withholding of funding would actually happen.
And yet, I can relate to what you're feeling: it is truly scary to consider the potential economic consequences of having schools not receive funding. And it's tough because every day -- sometimes every hour -- there is something new to react to with regards to COVID, whether we're feeling the impact personally or collectively.
So, with all of that, I send you thoughts of strength, peace, and well being, a wish for us all to find the calm center within ourselves so that we all don't get tossed away by the outside world. Wishing you the best, Muji, and I hope we both receive good news as far as the field of education is concerned in the weeks ahead.
I do think Education will forever be changed by Covid, But higher learning institutions were already moving that direction,and were the example K-12 used to implement distance learning. I also see a rise in the coming years for medical and psychological therapists administration support, as the aftermath of long term effects of the virus plays out. Even those that survived will feel anguish or survivors guilt.
You will have students that need the knowledge you teach..
Prayers and hugs of support.
J.