I'm a teacher.

You'd think that this would be a horrific job to have during an episode, but I find it actually works well for me. Not so much when I'm already panicky though.

If I'm depressed, well, I'll use up ALL the energy I do have in trying to be my best for my students - I'll probably plan out a lot more chill activities to do during this time, or things that are more student-driven. They will cheer me up somewhat throughout the day though - this year my students were by far the best and most constant thing in my life. Even when I just felt like crying or curling up and quitting, they would manage to say or do something that would actually genuinely make me smile. And I really wanted to be my best for them.

When I am in an up (because mine are very mild really) I tend to sorta throw out whatever "boring" things I had planned and we get a lot more active and probably have a lot of different activities on the go. My students tend to love it when I'm in an UP.

When I'm stressing out about things I tend to be somewhat honest with them. "I'm not feeling very good today, so, if I get a bit snappy I want you all to know that it ISN'T you and that I'm just not feeling good." or whatnot. I will also try to do activities those days that are more chill and relaxing - so if we were going to be learning a new lesson which I thought they might hate or get really frustrated/confused about? I'll delay that until another day and do something else that would be good practice for them (In my class this was typically math lessons, so I might just take a day and play a math game involving multiplication or division cause they are terrible at it).

In an UP it lets me use up a lot of my energy, when I'm in a down it drags me into being functional and engaged with life. When I'm stressed out... welll... sometimes it can make that worse. But if I manage it right it will actually help calm me down.

I'm really lucky about that.

And if there is a day where I just REALLY know i won't be able to hack it and do them justice? I will call in sick. Typically I am actually feeling sick when that happens (stress sometimes gives me massive headaches and stomachaches) but the day off usually helps. I don't typically use my sick days, so I've got a bunch of them banked already.

I'm seriously really lucky with my job.