Ha! Omg I thought my eyes were playing damn tricks on me when I saw my name in the title of a thread!

I think there are a few BP teachers on here. If so maybe they can give us a shout out!

I teach Business and Economics. Been teaching for 20 years. I got diagnosed officially in 2009 but I definitely had symptoms before then just nothing over the top. I had a mild hypo episode in 2009 and I didn’t work for 2 weeks.

Fast forward to 2015. Massive psychotic episode. Work didn’t understand diagnosis but I reckon I was pretty close to being fired so I resigned. Got quite a big payout though. Work stress etc.

As for my current school bloody hell what a nightmare this year. I got caught up in a very tricky situation having to report the assistant principal for serious misconduct against female students. Police investigation etc and he’s almost pretty much fired but the case is still ongoing. This was in June but by August I was full on psychotic manic. And in my absolute lack of judgment I emailed the principal at 3:00am completely off the rail telling him I’m BP. Beyond embarrassing now that I’m stable. He’s been nothing but supportive but there are some things that you cannot “unsay”. That and sending the other male assistant principal (not the one under investigation) a highly inappropriate text message. Actually it was just a YouTube clip that was marked as inspirational but it would be too embarrassing to recount. Something to do with Brad Pitt and fight club.

I had quite a bit of time off work fully paid. Here in Australia you get work cover if your injury (mental or physical) is as of a direct incident that happened in the workplace so even if I hadn’t of emailed the principal it’s on my application form written by my gp that goes to the insurance company who pay my salary. My only saving grace is the fact that my principal has a few mental health issues himself and has told me that he sees a psychologist but he didn’t specify to me what exactly for.

I don’t personally know any other teachers who have BP. Certainly depression but none at my work who have specifically told me they’re BP. I’m just grateful that I’ve still got my job and that my principal has been understanding for the most part.

I often think the only way I’ll truly heal is to change schools but I feel like I have to work hard to rebuild my reputation as a good teacher.

How long have you been at your school for?