Does anyone have experience successfully returning to a stressful job? I am a high school teacher, and my job basically revolves around reading, writing, and paying attention to (and responding calmly and appropriately) to multiple sources of sensory input from students who may or may not be trying to cooperate with me and/or each other. In front of kids for five class periods a day and then planning/grading/preparing/advising the other three.

The thought of going back to work scares me to death. Thinking about it from my current state, I can't imagine how I ever did it or how anyone manages to do it. I'm afraid I'll think I'm well enough to do it and then have some kind of relapse in the middle of a class and be stuck.

My neurologist keeps asking if there's any way I can go back part time, teach maybe one or two classes, or be able to take breaks if I need to. Can't see how that could work.

Has anyone successfully returned to a challenging job like this? If so, did you do it all at once or transition in slowly?

Why does your neurologist think it's worth trying to return to work, if only part-time? Does he or she think it will assist in your overall recovery?

I have been getting *slowly* better, but have yet to return to work. I worked from home for a week (for about 2-4 hours a day) a few weeks ago. This went tolerably well. There was one day where I hit a wall after concentrating hard for several hours, but otherwise it was OK. However, I'm not ready to start going to the office. The neurosurgeon I consulted with recommended going back when I'm 90% with no symptoms. At the moment I'm probably about 65-75% with some symptoms (although the symptoms are *very* gradually lessening - knock on wood). So I've decided to refrain from doing any work for the time being.

The waiting can be incredibly frustrating, but I really think it makes sense to get better first, then gradually start to resume my former activities. Of course, this could take a while, so I may have to reassess my situation at some point if things aren't progressing. But for now I'm focused pretty much exclusively on getting better.

For what it's worth, the specialist I met with recommended starting slowly and gradually to see how things go - for example, going in to work for 2-3 hours at first. This seems to make sense - better to test the waters initially without risking a complete meltdown if things don't go well.

Could you teach a class or two as a "substitute teacher" at first (even just for one day), just to see how you respond that day and the following day?

See, that's the thing. I'm pretty sure the school is going to want me all in or all out for the school year. It's very frustrating.

Can you defer your decision - say, until January, with the possibility of teaching some days or part-time between now and then? Remember, having you back *and* fully healthy should ultimately be in the school's interest as well.

Can you talk to your principal and see if there's any way you can simplify your workload? He may be able/willing to take you off committees, require less planning - like more basic lesson plans, or give you some type of aide (ie - send volunteers your way). Etc.

Also, if you return, be prepared to lower your expectations for yourself. You may be an awesome teacher who needs to be more basic and "boring" for awhile in order to become an awesome teacher again in the future.

You might also tap into your fellow teachers as a support group. If you had someone you could go to when you're feeling overwhelmed or had someone who would be willing to share resources or lend a hand every now and then, it might help.

Simplify, simplify, simplify.

I am an ICU nurse and 3 weeks after my accident, i attempted to return to my 12 hour night shift and i had a major set back which immediately put me back out for 2 more months. Im about 11 weeks out from my accident and definetly making great progress and gradually increasing my activity to prepare for returning to work august 1st. I am pretty sure i will have a return of some symptoms like i did the first time i tried to go back, however, i know i have to at least try and attempt it. 12 hours against your sleep wake cycle and having to try and actively critically think and save someone (or two) life is quite the stressful, overwhelming environment....if i have any luck, i will let you know. Best thing is to at least try and if you cant handle it, at least you know you attempted it. Of course, this is hoping you are at least a few months out of your injury...if its fairly recent, i would suggest holding off. good luck

I got back pretty successfully into a high pressure job with v demanding mental health patients. I did it with an understanding manager who allowed me to

(a) initially just come and do paperwork - so I didn't need to see the patients, the most stressful and demanding part of my job.

(b) have lots of short breaks, whenever I wanted

(c) go home early to start with when I needed to.

(d) work in a seperate office when my shared office was too noisy

also (e) I took all my breaks in a separate room on my own, to give my brain time to recover. A break in a noisy office is no help at all.

and (f) I used some days of my annual leave entitlement to make my weeks four day weeks, to give me more time to recover.

Don't know how much of this stuff is possible for you but I gradually needed less and less of it until I was pretty much doing my full duties (though without the physical exercise/sport I had previously done as part of my job).

Although it worked, I then got jolted hard by an over-enthusiastic patient trying to give me a bear hug from behind, which has set me back almost to square one. But the approach above did work up until that point.

Klaus-

It sounds like we do similiar work. I attempted to go back, but had a boss that wasn't very supportive, so I lasted 3 days. I was out of medical leave, so they terminated my employment.

Have you been able to return since your setback?

I'm starting vestibular therapy next week to try to get some of my symptoms under control. But my biggest worry is, will I ever be able to go back to that environment, which requires high stress, fast thinking, potential excited and/or aggressive clients. It really scares me, because I LOVE the work that I do, am finishing my master's when my dr. releases me for this. And I'm worried I'll never get back to what I love to do...

Have you worried about this too? What are your thoughts?

Sorry to hear about your job SmilinEyes (good name!). Fortunately I live in the UK where it's harder to sack people (for now) - they couldn't have gotten rid of me in 3 days even if they wanted to.

Unfortunately I seem to have reached the point where it's gone above my immediate manager to higher people who are businessmen rather than healthcare professionals and see the US model as something to aspire to so I'll have to see what happens.

I had the same worries as you and I thought I was over them - I'd got to a position where I could get back on the ward, run group sessions (I'm an OT), join or even lead meetings and do all the other cognitively demanding parts of the job without too many problems.

Unfortunately I was still physically very vulnerable to being hit or jolted, which was in the end what happened. I was pretending to the patients that I had completely recovered, on the grounds that I didn't want my head to be targeted if one of them became aggressive.

Unfortunately this led to the opposite problem, friendly over-tactile behaviour which jolted me around anyway. If the guy who had done it had known the effect it would have had he wouldn't have done it - but that could have left me open to something worse further down the line....

I now don't know what to do, because the kind of work I've done has always been with people who are potentially aggressive, excitable or both. I was good at it, and good at communicating with these sorts of people who had these problems.

My workplace now don't want me to come back to work even if I recover this month as they're worried if I get knocked again they could be liable. They want a doctor to tell them that I'm safe to come back but I suspect that even after then end of the month I'll still be vulnerable to knocks - so will they find me some sort of admin job, try sack me or what? I don't know.
At the moment I feel that like you I love this sort of work, but to be honest any sort of job I can reliably do would work for me for the time being.

Before I hit my head we were planning to emigrate to Australia in the autumn - this might need to be delayed as it might be more than I can handle, but on the other there are a lot of OT jobs out there and it might be a good opportunity for me to move on to another sort of job, maybe another sort of client group or even a physical health job - I'd have to wear a pay cut as it's not my area of knowledge but at least I could earn regular money without worrying about being hit.

I'm still getting my head around it as this latest setback only happened last week, but I suspect that as with so much else since my concussion this may be an area in which I have to reduce my expectations, for the time being at least.

Try not to get too worried about it - if you're good in that sort of high pressure, high stress environment that means you're good at listening and communicating with people full stop, as well as managing all sorts of difficult situations - if you need to work in a different area of healthcare you'll find new challenges and also that a lot of your skills are still useful, and I'm sure you would still be great at your job and find things to love about it.

Good luck with the vestibular therapy - I'm glad that's one problem I haven't had, my friend got it with a PCS a few years ago, said he constantly felt like he was going to puke or fall down stairs! Must be awful. Good luck with everything else too, hope you make it back to where you want to be