u/idkwhattowritehere21

That's pretty much the whole post. Just had a crazy panic attack and I feel like I can't avoid it.

I started taking a GLP-1 to get healthy. I do not use it to starve myself, I use it how it's meant to be used, and I strive for balanced meals. I've lost weight s, which is great! But I've realized something weird- how do skinny people sleep with their knees touching each other? Now I can feel my knee bones whenever they're together and it feels so gross!

I'm doing a 6 semester program, so I need 12 hours a week. They're still trying to figure out if I can count hours at school since I am basically a school social worker already (I run social groups and use DBT and CBT skills throughout my day with my students with ID and ASD). Everyone is so confused why people go into this career (same with teaching) but you basically have to give up your life for 2 years to do so. I'm starting to question if I should have chosen a fully online school? I did my 2 other masters degrees online and did fine but I missed being in class around other people. Maybe that's insane? Why can't there be a self paced classroom option, that would be my dream! Get all the school stuff out of the way quickly and focus on the skills in the community.

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Everything feels incredibly overwhelming right now. It is going to be okay! Take a deep breath, use some coping strategies (personally I love the physiological sigh and progressive muscle relaxation, but find what works for you) and start sorting your list by "needs to be done today" to "can be done in a month". Start with the stuff that is highest priority. Do one thing at a time! Do not hop from one thing to another (coming from a person who constantly does that when overwhelmed), stick to the task and get it done. Put music or white noise in your headphones and zone everything out.

Things will not be perfect right away (or ever!). Take that thought out of your head. Your only goal is to have a functional first week. Teach the basics first. Everyone says this, but what does it look like? Pretend the children are feral, they've never been to school. Teach them how you want them to walk into your room, how to sit down, what to do first, what to do when they need to go to the bathroom, sharpen a pencil, get a tissue, etc. Teach them everything. What do you want your rules and routines to be? My expectations are posted already on the first day and we go over them everyday (I'm SPED though, you may not have to continue to go over them every day, YMMV). You need to do this even if you're high school, even if they "should know". You're teaching them how you want things to go in YOUR room. You're setting the expectations at the beginning of the year. This is the MOST IMPORTANT THING. They need to know what to do. They'll say they don't want to know, that they don't want expectations, but they're lying. Kids thrive on knowing what is expected and when.

The biggest thing to know about staff is that schools are super political. Stay out of the politics- find your people, but don't trust them until they've proven trustworthy. This is the biggest mistake I made in my first year.

Take a breath. You were hired for a reason. You got this! Lean on your support, both in and out of school. Find someone in your school that does what you do and does it well. Ask if they would be willing to work with you. 99% of the time they will say yes. Find your people and stick with them. Also, take any help that's offered!

>!long story short, I was raped at night by an intruder!<

I can't sleep a lot of the time, I have to wait until I pass out. I have Ativan but I hate using it unless it's an emergency. I got my weed card but I'm scared to take it, what if I have an adverse reaction and it makes stuff worse? I use my strategies like progressive muscle relaxation, physiological sigh, TIPPs, etc. But I still feel like shit. Any advice?

Curious about people's thoughts!