“I Can’t. I’m Tired”: 30 Professionals With Terrible Mental Health Confess What Job They Have

We might think that the worst job for our mental health is the one that we hate. But, according to research, there are actually some professions where depression, burnout, and people taking their own lives are more common than in others.

In 2019, Business Insider wrote how veterinarians, first responders, doctors, and childcare, construction, and restaurant workers are at a higher risk for the above-mentioned ailments than the general population.

Recently, one person on the Internet asked: “Which job has, hands down, the worst impact on mental health?” And while some of the answers from people reflect statistics from the article, others might be quite surprising.

Bored Panda reached out to the author of this thread, u/VenkyFromAnakapalli, and they kindly agreed to tell us more about what prompted them to ask other Redditors about mentally exhausting jobs. Read our short conversation below!

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"I Can't. I'm Tired": 30 Professionals With Terrible Mental Health Confess What Job They Have It’s not the worst (see: First Responders and, apparently, veterinarians) but being an inner-city public school teacher broke me.

Look, again, not as bad as those others but I’ve seen and read enough that my decade in has been enough. I’ve had students murdered (one kid was shot for twelve dollars worth of weed. I also taught the murderer), I’ve called DCS on many parents because my student came in beaten or starving (I paid for one of my student’s lunches because she was pregnant and couldn’t afford school lunch), seen brutal fights that have ended with hospitalization and have also been hospitalized due to breaking up fights. You watch brilliant students discover d***s and overdose, you see kids with bright futures get pregnant and refuse to go to college because they “will be supported” by the baby’s father who skipped town the day she gave birth, and you see kids fall through the cracks in the system to never be seen again. I’ve also reported two f*****g pervert teachers; one didn’t have enough evidence but he was still let go while the other currently enjoys prison.

My first year, a few of us teachers started a “club” that would have lock-ins at the school because some of the kids needed a place to get food, get clean, and be away from the danger of home. I’ve never played more Monopoly in my life or eaten more Papa John’s and I really didn’t like doing it but it was worth it at graduation when one of my students that never missed Club thanked me because, “it was the one night her mom’s boyfriend couldn’t get her.” I still cry about it. I’m crying now.

There were amazing positives. I have a few students that are now doctors that were once told that they would never graduate. Getting kids who couldn’t read at the beginning of their freshman year to graduate with a full ride to college is a feeling that I can’t really compare to anything.

But, at the end of the day, the lows are too low. I left the first school that I taught at six years ago because we had an “incident” that definitely *wasn’t* a school shooting that failed only because the kid turned the corner directly into our school officer and, out of fear, the kid killed himself instead of the kids on his list. I should have left then but I thought it would get better; that I could handle it all.

I can’t. I’m tired.

classroomcomedian , Katerina Holmes / pexels Report

Final score:

91points

“I Can’t. I’m Tired”: 30 Professionals With Terrible Mental Health Confess What Job They Have

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