Activity

Read the following example and try to identify what kind of mental health problem the person have. Then think what you would do in their place.

Mary has been a primary teacher for 10 years. For the last 4 months she have been feeling sadness, irritability and trouble sleeping every day. She also feels like a failure both as a teacher and as a parent. She says that she has a hard time concentrating to prepare her classes and even during classes she has trouble paying attention. All this has led her to not want to be with people (nor friends nor family), but to be at home and she has even stopped doing crafts and reading, something she really liked.

Read the following example and try to identify what kind of mental health problem the person have. Then think what you would do in their place.

Peter has been a secondary school teacher for 20 years. The demands at the school where he works are increasing. During the last two months he says that it has become more difficult for him to get out of bed to go to work. When he is at school, he has the feeling that the problems (with students, colleagues, parents) are more and more difficult to solve. There are days when he comes home feeling overwhelmed and unable to handle the situation. He even feels that his attitude towards students and classmates is changing, he feels less approachable and friendly, less proactive. This is an attitude he did not have before, since he loved the contact with his students and his work. He has also noticed that he is unable to disconnect from work, even on weekends, and this is affecting his sleep. She has also been having headaches and neck pain.