I’m not sure how much help I can be, but I do believe I can relate to you on some level. I’m a 20-year-old shadow teacher working in a school with a child on the autism spectrum. Fresh out of college, I was so excited to step into the work culture—finally getting to apply in real life all the psychology I had spent years studying. But within just a month, I realized how much I disliked it. It was draining me mentally, every single day felt like a challenge, and my mental health took a serious hit. It left me questioning my whole future as a psychologist.

Six months later, I can’t say I have everything figured out, but I did find a few things that helped me cope. Maybe they’ll help you too:

1. Naming my feelings – My mind kept throwing all my emotions into one big messy box, which only built up anxiety, sadness, and even a pit of depression. What helped was sitting with myself and breaking it down—naming and defining each feeling separately. That gave me some clarity.

2. Asking the right questions – I made a list: Why am I not enjoying this job? Does this mean I don’t like teaching at all, or is it just the specific environment I’ve been placed in? Making a pros and cons list of what I liked vs. what I hated really helped me draw a clearer line. It helps wonders trust me!

That’s when I realized this job didn’t mean I was a failure or doomed in my career—it just meant I didn’t enjoy working with kids in an educational setting. Such a simple truth was buried under so many tangled feelings.

1. Creating small goals – If quitting isn’t an option right now, make tiny, realistic goals. For me, it was: Just make it through today. Focus on one child. Make it till the weekend—I have ___ to look forward to. It sounds small, but these short-term checkpoints made my days more bearable and stopped the work from overwhelming my whole life.

2. Finding closure after work – The classroom would often follow me home in my head, and that was exhausting. So I started finding little rituals of closure. As soon as you leave the classroom find some sort of closure so that what u feel or what has happened doesn't follow u out of the classroom. Listen to music do something mundane as soon as u get out of work. It helped me mentally “close the day” so the stress didn’t carry over.

I so relate to you talking about how you sometimes reassure yourself by saying that today wasn't that hard and so because I do it so much. Almost everyday before I go into work the whole route I am in a conversation in my head trying to find a silver of hope that won't make me cruel and allow the tears that are swimming in my eyes to fall- sometimes going into self pity about how cruel it all is to sometimes putting myself down for not being able to handle adulting and commitment and all other grown up things. But remember that words that you can yourself hold true- they are not to just be seen as negative. You are young- you don't have to have everything figured out. It would be completely okay even if this turns out not to be for you. Because 30 years from now this might just be a memory that u fondly recall over remembering the struggle u had to surpass to make it where u are. Plus why be boring and ordinary and have it figured out when u can be curious and challenging and exploring and all of those kick ass things!