Having ADHD and comparing myself to other teachers unfairly

This is somewhat of a vent but if people have genuine suggestions I’m open. I am so lucky that I love where I work and am happy with my job despite how much work it is. However, I have ADHD and am a classic “type B teacher” and am struggling so much with comparing myself specifically to the type A teachers in my building who are my age and experience level. For context, I work at a small 6-12th grade school, it’s my second year teaching, and I’m pretty young. There are a couple other second-year teachers my age who don’t have ADHD and are extremely type A, and I find it so hard not to compare myself to them. They are both excellent teachers, incredibly kind, and have been so helpful to me on many occasions with my organization. They both even remind me not to compare myself to others and that I am doing great. I also have two wonderful mentors at work who remind me constantly to stop comparing myself to those teachers, I have ADHD and they don’t, they received so much more support last year than I did (long story), they don’t have extreme executive dysfunction like me, they don’t have sleep problems like me. But still, I constantly compare myself to these other teachers. If they can do it, why can’t I? I’m just as smart and I work just as hard. My mentors this year have been helping me work on my executive dysfunction so much but I still have so long to go. It doesn’t help that I’m one of the only “type B” teachers who teaches in the middle school (the high school has a lot more “type B” teachers and I feel less bad about myself when I teach there), but for the most part I’ve been able to stop comparing myself to others in my building by saying they’re older than me or they’ve been teaching longer or both, but now I can’t use that excuse! I know I’m a good teacher and I know I work hard and that I will eventually get to that point too. My students like my teaching (despite being confused by my disorganization) and I’m generally well-liked by my coworkers. But it’s still so frustrating to watch things like organization and executive function come so naturally to some of my same-age coworkers that their work is shown at staff meetings as an example for how organized we should all be, while I try so hard to keep everything organized and still my classroom looks like it was hit by a tornado half the time. I’m not saying it’s easy for them necessarily, I know they work hard too, but damn is it embarrassing to be an adult in a job that requires extreme executive functioning skills and attracts people who are really good at that when your own executive function is garbage for your age and education level. And I feel like shit for being so jealous of these other teachers and feeling resentment towards them when they have been nothing but kind to me and have never passed any judgment on my organizational skills. If any other teachers have felt this before and got over it, lmk what you did that was helpful! submitted by /u/-cmp [link] [comments]