Does anyone else suffer from work related anxiety? please answer

[sachie1]

Hello,

I was just wondering if any of you suffer from work related anxiety? I was diagnosed a couple years ago with Generalised anxiety disorder and OCD (although just in the sense that my thinking was obsessive)

So, my anxiety is going crazy right now because I have a job interview tomorrow so please bear with me if not all of this is making sense, my mind seems to jump from the interview to being in the job and all the possible things that could go wrong for me within the job. I have very little confidence when it comes to jobs and working with the public, its mainly because I convince myself I'm going to f**k up all the tasks I need to do. I have I think a little bit of a disability when it comes to maths? I'm not sure if it is Dyscalculia or if its just my anxiety about maths. I'm not sure what it is but sometimes where I get in scenarios where I need to count change I panic, my brain shuts off because I'm convinced I'm going to get it wrong. I rarely go places with change because I'm terrified I'm going to give the wrong amount of money and honestly I just find it very embarassing. Anyway, most jobs you have to handle money and I have had jobs in the past where I have worked with money and most tills do all the counting for you but sometimes just the thought of me messing up infront of people instills so much fear in me that I don't want to do it. I was doing some volunteering for barnardos charity last year and they kept trying to get me trained on the till and it made me so incredibly anxious that I ended up just leaving the volunteering, its incredibly stressful and frustrating for me. I haven't had a job for almost 3 years, I'm currently at university so all my money I have gained from my student loans or from my parents. My last job completely knocked my confidence, I had a manager who I felt was picking on me a little, I had gone from never working in this particular job to more or less managing a section on my own within 1 month, I tried very very hard but every single day I came to work she told me I had done something wrong, she even blamed me for a few things I hadn't even done. I'm very quiet and don't like confrontation so I tend to take a lot of stuff on the chin but I could not deal with that job and ended up handing in my notice after 3 months. I left that job feeling very stupid and being quite hard on myself because I just felt like I wasn't capable of doing anything. It seems silly but it makes me very emotional because I just feel like I can't do anything right when it comes to certain jobs. I got into training for a call centre a few months ago and backed out before we started making our calls, I had asked one of the people who were training us a question and the way he had answered made me feel like an idiot so I never went back, that and the fact that I was terrified of making a mistake on the calls. I know in my heart of hearts that there's no way to start a new job and not make mistakes and that assuming I will make a mistake probably makes it more likely that I will make a mistake but I can't seem to stop myself from thinking that way. So tomorrow I have an interview for a job and I feel like im already talking myself out of it, I don't even have the job and im already worrying about it. I'm thinking what if I make a mistake, what if someone is rude to me and I don't know how to deal with it, what if I get really flustered with money and make a mistake, what if I get into trouble. The whole thing makes me feel really pathetic and I really don't want anyone to give me special treatment because I'm so anxious but its so tricky when I feel like people are judging me for making mistakes. I know that's also part of my anxiety, thinking that I'm being judged but I do. I worry that like co-workers, managers etc think that I am an idiot or that I am incapable and its a struggle for me to put myself out there.

Thank you for reading.

[superchick22684]

I suffer from work related anxiety and my anxiety has an influence on how I perform on the job so I suppose that covers most bases. Most of my anxiety related to work is pretty similar to what you've described above worrying about one's performance in relation to how co-workers and managers see you. Also worrying about an interview is pretty normal whether one has anxiety or not.

As for worrying about if you are going to get in trouble or mess up, I've dealt with that a lot too. I've had to kind of train myself not to dwell on what could go wrong but what can go right instead. It didn't happen overnight and I still have times where I default to catastrophic thinking but its better than it was.

How do you cope with your anxiety? Do you go to therapy, take meds or use any coping skills??

[sachie1]

Hi superchick22684, thank you for replying.

I had been seeing a clinical psychologist for over a year but I've been signed off now, I don't take medication for it I'm not sure how I feel about taking anti-depressants, I tried to take them but I ended up deciding against them. My coping skills aren't brilliant, but I try to write down on all my feelings and try to work out strategies to get past whatever is bothering me, though that's not really something you can go away and do while you're working haha. I dunno, its nice to know at least that I'm not the only one. what have you done to sort of over come your work anxiety?

[Dahila]

Man I do, on weekends my BP is ok but on week days up to the roof.....

[superchick22684]

Hi superchick22684, thank you for replying.

I had been seeing a clinical psychologist for over a year but I've been signed off now, I don't take medication for it I'm not sure how I feel about taking anti-depressants, I tried to take them but I ended up deciding against them. My coping skills aren't brilliant, but I try to write down on all my feelings and try to work out strategies to get past whatever is bothering me, though that's not really something you can go away and do while you're working haha. I dunno, its nice to know at least that I'm not the only one. what have you done to sort of over come your work anxiety?

I have to admit therapy has really helped me figure many things out that I struggle with. I have been exceptionally lucky when it comes to therapists. I'm on meds too but that only does so much. As silly as it may sound I try to monitor my thoughts because whether you realize it or not your thoughts have a huge impact on what you are feeling. A lot of my issues with work have to do with negative thought patterns (my therapist will back me up on this).

So there's this concept that came about with my last therapist called negative reel. When I'm having a bad day most of my thoughts are going to negative like "I can't do this", "Its too hard" etc. The trick to change this is you think about your brain having a tape player (or similar electronic device). If you want to get out these negative thought patterns you have to change the tape to something more positive.

Sometimes if I think a task is too hard or overwhelming me, I break it down into steps. That sometimes helps my anxiety too.

Also being kinder to yourself can help too. I'm really hard on myself if I can't do things perfectly or things don't work out the way that I wanted them to. Sometimes when something doesn't work out I have the tendency to tear myself apart. The thoughts in my head tell me that I'm weak or not good enough. I've slowly had to learn to use the negative reel concept that I talked about above to stop that in its tracks because if I don't it will drive me to depression.

I hope some of the stuff I shared above was helpful. If you need anything I lurk on the board on a fairly regular basis.

[sachie1]

Thank you Superchick for sharing,

I will definitely think of your positive reel when I am stressing out majorly about jobs, I got the job I applied for so I'm just gonna try to give myself allowances and not freak out about making mistakes/getting flustered. I am also the same in the sense that I am way to hard on myself, very critical and not much I do is good enough for myself haha. For the longest time negative thoughts was pretty much all I had but over time I've got better at fighting back against it at least in some areas of my life so I'm hoping over time that the part of me that's nice and reassuring to myself wins more than the part that's negative haha. You have been very helpful thank you, did you hear about the studies into B12 and folic acid deficiency and how its supposed to cause irregular moods like anxiety/depression, I've been taken the a supplement of it for a couple of months now and I am noticing a change in my anxiety, not a huge change and by no means is it gone but could be something to look at if you haven't heard of it and wanted to try something different :)