Anxiety / Panic around being at work
Hi All,
Has anyone found that they’ve started to experience anxiety or panic about going to work or being at work. What works for you?
For me, the fear comes from being away from my house/support system or experiencing a panic attack at work that I cannot calm down from by myself.
I know avoidance is not the answer, but I’m in full avoidance mode right now. I haven’t been in office for weeks (I’ve been working from home so not terrible but my job prefers in office so need to get this figured out). I know avoiding going in is making it feel more daunting, but every-time I think about going, or even when I get there, I experience panic and end up leaving. It makes me feel defeated. I have to work to survive and I cannot lose this job over anxiety and panic.
Any advice that has helped you??
For reference my symptoms of anxiety and panic result in extremes avoidance of things, so if something makes me feel anxious even once I become fearful to experience it again. I’m trying to work on this but it’s so so hard. It’s like I get so panicky all of the coping skills and knowledge I have goes right out the window. My mind is so full I can’t focus on anything long enough to pull myself out of it.
@BeeBear8
I have experienced anxiety at work. But not full blown panic, so I don't know how relevant this will be. By all means take anything useful and leave the rest.
I can imagine work can be particularly difficult due to a sense of feeling trapped. 8-9 hours is a long time if you are panicking. And there's huge social pressure - no one wants to look "crazy" in a professional setting! That time and social pressure can easily make a small anxiety much bigger.
I think it might be useful to see if you can figure out exactly what it is about being at work that makes you anxious. You mention being away from home. So an alternative might be to think about what it is exactly about home that helps? Is it having other people about? Feeling like you can't be yourself? Too much light? Afraid of making a mistake? Constant noise?
How supportive is your workplace? Because once you've worked out exactly what it is, a supportive workplace will help you. Focus on what they want - if they want you in the office, then lay out a plan of how that could achieved. Remind them that small steps tend to be more successful in the long run. So the biggest thing you might be asking them is for patience. Maybe a whole day, or even an hour is too much? So aim for just 5 minutes? Maybe they can provide noise cancelling headphone? Or someone who will sit with you while you have an attack? Or a prayer room, where you can go for a bit of alone time?
Of course, if your workplace isn't supportive, that makes everything so much more difficult.
For me the key was realising that if I took time to deal with it, I would be more productive in the long run. And just getting away for a bit when it all got too much, was what I needed. There was a little park down the road and I developed a little circular walk. And a circular route round the building for bad weather. I worried a lot about wasting work time, but I often had flashes of inspiration on those walks. And no one noticed. And eventually I found it didn't need them so much.
I'll say
Right now you lack self confidence, sorry to say though
But let me ask you, what makes you happy and do you have friends or family any u share or comfortable around if not any then I'll advice a therapist or a doctor