Keep Repeating This Will Pass
Even though a panic attack isn’t life-threatening, it sure can feel that way. So to get yourself through it without compounding your worry, keep reminding yourself that you will be OK. One great phrase to repeat is “this will pass,”psychologist Shaun Wehle tells Bustle. Say it over and over until you feel better.
I Have Anxiety About Going To Work
Anxiety comes in many different forms. While some individuals may be living with an anxiety disorder that makes them generally anxious about a variety of things, other individuals are anxious about specific things. One common source of anxiety and stress for adults is their work situation. Whether there is a certain group dynamic that is making them dread going to work, or they have a lot of work that is assigned daily, work can be stressful. Some people may experience anxiety about deadlines or other aspects of employment.
Regardless of where your anxiety is stemming from, however, its important to take action as soon as possible to work through your anxiety healthily and proactively. If you are feeling anxious about going to work, lets take a look at why this may be and what you can do about it.
Nervousness vs. Anxiety
It is essential to first distinguish between feelings of nervousness and anxiety, as they are not the same. It is common to experience feelings of nervousness before a stressful event such as a big exam, job interview, or first date. The bodys stress response may kick in and go into fight or flight, helping you to prepare to face a perceived threat. The stress response creates various physical symptoms such as a racing heartbeat, increased blood pressure, and rapid breathing. However, feelings of nervousness can be controlled and subside after the stressor has passed.
Workplace Anxiety: Why You May Be Feeling Anxious About Your Work Situation
Exerciseeven If You Really Dont Want To
While you may be thinking a few more hours of work on that strategy document will ease your stress level, youre probably better off doing some strategic sweating. Remember: Exercise doesnt just burn caloriesstudies show that it burns off stress and anxiety, too.
What’s more, scientists at University of Colorado, Boulder have done research in mice to suggest that even if exercised is forced, it reduces anxiety. So, even if you’re not naturally inclined to work out, see if you can get yourself into a set regimen inspired by a class, a friend who is willing to speed walk or jog with you after work, or even a fitness app or gadget. Your bodyand your stress levelswill thank you for it.
Also Check: Fear Conditioning Definition
How To Calm Anxiety: 15 Tips To Manage Anxiety
Your hearts racing, your palms are sweaty, but what you really want to do is make it stop. Suffering from anxiety can be an uncomfortable experience. And as a long time sufferer, Ive learned a few tricks thatll help you learn how to calm anxiety as you go through this article. So lets jump right in.
Be Mindful Of Triggers
Anxious people always have triggers. And unfortunately, sometimes you cant avoid them. During a run with PTSD, I developed a two-year long fear of the moon . There was no getting out of it. Every time the full moon came out, Id go into hysterics thinking I was in danger. I couldnt avoid the moon coming out each night and it glared at me and haunted me during a difficult period. The point of the story is, sometimes you cant escape your trigger. You have to accept that its there. You can take small actions to help minimize its impact such as staying over at a friends house to feel safe, scheduling a meeting with a psychotherapist to learn coping strategies, or joining Facebook groups for people who suffer from similar triggers to get specific advice from others.
Recommended Reading: What Is A Depression Contour
The Effects Of Anxiety In The Workplace
If you find your job stressful, returning can be even more difficult – particularly after a relaxing break. “If someone doesn’t enjoy their work or finds that they have lost motivation, it can be hard to get a positive perspective on returning to work. Anxiety is often triggered by our negative thoughts and how we perceive an outcome or situation,” Crowe explains.
“Workplace bullying or difficult working relationships can also add huge amounts of stress and may cause anxiety regarding facing colleagues when the time comes to get back to work.”
The way we spend our holidays and time off can also affect our mood too, as overdoing it with alcohol can impact the way we feel.
Back to work anxiety can be a particular problem for people who already struggle with clinical anxiety too. “Individuals who struggle with generalised or social anxiety may become overwhelmed with just the thought of getting back into a routine the energy that it takes to be fully present at work can take its toll,” Crowe says.
One of the key issues is that people with anxiety tend to experience ‘what if’ thoughts, which can lead to worry over future scenarios that may or may not happen.
Anxiety over going back to work can cause physical symptoms such as headaches, stomach issues and trouble sleeping, as well as behavioural changes, such as feeling irritable and isolated.
How to deal with back to work anxiety
Tap Your Way Out Of Anxiety
Like me, you can Tap your way out of Anxiety. You dont have to be an expert in Tapping to do this I wasnt. Should you feel you could do with some support as you Tap through this process you could either get my 6 Week Online Retuning Anxiety Programme or book some 1:1 Tapping Sessions.
With this Tapping Process you can prevent yourself from triggering a stress response. Even better you can retune your old stressed thinking processes with lasting effect. For more information on this tapping process please .
Also Check: The Fear Of Spoons
Dont Overthink Your Stressors
Sometimes, figuring out what exactly is getting you worked up can make you anxious. Stress isnt necessarily going to go away. Some jobs are inherently stressful, Walker says. For instance, a recent study tracked hospital nurses and measured their stress levels throughout the day, changing nothing in their daily routine. The nurses then practiced mindfulness to help the way they related to the stress. When the nurses were re-measured, their stress had dropped by 40 percent, says Walker. Nothing changed stressor-wise, except the way the nurses related to that stress and were aware of its presence. In my opinion, giving extra attention to the stressors is wholly unhelpful.
Be Aware Of Your Personal Stress Threshold
When youre rushing around in the morning, hitting snooze on the alarm clock, trying to get the kids out of the house or checking your emails on your phone, youre edging ever closer to your personal stress threshold often before youve even reached work. Weve all got a threshold. If were under it we can deal with things, we dont feel stressed, but once we exceed it boom everything starts to become a big, big problem.
You May Like: Side Effects To Pristiq
Consequences Of Job Anxiety And Stress
Tap Into Success Offers You Solutions For Anxiety
In the book I also have a whole chapter on my take about the energy of stress and success and I give you two bonus chapters
- one containing lots of Tapping scripts you can use for many various situations
- the other is focused on Wellness Habits that work along with Tapping to help you live your best life today.
You May Like: Apiphobia Definition
Be Intentional With How You Get Your News
Gathering too much information about the coronavirus, or getting it from the wrong place, can make you more anxious. Benton and Tarry agree that it’s best to be intentional with how much time you spend reading the news and where you get it from. For example, you may stick with listening to a news radio show for 30 minutes on your morning and evening commutes, but then avoid scrolling through Twitter during your free time.
Defer to official sources, such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization, for general updates on the state of the pandemic and how to keep yourself safe. Then, look to what your local health authorities are saying for day-to-day news.
“Knowing your local information is the most important for making your own decisions,” Benton says.
Causes Of Work Anxiety
Work anxiety may be caused by a variety of characteristics of the work environment. It’s not at all unusual for certain major events to make you nervous or feel temporary moments of anxiety. For example, starting a new job or leaving an old one is sure to make anyone feel skittish.
You spend so much time at work that if things aren’t going your way, it can feel overwhelming at times. This may not always rise to the level of ongoing anxiety, but it can be helpful to talk to someone about any of these issues are causing you to feel constantly anxious about work:
- Dealing with workplace bullying or conflicts
- Meeting deadlines
- Experiencing a workload that is overly high
- Having a lack of direction on tasks
- Experiencing a lack of perception of fairness
- Feeling a lack of control over the work environment
- Having a low reward
Don’t Miss: What Does A Ptsd Flashback Look Like
Prepare And Plan Ahead
Feeling unprepared can trigger anxiety. It’s easy to get caught in the vicious cycle of feeling unmotivated to plan on Friday afternoon, putting off planning over the weekend, and ending up feeling extremely anxious and unprepared on Sunday night. Teachers who plan in advance tend to experience less anxiety. Some teachers plan ahead for a unit, quarter, or even the entire school year.
Obviously, plans can change, but having plans definitely helps reduce anxiety. Many teachers commit to staying at school on Friday until their plans for the next week are complete. Others commit to planning on Thursday, so their weekends can start right away on Friday afternoon.
Take Your Symptoms Seriously
Regardless of whether you feel anxious every day or even just once in a while, Tarry recommends everyone tune in to their feelings and take their symptoms of anxiety seriously. In May, the United Nations warned that the coronavirus pandemic “has the seeds of a major mental health crisis” and called for substantial investment in support services. If you notice any changes to your body or mood, examine that and seek mental health support now through teletherapy, an employee assistance program or another provider to help you work through difficult feelings now.
“Your environment has a lot to do with chronic symptoms of anxiety that start seemingly out of nowhere,” Tarry says, adding that “for the first time in history, more people can see a provider anywhere in the nation.”
Also Check: Is Celine Dion Anorexic
Talk To Someone Who Gets It
If your feelings of anxiety are making it hard to function, you should speak to a health professional. But talking to friends can also help. I have friends who have an anxiety disorder too. When Im feeling really bad, I send them a message telling them how Im feeling.
They might have a new hack I can try, or they can point out something that might have acted as a trigger. But sometimes its just nice to vent to someone who knows how it feels to be in my shoes.
Focus On Your Breathing
Youve walked away from that tense situation at work, but your hands are still balled up into fists, your jaw is still clenched, and youre having a hard time bringing your stress, anxiety, or anger down a few notches.
Its time to sit down and focus on doing a few deep inhales and exhales.
We knowit sounds like totally cliché advice. But, trust us, its completely effective. The studies are there to back that claim up.
In a paper published by Science and then reported on in an article for TIME, a group of researchers led by Mark Krasnow, a Stanford University biochemistry professor, discovered that in mice, a group of nerves in the brain that regulates breathing is also directly tied to the arousal center of the brain.
So, in short, your breathing has a pretty direct impact on the activity level of your own brain.
When youre feeling particularly stressed or worked up, sit down and place all of your attention on doing some deep breathing exercises.
Breathe deep into your diaphragm for five seconds, and then release that breath for another five seconds. Youll feel less anxious and less bent out of shape in no time.
Don’t Miss: Prodromal Stage Of Schizophrenia
How To Overcome Work Anxiety
Work anxiety is never just work anxiety. It often bleeds into your home and personal life, and if it continues without management for too long, you may also develop anxiety that often lasts long after you leave your job.
While all of these characteristics might not apply to you, the information should still provide you with tips of how to properly manage your anxiety at work. For the purpose of this article, we will make a few assumptions, which include the following:
- You are currently at a job you cannot leave, because you have not obtained a new job or you need to stay for family reasons.
- You are employed for a company that utilizes cubicles or offices. Despite not fitting the mold exactly, retail, restaurant, and work-from-home jobs should still relate and be relevant based on the suggestions below but how you integrate them may change.
- You are good at your career. Having high career aspirations is still a very important aspect of overcoming anxiety. If you fail to even try to succeed at work, it can impact your anxiety negatively.
- You are not anxious about finances this kind of work anxiety is related to a different kind of anxiety in general. Financial anxiety can be overcome by changing priorities and properly budgeting. We understand that some of you are not paid what you are worth, which can incite anxiety. However, for the sake of this article, we will assume your finances are stable or not a cause of anxiousness.
Was this article helpful?
Get Everything Ready The Night Before
Dr.Giuseppe Aragona, General Practitioner, M.D. Prescription Doctor advises, Preparation can always help first day nerves. You want to get everything ready the night before, to ensure in the morning you are not flustered and caught off guard. Do a trial run the day before around the time you are due to startby minimizing all these possibilities that can go wrong, you will feel much more relaxed.
Kerry Heath, LPC-S, NCC, CEDS-S, adds, Practice before your first day on the job. Drive the same route you will take to your new office so that you will know exactly how to get there and how long it will take. If possible, learn where you will park and where to check-in on your first morning. Ask where to arrive and who to check-in with when you get there that first day. Being prepared will alleviate some of those first day jitters.
Evan Lawrence, LMHC, CPT, suggests you Take stock of what you can control and what you cant! For what you can list out your options and for those that you cant, remember the qualities about you that allow you to get through other uncontrollable situations.
Don’t Miss: Anxiety Cause Burning Sensation
Taking Action To Manage Your Anxiety
Once you make your way through these three steps, you can start to manage your anxiety daily in ways that allow you to grow as a leader and be more resourceful and productive.
The following tactics can help ground you.
Control what you can
Many faith traditions teach us to accept what we cannot control, without preoccupation or panic. But in the middle of an anxiety attack at work, you probably dont have time for philosophy. So heres what to do when things feel completely off the rails.
Structure your time. A solid body of research shows that improved time management disposition meaning your attitude toward how you organize and value your time has a positive impact on mental health. And its especially crucial when youre gripped by anxiety.
First thing in the morning, create a to-do list and a detailed schedule for your day. I like to do it while having my coffee. You might use 30-minute increments to spell out when youll shower, take a lunch break, make a phone call, or tackle that report that needs to get done. This is what many experts call timeboxing. While youre at it, try to avoid what cognitive behavioral therapy terms cognitive distortions. These are the catastrophic thoughts, self-judgments, and all-or-nothing ideas that often accompany anxiety.
Be careful not to overschedule or overestimate your productivity instead focus on the critical work and leave time to take care of yourself.
Develop techniques for situations you cant control