Helpful tips please - Anxiety paralysing me

[Meggymoo777]

Hi there,

Looking for some encouragement or advice. Single Mum to 11yr old DS, WFH, suffer anxiety and depression but medicated.

I'm completely paralysed by anxiety the last couple of weeks. I know the depression hasn't kicked in as I'm still up early, looking after myself in terms of food, sleep, make up and dressing every day. Keeping the house straight and actually really enjoying spending time with DS and homeschooling.
I just cannot focus on work. The thought of opening my laptop is paralysing me with fear. Every time the phone rings my heart races. I'm behind in my work and completely procrastinating on every tasks, doing the bare minimum and just can't make a start on anything. I've gone so far as to turn the phone on flight mode today just to avoid it.

I don't know how to overcome this. Have thought about calling the doctor to discuss and maybe upping anxiety medication, thought about asking to be signed off for a few weeks. I just don't know what to do, I'm really good at my job but I'm feeling professionally useless. How are you all staying motivated? Any advice is appreciated...

Hi, just to say I’m feeling exactly like this at the moment too. My anxiety is horrendous this past week due to lockdown but probably exasperated by PMT. I can’t focus on my work and when I do manage to do something, I find myself making mistakes or silly decisions which then ramps my anxiety up even more. I’m full of self-doubt and the old imposter syndrome has raised its head too. I also feel professionally useless at the moment..

I feel so sorry for my children with how their lives are playing out right now and my family live 200 miles away so I haven’t seen them in such a long time and I miss them terribly. Don’t know how much longer I can live like this, it’s horrible..

I’m doing yoga everyday which is helping somewhat and trying to stick to a daily routine to keep my mind slightly distracted. I find cooking therapeutic too because, working my way through a recipe gives my thinking mind a rest. I hope you’re ok.

Thanks so much for your response @Wineloffa, you do seem to be stuck in the same rut at me, and imposter syndrome is exactly what I feel sometimes too. It's shit isn't it?
I managed to get a good days work done yesterday (after getting up at 6am and having to pump myself up to it for 3hours). And as always, tackling my work tasks was not as hard as my mind made out. I just can't describe the paralysing effect my work anxiety is having, il do literally anything to avoid starting tasks that are always easier than my mind leads me to believe.
I might start a few online yoga classes next week - do you have any recommendations? I wish I had some advice or solutions for us both 😔 If you ever need a bit of encouragement though do feel free to message me, I can try and help by being a cheerleader of sorts 😂
How old are your children?

Ha I started work at 7 yesterday morning to tackle some tasks that I’ve been putting off all week! I figured if I actually faced them and got them out of the way, then my weekend might be a bit more pleasant. Like you, I had built them up in my mind to be dreadful but were actually fine once I started them. Why do our brains do this to us? I work in a creative industry so all of this isolation is pretty uninspiring and not helping me professionally at all..

I can highly recommend Yoga With Adrienne and Yoga With Tim. Both of them have various 30 Day Challenges on YouTube which are great to keep you focused on doing it every day. For when my anxiety is really bad, alternate nostril breathing is brilliant too. Adrienne has a video on it somewhere if you Google it. It’s scientifically proven to calm the amygdala in the brain which is responsible for your body’s fight or flight response. I was sceptical at first but it really works!

My kids are 11 and 15. They are brilliant and rarely complain but they’re missing out on so much right now and I really feel for them.

I like the cheerleaders suggestion, thank you. Please feel free to message me too if you ever need support. I don’t really talk about my anxiety to people in real life. In fact, I think people would be really surprised if I told them because I come across as a very confident, positive person. Not talking about is probably part of the problem though. Let me know how you get on with the yoga and the breathing.

I totally get this. I used to utterly dread opening my laptop as I worked in an international team and every day I would wake up to problems in my inbox that arrived while I was asleep. I was senior and capable and well-thought of, but new in role and I felt out of my depth due to my manager being overseas in a different time zone, and a ridiculous workload that no mortal could have prioritised so I was under constant cultural pressure to donate dozens of hours of overtime, which was tough with a young family.

Sometimes, i just couldn't face anyone at all, and wfh ALWAYS made it worse. On days where I had to drive to the office, something was different - maybe it was simply seeing a friendly face from a neighbouring team or being in a professional location, I don't know but it always motivated me more.

The problem with wfh is that blurring of work and home. There's no escape. I don't have an answer for you, I'm sorry, just loads of sympathy. Loads and loads.