I've recently returned to work after being off due to my mental health. Work has been really supportive and I'm nearing the end of my phased return, so my workload is nearly back to normal.
As my workload has increased, I've noticed myself getting really stressed, especially when working from home. It's unnecessary and I know my anxiety is making it worse, but I'm not sure how to deal with it.
Today I had two deadlines. One was to get a piece of work to my manager for her to review, and one was a deadline that was supposed to be tomorrow but this morning got moved to today because the client needed it ASAP. I had to tie up a few last things for the project for the client, so I didn't know my colleagues agreed with the client that it would be doable to get it out today.
I started feeling the stress rise up and just felt like I was in full panic mode all day. Everything felt catastrophic - the door bell ringing, my Microsoft Word freezing, etc. Anything that took even seconds away from working felt like the biggest issue ever...
I rushed to finish the work for my manager, as it needed to go out to the client today, only for her to then say she would look at it tomorrow which means the rush wasn't needed, as the client will be getting it late anyway. Then the other deadline I rushed to finish the last few things for the project, and got it ready to send to the client only for my colleagues to say it would go to the client tomorrow morning instead.
For both pieces of work, I stressed myself out about it all day. I didn't take my lunch break and worked an hour late to finish. I don't know why... My manager has told me that if I need more time on something and a client deadline gets missed it's ok, especially during my phased return. The project manager also told me that if moving tomorrow's deadline by today wasn't doable that was ok, just to let them know but instead I kept quiet and stretched myself thin to get it done so I didn't have to ask for an extension. The source of stress and pressure is coming from me, nobody else.
Does anyone have any advice?