Signed off work

[dontsweatthesmallstufff]

I had a panic attack in work on Monday for the first time and have now been signed off.

I feel very low and anxious and now have weeks ahead of me. That may sound lovely to some, but I just feel desperate. How would you fill your time? What would you do to feel better?

I want to use this time to improve my mental health. At the moment it feels like it's making me worse. I'm now worried about my career suffering as well as everything else. I want to go back to work ASAP, but the thought of this also terrifies me. I had started to make mistakes at work.

I wake every day at 2.00am and can't go back to sleep, so I'm also exhausted.

AIBU to hate being off work for weeks and not know what to do with myself?

You use the time to rest and recover. Your body is telling you you’re not coping - the urge to keep moving is feature of anxiety, your body needs time for your hormone levels to even out and your physical responses to subside.

So rest, do things that help you switch off and recharge, sleep when you can, do things for pleasure. This isn’t time to do a full spring clean, or start a new project - it’s time to rest. After a few weeks try to organise some counselling to help with whatever is underlying the anxiety/stress, they can also help you plan a return to work when it’s time but for now don’t worry too much about what you’ll do with the time off, let yourself rest.

You need to get to the route of your panic attack and then find strategies to cope with/prevent the trigger.
Perhaps seek counselling, otherwise, you'll get into a downward spiral while you are off, and nothing will have changed.
Hope things work out for you.

What would you do if it was annual leave? Any friends/family free to meet with? A country walk?

Be kind to yourself. Work will cope.

I found this book really helpful when I got signed off. https://amzn.eu/d/aSlOYqD

To begin with I'd recommend focusing on eating really well. Lots of fruit and veg. Possibly vit d and magnesium supplements

Try and get out for some fresh air and daylight every morning.

Take it a day at a time

This is good advice!

I booked a cottage and went to the Norfolk seaside.

It was January so not warm but I walked every day and went to see the seals. Treated it as a holiday.

It did help.

Perhaps start with some relaxation and mindfulness techniques. Lots of programmes online, maybe yoga or pilates too. Should give you some strategies for when you start to feel stressed and to help you sleep.

Do you have an EAP at work? It's worth exploring what help is available to you to support your mental health.

Take some time. When you feel better to back to work.
Identify your stressors - if it's work related speak to your manager about a stress risk assessment to identify what in work you need support with just now. When you do return ask about a phased return
For now, do some exercise, go for walks, relax, do some mindfulness. Look after you.

Try to focus on sleep and eating something you like that is good for you. You need to sort the basics out before you can move onto anything else.

Start with the basics. Self-care takes time and if you have got to that level of over-whelm at work, you need to take a few steps back and make sure you are looking after yourself.

When you have got into a negative spiral in your mental state it is easy to let these basics drop - and the extra time you have while you are off work will give you time to get these things re-established. I am going to make a list of basic self-care tasks but you do not have to do all of them yet - if you start feeling that this is as much as you can cope with after point 2 or 4 that is OK. You don't have to do it all right now, take your time to build up if you need to.

When you can manage most of these tasks most of the time and still have time spare for working then you are ready to return to work. While you are building up to be ready to return to work you can do other purposeful activities (listed at the end) to give you and idea of how much resiliance you have to manage other things once you are looking after yourself properly

1. Drinking enough water, spaced throughout the day
2. Eating balanced healthy meals with veg & fruit - don't take on big cookery projects in the early stages though, keep it simple.
3. Regular active exercise, with a daily walk at least, and ideally something more strenuous a few times a week
4. Keeping yourself clean and well-presented, including regularly brushing hair and teeth etc
5. Taking time for mindfulness - Yoga, meditation etc
6. Talking with others about how you are doing - starting to untangle how you got so overwhelmed in the first place.
7. Taking time for creativity - take up a craft - knitting, crochet, painting, gardening or whatever else you enjoy (if it's something you can do in a group that will help with point 6 too)

If you can do all these and have plenty of time for things in item 7 without letting the higher things slide, then you are well enough to start having a phased return to work, don't expect to dive right back in to full time without taking the time to be kind to yourself and keep the self-care as a priority.

I have certainly been unwell enough that I can only just about manage 1 and 2 with external support and can't cope with the rest. But it does get better.

Thank you for all the replies and advice. I really appreciate everyone who took the time to respond. xx