Returning to work with anxiety and depression

[spacecadet000]

I'll try to keep this brief (not my forte).

I was signed off work about 6 weeks ago for anxiety and depression and also started taking Citalopram 10mg which I increased to 20mg last week.

During the 6 weeks I was off work I did really very little and did feel bad for not doing anything but it's the first time ever that I just couldn't bring myself to do much. It's like everything in my world needed to slow down and I'm moving at a snails pace.

I have now tried to return to work as I thought I was more ok and I felt bad for taking what felt like so much time off but now it feels like the depression is hitting again and I'm struggling with feeling a combination of overwhelm and lowness.

Has anyone successfully returned to any sort of work after being diagnosed with anxiety and depression and how did it go? Is it best to try to work through it or wait to feel better?

Sending virtual hugs to anyone else out there struggling right now x

How did you try to return? All at once or phased? When I return after anxiety I go really gently, this year I did a week of three mornings M, W, F. The second week I added one afternoon, the third another and so on. It’s really hard as you do do nothing when anxiety strikes and going back to work is difficult. And before returning I do a week of building up my stamina by going out locally. Overdoing it is lethal and causes relapses for me.

I've done it, the worst part was coming up with a convincing pretend illness to tell my colleagues as I couldn't face telling the truth.

Why do you think you have anxiety and depression? What do you think it is related too? Work? Personal life? Or something else? You don't need to answer here but it would be useful to find out what's causing your anxiety inorder to help yourself.

If it's work related, probably the only answer is to look round for another job. I do realise it's not easy, especially if you're in a specialist role, but still worth considering.

Thanks everyone, I'm on a phased return which has been set by occ health and I'm seeing a therapist privately (that I can't really afford) to try to figure out what's going on but my heads so jumbled lately it's really hard to come up with any answers. I'm guessing it has to do with returning to work after maternity leave as I've found that really hard and my roles changed since I've been away and I haven't been feeling capable of doing my job anymore/not interested in doing that job anymore. I guess I'll just keep pushing through and taking things one day at a time as we can't afford for me to not do my job right now. We're trying to make future plans to move to a cheaper area where we can reassess everything