Anxiety about work

[way2serious]

Am feeling so anxious again. Am struggling so much today. I need to do some work before tomorrow but just makes me panic. Any tips to help me get my laptop out and fo what I need to do. It would probably only take an hour but I can’t seem to take any action.

What are you particularly anxious about? The work itself? Messing it up? Have you done similar work in the past?

If you're good at your job, what's there to be anxious about?

I would get your laptop out now and start. By posting you have acknowledged your anxiety but only you can take the next step. You will only make yourself more anxious staring at MN and waiting for people to reply.

I have managed to get my laptop out and have completed much of what I needed to do. My anxiety is completely irrational. I am experienced but so scared of making a mistake and of conflict with anyone. I am in a senior position and just find the pressure overwhelming. I am leaving my job in 3 months as I am so anxious about it most of the time.

My anxiety is completely irrational. It often is, but the underlying reason will have it's roots in your mind's attempt to keep you safe and happy.

As an example lots of people have a phobia, or a serious dislike, of public speaking. This often has it's roots in being mocked or feeling embarrassed when standing up in class - that time of life when social acceptance is absolutely crucial. As a result a part of your subconscious says "we never want to feel like that again so we're not going to do that thing again". Fifteen years later you might have forgotten about that excruciating episode but your subconscious hasn't, and will do whatever's necessary to stop you standing up, even though it's now something you want and need to do for your career progression.

I feel like you’ve written exactly how I’m feeling OP. How are you feeling today?
you say your worried about making a mistake - do you know where this is coming from?

Can I ask why your leaving in 3 months?

What age are you, OP? Sudden onset anxiety was my first menopause symptom. Never been an anxious or stressy person in all my life until BANG! I could barely function for a while and didn’t realise it was a menopause symptom at all. HRT has helped me.

This is very familiar to me too. It probably doesn’t help but you certainly aren’t alone! Mine is pretty irrational, but the impact is awful - I go into some sort of mental paralysis where no matter how simple the task, I simply can’t do it. I’m off sick with stress at the moment, caused by my anxiety and resulting paralysis, but fundamentally the underlying cause for me is probably a combination of peri and ADHD, neither of which are easy to treat.

I hope you are doing better today, OP. My doctor told me on Monday that I need to accept that I can’t just get on with things, there isn’t a miracle cure, and to celebrate small wins. Not sure my work will agree that’s working for them, so I constantly worry about performance and losing my job… and off we go again. So much fun.

This is classic neurdivergence plus stress for me. I have a few things that help - have been in the cycle many times to know that doing something to tackle it is better than nothing. I also use a body doubling website which helps me get started. Failing that, getting drinks and snacks lined up and some comfortable clothes on plus some music. Just starting without overthinking.