Breakdown due to fast paced job?

[vitahelp]

I’m currently in the midst of a panic attack phase which started out of nowhere about a week ago. I’ve been here before but 15 years ago! I’m trying to understand why this has happened so suddenly.

I’ve been in my current job for a year and it is very fast paced and demanding. I work very fast all day and noticed sometimes my heart is literally racing while I work and my hands are shaking. I thought I liked it though and I felt fine. I didn’t go home worrying about work and was fully able to switch off as soon as I left. I didn’t think I was stressed. But can doing everything in a rush for so long eventually lead to burnout and anxiety issues with no warning? Has anyone been through this?

Bumping.

You do sound as if you need a break - is there any chance of one, where you can switch off from work?

I’m sorry you are feeling unwell OP. Yes it absolutely can happen. The tipping point between ‘stimulated, feeling useful and effective to be successfully juggling so much’ and ‘oh my God it doesn’t matter how hard I try something is going to drop’ is very small. Also over time, high stimulated can absolutely turn into burnout.

it sounds like you are not quite at collapse. Stop now. Sometimes when you are in a job like the one you describe it can feel like it’s impossible to stop. But unless you are savings lives and there is nobody to cover you, you really can!!!!

I got into that state last year….. years running down my face. Stomach screwed up. I felt so guilty for even contemplating taking time off. But I finally did. And of course the world kept turning and I was able to recharge. Once I stopped moving at that pace, I realised how mad it had been. Draw some boundaries. Take sick leave. Or holiday if you have to- but this would be legitimately sick leave. if you don’t feel able to take a proper break then use interim tactics. What can you offload/ delegate? What random crap can you dump or shorten. Take ten second breaks when you close your eyes and breath in and out really deeply. Take some calls walking outside if you can. At the end of the day, listen to all the things you achieved, say bloody welll done to yourself and pat yourself on the back. Physically shake your body out several times a day. Get hugs if they are available. Pause to celebrate what you are grateful for. Remind yourself that you and your loved ones are fine. Find something that makes you laugh. Tell a friend your stresses.

good luck!

Not sure how useful it would be for you but I’m in a fast paced job and if I find the adrenaline starting to go, I get my knitting out and knit a few rows to get it back down

I had a good office job but was constantly anxious. I'm actually a fairly confident and outspoken person and part of the issue was struggling to manage bid teams diplomatically as I just wanted to get on with stuff (probs my ADHD which is the hyperactive variant more common in men).

Hated nonsense politics. I now work in the construction sector where I can just be blunt and say "stop fucking around and get on with it lol" or just say I think something is a stupid idea without a colleague getting the everlasting hump about it.

I often do longer days but a lot of that is sitting around. I regularly get in one of the trucks and have a snooze in the bunk if I know nothing is going to happen for a couple of hours. 🤣

@HotTiredDog thanks for replying. Luckily I’ve been able to start working from home which has taken a lot of pressure off as I was finding being in the office and the quite long commute there a trigger. Now I’m at home I’m able to take my time a lot more and disconnect from the chaos.

@financialcareerstuff thanjs for sharing. You’re right I’m not quite at full breakdown yet so it is a good time to act on it. I’m not working from home and am working at a much slower pace and on one particular project. I could just go on sick but I feel working slowly at home like I am now provides a bit of a distraction and I don’t like the thought of doing nothing all day. I worry I would slip into a depressed state. It really isn’t because I feel guilty on work or worried what will happen while I’m gone.
Can I ask, did you return to a fast pace after having that time off and recognising how crazy it was?

@cadburygorilla thank you for this. I think once I go back go ‘normal’ I need to have a plan for what to do when I feel the adrenaline rising. I have felt it happen so many times over the past year but just carried on rushing and didn’t stop. I know well how it feels so need to have something to bring it down and calm myself so it doesn’t build up like this again.

@GaIadriel I would say my current job is a lot like yours, it is engineering industry (but I’m office based) and male dominated so very blunt and straight to the point communication between colleagues and also from customers. It’s the sheer pace of it that I think has got to me, the truth is we are understaffed and there are a long line of people before me and still in our team who have taken long periods of time off with stress. I know I need to find a new job but I was convinced I was robust enough to be ‘different’ to those that tried before me.

Don't know how old you are but I recognise this and just to say it gets much harder when you hit 40 to not be mentally affected by cortisol. It blurs your brain and you can't think straight. So defo need strategies.

I'm 45 and desperate to either get out or for things to slow down.

@OrangeTatin funnily enough I turn 40 next year. Having said that I have gone through this exact process before when I was 19 and 27 but I really believed I had grown out of it now which was a silly thing to think looking back as no-one really grows out of anxiety.
You mention cortisol, is there any known way of reducing it or is it more a case of having tools to handle it when it does rise?

Both - going for a walk reduces cortisol. Tools to handle it when it does rise - I'm going to try doing mindfulness exercises at start and end of day. Also breathing exercises from Anxiety UK and No Panic website. Have saved these on my favourites. Preventing cortisol rising in the first place - thinking good sleep is key, lowering your standards, good boundaries with people, not people pleasing, prioritise your wellbeing, that sort of thing.

Yes weirdly 19 and 27 were key points for me anxiety wise - I reckon post trauma of teen years lol, parents divorce, and anxiety about making way in world, and 27 was my biological body clock speeding up.

Best thing that has helped me TBH has been EMDR therapy.

There's other somatic exercises, books on Amazon for these.

Also weight lifting! I always rate this for dealing with stress. Good luck.

I get where you're coming from. I also agree with posters that mention exercise as a way of stress relief. I go three times a week, doing about 1.5 hours rather than 4-5 quicker sessions like lots of people do. Can deadlift almost 170kg now!

The long hours and early starts do take their toll though. We're finishing off parts of HS2 last few weeks and have had some really early starts. 7-5 with nearly an hours drive back in the traffic already feels long. Especially, with the long gym sesh every other day, but I've been getting in 4am some days lately and still only leaving at 5pm as we need to pour the concrete at specific temperatures. Once we start it has to be completed, so if a pump breaks down its going to be a long day!

I do sometimes think back to my office days when I was leaving the gym 10 hours into my day rather than just starting the hours drive to the gym. And of course on a bad day it can easily be 12 hours before I'm even starting the drive to gym, but I'd never go back to office politics etc. I do long days but get paid well and spend a lot of time waiting around. I hate the 13 hour days but a normal 10 hour day with lots of time sitting on my phone or having a nap is better than eight hours of slogging IMO.

Can your employer make some adjustments for you ?
They have a duty of care for you .

I have worked in fast paced jobs before (teacher ) the work load out of classroom was also big on top of the fast paced time when fhe kids were there

My job now is not stimulating me at all and affects my mh too
But , I’d choose this over previous job until I can find middle ground

@OrangeTatin that’s interesting that you experienced bad phases at similar ages to me. Do you ever feel like when one of these panic phases starts it is something you just have to accept and let it run its course? Like a necessary process every several years? Don’t get me wrong, there are things that can be done to help recovery but sometimes I wonder if it just has to happen and will do what it wants anyway..
Thanjs for the tips about reducing cortisol. The unfortunate thing is that experiencing this level of anxiety likely raises cortisol anyway so I feel a bit trapped in a cycle.

@Jenkibubble they have been really good so far and allowed me to work from home full time and said if I start to struggle to book time off sick. It sounds silly but I worry them being understanding is going to make me worse though as I might just wallow in it and become scared to ever leave the house. I know that probably isn’t the right way to look at it, but I’m in a cycle of thinking the worst at the moment.