Do you struggle with anxiety from work?

In our lives we're often shown examples of people who've made big jumps in changing their lives, but smaller steps are possible too. For example, you don't necessarily have to quit your job to fix this. You can look into switching teams or roles within the company. You can even have a talk with your manager and gradually move out of some responsibilities. Perhaps you'd have to be okay with change in career trajectory in the company, if you do such a talk. The point is, the action you take doesn't have to be drastic. Small steps can help over time.

I started by looking at the root cause for why work was stressing me out, rather than focusing on trying to remediate the symptoms like lower sleep quality and nausea. In my case, I found that my work was successful but didn't encourage the creative thinking that energizes me... My Sunday scaries and bouts of anxiety largely stemmed from the fact that I chose a job where performing a huge number of tasks very quickly was an important part of success. I know you say you don't feel talking to others will help, and that may be the case, but I found weekly therapy talking through this root cause to be super illuminating for what steps to take. Take that with a grain of salt because I'm an extrovert and process well out loud.

The solution, as frankly non-scientific and silly as it might sound, was to listen to my gut by doing things that allowed me to sense what energized me. I was really focused on what I was good at, rather than what I liked doing. So I started [1] cancelling and then not making as many social plans, [2] using Insight Timer for a 3m meditation in the morning and night, and [3] scheduling 6 hour blocks on Saturdays where I couldn't plan anything or do chores to self-soothe. I also [4] deleted social media apps from my phone to avoid anxious scrolling. I found that these tactics exposed me to more boredom and immediate anxiety symptoms, but eventually cleared enough headspace for me to imagine what would feel good to do. Surprise, surprise, the answer wasn't more work.

Partially as a result of these steps, I pulled a dramatic switch and quit to start a company, and have had an about-face in my anxiety levels. But quitting was only a solution because the actual type of work I was doing wasn't energizing, and the relevant thing to do was to quiet down for a few months and listen to myself.

In the meantime, sending you so much support. Anxiety is so tough, but it will get better as you process what comes next.

An important thing to face is that anxiety, severe anxiety especially, has a tendency to spiral. You feel stressed and your thoughts get dark ("I'm not good enough." "They all know I'm a fraud."). These thoughts increase your stress and the rate of such thoughts. You also tend to find yourself procrastinating or otherwise underperforming compared to your previous levels which again increases the stress and thoughts and leads to further, potential, drops in performance.

You have to break the cycle. Knowing that you're experiencing anxiety is incredibly important to accomplishing that. The next step is to seek help or, and this can be very hard to do, break that cycle yourself. You're already taking a break from work. Seek out a therapist or counselor, and just vent. Discuss what you're feeling. A good one will not prescribe anything unless it's actually needed (none of mine have ever even brought it up, as we found CBT and other approaches worked for me).

Also consider discussing with your boss ways to lighten your workload. I have had bosses do that for me in the past. Usually a month or so with fewer things on my plate, an ability to focus on the high priority things, was enough to reset myself. A lot of anxiety from work (for me) is caused by having too much to do, and feeling like nothing is getting done (too much multitasking, what should be 1 week tasks take 1-2 months because I'm not able to dedicate a solid week to them, things of that sort).

I find myself thinking about finding lower paying jobs with less responsibility often, but at the same time I feel exactly like you mentioned - I just need to get control over my thoughts and realize it’s just a job.

Anxiety is an odd beast.

If it were me, I would, for the time being, chalk this up to the pandemic and look for ways to safely get my social needs better met.

I would not quit or do anything drastic. I would go into crisis management mode, which means take care of essential physical stuff, distract myself with games and videos when I'm too overwhelmed and assume things will improve when the pandemic is over.

also... another reason i've experienced that caused anxiety is financial uncertainty. if you're making "several hundred thousand a year", how much are you investing, not saving? do you have a bunch of stocks and property? or is everything spent the second you get it? putting together a financial future for yourself through investments with diminish the anxiety entirely.

I recommend against changing careers - you have gotten into it for a reason that mattered to you, don't get out until you can articulate a good reason for changing it. And it pays the bills rather well. Shifting jobs to lower responsibility will probably give you immediate relief and is worth considering, but it might just get you worried less about your work and more about yourself/covid/politics/etc. Reducing responsibility only works well as a method of making room for better things.

The best thing you can do right now is regular exercise. I know, I used to roll my eyes and quietly hate on people who suggested that because as god is my witness I have tried. The trick is twofold - it must be the right kind (strength building does not work), and something that you will enjoy. Personally I find mountain biking to be an euphoric miracle - a difficult trail profile provides the HIIT aspect and the change in terrain and scenery keeps attention firmly planted outside my head (on pain of bruises and scraped knees). Consider dancing/martial arts (well, not with covid I suppose?), rock climbing, mountain biking, windsurfing, yoga, running(eh...). Rumors have it that any sort of HIIT works miracles. For some people the social aspect of sports matters a lot - e.g. running with a mate is a good motivator and for you a social experience you seem to be missing.

Last but not least you will need to see two specialist - a psychiatrist and a therapist. If you have any serious psychosomatic effects (e.g. a serious sleep disruption, panic attacks, etc) the psychiatrist can put you on the level keel for a few weeks - just enough to get started with the therapy. Ask trusted friends for a referral and failing that just go by geographical proximity.

Echoing what others have said, I have found exercise helpful at times to quiet feelings of anxiety and stress, but I do still feel things lingering at the back of my mind at the beat of times.

I was in worse situation than you, when I wanted to quit I was threatened that I will be sued. I would have panic attacks at night, like constant flow of thoughts that would just continue no matter what I tried. Some nights I had weird feeling in my chest, like heart wanted to jump out (or stop).

To leave such toxic environment was healing experience. From the perspective of time I think I should have just left when I felt it's the right time and let them sue me..

Well, I hope you will find the right solution to your situation.

Your career choice may lend itself to anxiety, but know that the anxiety comes from the self and not the career.

Invest in your own health. Someone here said weight lifting isn’t as effective as other forms of exercise but I disagree.

You get runner’s high from cardio but what is critical is that you spend time doing a physical activity where you focus on your body doing the work.

If you’re lifting, focus on the muscles being used and your breathe. If you’re running, focus on the motion of your legs and your breathe. You get the idea.

Exercise helps me a lot, especially with our current situation. I don't see anything wrong with sharing it with your husband as long as you're rational about it.

Regarding work, do you still think about work when you go home? Are you able to drop those thoughts once you head home? I just write notes down first if I still have my thoughts in my head that I don't want to lose. More social interactions might help too but you'll likely have to be more proactive about it than other people to get it going.

Second, if he is at all supportive, talk to your husband. Of all people, he is the one who should most be on your side. If he doesn't know what fight you're fighting (even internally), how can he help you fight it?

Generally by the time the anxiety or stress gets bad enough I make moves to switch jobs. It’s also likely you’re overworking and people won’t really notice or care if you take it easy for a month or two.

If you’re a manager or TL you can also look into delegating work. Even as an IC you can perhaps ask your manager to take something or for them to re-assign it.

there are only a few fucks we can give in this world, make them count.

for me its family, health, and then bills in that order.

if i feel im being stressed out at work or side projects, i remind myself its just work i can replace it if they fire me.

So you are not alone.

You are on the right track with how to cope - identify the problems and take some vacation time. The next step would be to discuss the problems with your boss - tell them what you need, and what you want. Tell them you aren't OK where things stand right now. Draw some boundaries about what is or is not OK in your work environment.

Also take some time to think about what areas of your work are truly your responsibility. Do people count on you because it is your job description to be the linchpin holding your team together? Or do they count on you because they know you can be counted on, without that actually being your role? I typically hear from people in the latter case - and when you bring it up with your boss, tell them that something needs to change - if you are the key person, your job title and compensation need to match that responsibility. You also need the autonomy to control everything you will be held accountable for. If they do not grant you those things, then you should step back and tell people to count on someone else, because they aren't giving you the tools you need to fulfill that role. Push the pressure you feel uphill to your boss, who is truly accountable for your team.

Those conversations can be tough. But in a situation like your where you don't hate the job, you just hate how it makes you feel, your employer wants the same thing you do (usually) - to make it a place where you want to work. Help them get you to that place by talking to them. Odds are, you'll work something out. If not, it is time to look for new work, but cross that bridge only if and when you come to it... for starters, just get the conversations going. After all, you have nothing to lose - if you don't fix this, you'll quit at some point anyway when the mental strain grows too much. So give them a chance to help you fix your job.

Just quit when you can't take it anymore. You might need to move to a lower cost of living area or adjust your lifestyle, but you are in the 1% and would be fine.

The politics of my remote teams Have driven me to depression and constant fear.

What has genuinely helped me is to change my diet. I switched to a diet of nothing but meat and vegetables and began supplementing vitamin D.

I have noticed that my mood and emotional responses are significantly better when I fix my health. Like it or not, my crappy diet was causing me all kinds of problems and making my anxiety worse.

Another thing: I have a team member who literally sees everything positively. Whenever something happens, he automatically defaults to “this is a good thing because...” and tells a story to himself about why this is a positive thing.

I started trying to think that way.

When you have anxiety every miscommunication or misunderstanding gets rounded to a negative reaction. When your diet and health are bad, you have a much higher chance of being in an exhausted or poor mood and taking things the wrong way.

And yes - I understand some people suffer from more mental conditions. But even if you do have a mental condition of some sort, fixing your nutrition helps regardless.

I was recently mobilized in the Army reserves to a deployment in Kuwait where I am a junior director in charge of help desk operations for a large military command. I am a late arrival to the unit. When I got here morale was low, productivity was low, things were falling through the cracks. Now things are really turning around. I am working 70-80 hours per week and it’s great. I building new software products that auto prioritize the work. The team sees the progress they are making in terms of numbers from day to day. Productivity is up and working harder with necessary direction has caused morale to jump up.

The military thing is less pay for longer hours but it’s so much more fulfilling to know we can set our own short term goals and crush them. I get to use my software skills to produce products that influence my leadership style and advertise team success in raw numbers. There is nobody complaining about how hard life is to slow me down. Since I am allowed to produce products at my own speed and since software product creation is generally foreign to the military my team is able to influence and empower its own success in a way others cannot and seeing that success in real time has been awesome.

Deployments are temporary though and I know I have to go back to dicking around with slow application code and large incompetent frameworks in the corporate world. About the last month of a deployment gets super depressing.

How? Are you CTO somewhere? Several hundred thousand seems like a really, really high pay. I assume USD?

I got fired from the first 3 jobs because my PTSD got the better of me. Whenever I feel the slightest bit insecure at work, my anxiety instantly goes through the roof. I've been seeing a therapist for the past 6 or 7 years who's helped me immensely, but this whole forced WFH and inability to do anything outside of home is causing my anxiety to skyrocket. I recently had to take almost a month off to deal with it.

In spite of all that, I think I'm in the best place I've ever been with the PTSD and anxiety. Until I got my third tech job, I hadn't been able to put a meaningful amount of money away. At that third job was when I finally started feeling somewhat financially secure, because I'd put together a 6 month emergency fund.

After I got fired from that job, a 5 month job search ensued. By cutting expenses and applying for unemployment benefits, I had managed to only burn through 2/3 of that money, but, boy, was I just constantly triggered for about the last 3.5 months of the search.

My triggers are mostly based on financial security. When I feel like work isn't going well, I still see myself getting fired and ending up homeless, even though in the past year, I've managed to put away over a years' worth of expenses in savings and investment accounts that I can tap if I need to. Add on the stress of COVID and a general feeling of unproductivity at home, and, well, let's just say I'm feeling the strain, even after that entire month off work.

If we weren't going through both a plague and Great Depression II at the same time, and I could go into an office to work with my team, I'd probably be doing fine, just like I was before everything hit. Besides taking time off, I've been making sure to see my therapist regularly, seen a psychiatrist, and started taking CBD, magnesium, and GABA supplements, in addition to the vitamin D I take regularly.

All that, plus the support of my girlfriend, who's also lucky enough to still have her job working from home is pretty much what's keeping me together right now.

Other than COVID and WFH, there's also the fact that I'm a 45 year old software engineer. Let's just say I'm not looking forward to my next couple of job searches.

Yes - I don't know how I cope, but I have for decades. I've been feeling anxiety ridden since my 20s.

I'm not going to give you advice. I'm just going to be honest about how I feel right now. Honestly, I'm tired of people's advice. I really don't want to bother reading half of these comments. I'm sure a lot of the advice is solid.

I'm just not in the mood for it. Also, I feel like I can give you something better than advice. I can give you an honest glance at how I feel.

I feel tired and empty.

I'm in my 40's. I don't earn several hundred thousand a year, but I have a lot of responsibility. If I got hit by a bus, I could see my company spending 3-5 years of my salary to replace work I've done. I don't use that to get a raise. I leverage it too keep my job.

My anxiety is high. My random panic is very old hat these days, but I still feel it. Sometimes I deal with it better, sometimes I don't.

I've thought about suicide daily for years but it hasn't been an active thought lately. I really don't care about your thoughts about suicide and I'm not interested in talking to a therapist. I don't see much purpose in the world and I realize I've pretty much conditioned myself to work all the time. I feel like a shell of a person. I'm running on an anxiety driven autopilot.

I'm tired.

I don't talk about with my wife, not because I'm ashamed, but because she wants to leave this earth too. She's ready to go, but in reality, she isn't. Neither am I.

We don't because we don't want to devastate our family. It's not reflexive, we deeply care about them and don't want to scar them with us killing ourselves. We don't have kids, but our parents are still alive. I have siblings and they have children. Also, my siblings' health isn't great so I often wonder if I'm ever going to have to step in and help raise them at some point in the future. I don't want to abandon them.

But my wife and I talk about our "retirement plan" on occasion. We talk about it the same way other people talk about going to Paris, but the truth is we have no idea if it's actually going to happen.

I've been working from wake to sleep for years. I lose vacation time. I've been burned out for so many years it's not even worthy of small talk anymore. It's just the same thing. I haven't taken a real vacation in over a decade.

I'm the only one who works. If I lose my job, it will hurt. I haven't lost a job in 20 years. We don't own a home because I never felt like I could afford it, because we've lived in placed with high costs of living. I work really hard to keep my job because I'm afraid to go out and interview.

I try to be calm and collected and I'm surprised at how many people actually buy it. I try to act emotionally intelligent, but I'm not. Some believe it, others see through it. I really like half of my coworkers and despise about 10%.

I'm tired. I'm working late, but this is normal.

I'm not posting this for you. I'm posting it for everyone else who's absolutely burned out for too long and who doesn't feel like they have the luxury of quitting their job.

I don't even feel like I have it bad, but I wonder on a daily basis if this is my last good day. When does it all start going down hill? At what point will my wife and I execute on our retirement plan? Will we go to Paris first?

Don't be a fucking idiot. Your job isn't everything and it can consume you if you're a fucking idiot.