How do you deal with anxiety while working?

Tapsi
34 replies

Replies

Asraful Islam
Although anxiety disorders are not physical maladies, they can affect your ability to perform physical work. Those who have panic attacks, shaking, or other common effects of anxiety disorders may find it difficult to perform tasks which require fine motor skills.
Keren Brickman
Hey @tapsi, as someone who's dealt with general anxiety my entire life, I think this is a really interesting question. I've found a few solutions that work for me, but I think this is also an ongoing conflict that sort of shifts through different periods of career growth. I try to become aware of what triggers me, understand if it's actually beneficial to be worrying about, and then ask myself I'll remember this 5 years from now. A lot of times I just need to communicate what's making me anxious to my manager or a coworker, and just the act of speaking about it makes it feel smaller and more manageable. I also take one of my lunch hours each week to go to therapy. I'd love to know what you've found to be helpful :)
Tapsi
@keren_brickman Thank you for sharing your experience! Even I have a similar approach towards dealing with anxiety. I try to find an outlet for it. And, talking or walking really helps.
Dimitris Karavias
Body: Exercise in the morning, walks during the day, no sugar, lots of protein & fat. Mind: Dealing with the source of anxiety asap. It is usually caused by an ongoing issue that hangs above you like a dark cloud. You might be afraid to face it but it's the fear that makes you anxious. Anxiety is basically the brain running scenarios non-stop about what could happen in a situation you haven't dealt with. Once you face it, no matter the result, you will feel relieved.
Stas Voronov
Actually meditation + pomodoro technique work well for me. Just try HeadSpace or something like that. My approach: 1. Meditate about 10-15 minutes after waking up and every time you feel stressed 2. Work 50 minutes and have 10 minutes break. Completely change activity in break. It's some basic pomodoro technique 3. Work 8-9 hours per day maximum, after that close laptop and change you activity
Kira Leigh
I make art, meditate, and exercise to music. :) Freelancing gives me a lot of flexibility. We all have to get that energy out, any way we can. If you can funnel it into creativity, you can make the most amazing things. Take even just 10 minutes to meditate. Maybe write a small poem. <3
Chandan Das
6 Stress-Relieving Tricks to Reduce Anxiety at Work Go easy on the caffeine. There's just something about starting the morning with a habitual cup of coffee, hot steam rising from the top. Don't overthink your stressors. Try accepting the anxiety. Fake it till you make it. Take a breather. Get moving
Roy
A cup of hot chocolate works for me! :p
Bilal Chaglani
Leave work and go for a 5km run without my phone!
Vikram Sahu ꩜
I have came here for answers so i think i won't be able to comment anything. But thank you all for your lovely response.. it is not only helping other but creating a different sort of plan for different people to kill anxiety out here...
Stephen Collins
When I fell stressed out or feeling anxiety I usually stop my work and spent my time in my garden doing lil bit planting take care of plants flowers, cutting the extra edges grass etc. My mind become relax and fresh because nature is the best meditation. What do you do guys?
Eesha Atwell
Hey:) listening to chill music while working really calms me down or taking a walk during my break. Switching my break routines also does the trick.
Hadi
Hey @tapsi ! I want to start with a few definitions: A stressor is anything in the outside world that knocks you out of homeostatic balance. For most animals, that's caused by a short term physical crisis: being chased by a predator, starvation, dehydration, etc. But for us humans, that can also be caused by simply thinking we're about to be knocked out of homeostatic balance. If we're right, that's an appropriate anticipatory stress response. If we're not, and we do that again and again, we're being anxious/neurotic/paranoid/etc. tldr: anxiety is a state of continuously anticipating stressors. In response to stressors, we (and other animals) turn on a stress response that aims to reestablish homeostatic balance. We turn on the exact same response as other animals trying to get out of physically threatening situations, but we can do it for purely psychological and psychosocial reasons. That's not what the stress response evolved for, and when it's chronically activated, it's awfully damaging. I started with the above to make it clear that anxiety involves both the mind and the body. So to address it, we can use both. I would suggest starting with the breath. For most people, it's hard to calm the mind with the mind, but mechanisms that involve the body tend to be very effective. Among many other things, the stress response increases heart rate, blood pressure and breathing rate (in order to deliver energy to musculature--energy that it has just mobilized from fat cells and the liver using adrenaline and other hormones). Breathing practices that involve longer exhales can help turn off the stress response. This works as a sort of feedback mechanism to tell the brain you are safe. To practice: take a deep breath in through your nose, feeling your belly expand as well as your lungs. Inhale until you feel your ribs expand to your sides and back. Then exhale slowly through your nose. Your exhale should take longer than your inhale. You can cover one nostril while you exhale to make it last longer if you like. Repeat this for five to ten minutes, or as long as it takes for your heart rate to slow down, or as long as you like! In addition to being calming, this is also a great practice for training yourself to breathe properly--through the nose, slow, and deep. At first it may be uncomfortable to inhale very deeply because the muscles between your ribs (intercostal muscles) may not be used to it, but they'll catch up quickly. I hope this is helpful. I have a lot more to say about stress and anxiety, and there are many ways of tackling them. But I think the breath is extremely important because it doesn't rely on your external environment, and is a tool you always have on hand.
Alejandra Rojas
Breathing excercises! inhale in 4 times and exhale in 4, repeat until you feel better.
Terence Lesha
Hey, I like to take a break and breath in and out and do some stretches. You can also try therapy if that doesn't help.
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John McD
Make a timetable. I am working in a tech company and we would use some remote work software (AweSun Remote Desktop,Zoom etc.) to help improve efficiency. When I think it's the time I would simply shut down the laptop and enjoy my life:)
Braelynn Annalise
I usually spend my time in my garden when I feel stressed or anxious. I take care of plants, flowers, mowing the extra edges, and do a little bit of planting. I find that nature helps me feel relaxed and refreshed. What do you guys do?