Anxiety disorder

(I swear, if I post any more about my nervousness on CC everyone is going to ship me off to a shrink, but I have to put this down somewhere! This really has nothing to do with weight loss, except that maybe it stresses me out, erego I binge.)

I just recently got a new job at a local drug store. It's not supposed to be difficult. You stock shelves, ring purchases through, etc. etc. It's not hard work, at all. However, for some reason, every time I even think about going in for my next shift, I get nervous/anxious to the point that I feel like crying. Sometimes I do cry.

No matter how much I try to rationalize and make my feelings less scary or powerful, I always seem to end up in a panic. I can more or less cope at work. But there are times when I feel ready to cry there too.

I'm only going in for my fourth shift, so I really can't say much but I want to try and deal with this before my insane schedual next week. (I work quite abit because I'm a new hire and could not book off anything over Christmas break. I don't think I'd have a very Merry Christmas stressing about all this stuff.)

This has happened to me once before. I had one job for two years. I quit it, and got hired at a movie theatre. I began to dread going in to work, and quit after one week. They usually schedualled me from 4-11:30 on weekdays, so after a full day of school, I chalked it up to exhaustion.

 I am lobbying for my mother to book me an appointment with a psychologist but might not be able to get into an appointment soon enough. Does anyone have similar expiriences/any advice to share? At all? I'd appreciate it so much.

♥Ri

New things are always scary... new people, new places, new responsibilities, not quite being certain whether you're doing things right etc etc. It's normal to be apprehensive about a new job. If you stick with it, it WILL get better... I'm so freaked about new situations that I'm sometimes surprised I'm not still agoraphobic (I was for a couple of years) but I didn't let my anxiety take over my life.

If you can figure out just what it is about your job that scares you so much it might help... for one thing, the known is never as bad as the unknown ('oh god, I'm so scared and I don't know why, I can't handle this, I'm just going to curl up in a little ball in the corner and hide')  vs. ('I'm nervous about dealing with customers, but I can do it despite my fear. ') 

No matter how scared you are about your job, YOU CAN HANDLE IT! If they didn't think you could manage the job, they never would have hired you sweety...  

It seems to be that you need to find some inner balance.  I do suffer from occassional anxiety attacks and it usually happens in times of stress.  The same as you describe, it 'blocks' my ability to function smoothly without any worries.  These negative feelings can become stronger when you start something new.
It is wise to talk to a psychologist - they help you to look at your emotional and behavioural patterns and (s)he can help you figure out what triggers your anxiety.  Maybe you should consider learning some breathing exercises and/or mediation -it proves to be very helpful when you feel the anxiety 'coming' -  Another thing is too look at your time management and see if you're not 'jamming' yourself too much. Anxiety usually comes along with being unable to set your priorities and often a few 'to do' things seem like a messy mountain of stuff falling on our heads.  Binging is part of it - and it could be related to unstructured patterns of eating... so my '2 cents' for you is to look after your innerself and your emotional well-being and the rest will follow.
Good luck with coping and be careful with 'burning-out' - fatigue can be an alarm sign that it might happen.
Don't overwhelm yourself with information - it's easy to go on the web and try to diagnose yourself with symptoms that relate to anxiety -  You are unique and therefore, special and you should take care of that!  Personalised professional help is, in my experience, the best option.

Hey Ribear,

I can relate to what you are saying as my anxiety has caused me very serious problems over the past 10 years. I am in therapy now after years of trying different things, getting better, getting worse etc.

I think you should talk to a professional so they can figure out what's going on with you. You may have a real psychiatric disorder or you may just have some stuff in your life that needs adjustment.

I have struggled with serious work-place related anxiety, especially jobs where I have to interact with customers/ clients. I have even blacked out twice at different jobs (falling to the floor and everything). I don't have a job right now which is not really where I want to be. So I know how you may be feeling. 

Try to talk to a counselor and feel free to message me, I have a full blown anxiety condition, so I have years of experiences.  

I used to suffer horribly from panic attacks for 13 years.  Xanax was my drug of choice, but came to realize that the medication was just masking what was really going on.  I went to a hypnotherapist, who helped me greatly.  The bottom line was/is that "my brain is giving me the wrong information, and that the correct information is all is well".  This mantra and some deep relaxing breaths really help.  It gets me off the hook if that makes sense. 

I started to get anxiety attacks a few years ago when I moved overseas my myself and things weren't working out with my job and accommodation at first. I was standing in the street after something had gone wrong and felt like my chest was being squeezed, I couldn't get any air.

A few weeks later I started to take yoga classes and learned to become more aware of my breathing and how to use my breath to relax myself- I have never had another attack, even when life gets stressful :-)

Therapy could help you with this.  There is a technique called EMDR that is effective for this kind of problem.  You could learn to deal with this before it gets any worse.  Good Luck!

I know what you mean. I've been a travel agent for 18+ months and the first 2-3 weeks I was in a panic and sick every morning. I still have those shaky days, not near as many, but they are there. It helps that my boss brings his dog to work, she is a life saver, and it helps that I adore most of the people here. Sometimes I do the breathing thing and it helps. Good luck.

Cognitive therapy is really good for this type of anxiety.

Change brings upon stress. No matter how you look at it. A few years ago I went back to school. I am intelligent, no fear, or so I thought. About a week in I started having heart palpatations, I had sharp pains in my chest. I thought I was having a heart attack. I stayed up all night worrying about what was wrong with me. In the end, I found out that I was having anxiety attacks. There was no explaination for them, the only thing new in my life was school. So, in the end, I believe that I was anxious about school, and nervous about the anxiety. There were times when I was close to fainting.

I advise a professional, but I also advise meditation. It always works for me. If you don't know how, just google meditation and there are simple ways to get started. You just have to find the place in you, and in your life that is quiet and still, and push all of the noise and chaos and doubt out of the picture...Try it, and let me know if it works for you.

I want to thank you all for your suggestions. It's reassuring to know I'm not the only one who is going through/has gone through this kind of thing.

I went to work on Tuesday, and cried on the way there. When I got there, I forced myself into a calm state. However, as the night wore on, I grew more and more apprehensive. Near the end of my shift I actually started to sob because I thought I was missing lotto tickets and my supervisor was going to get mad at me.

(This was a different supervisor than the one I had dealt with all the other times. In my opinion she was much nicer. But I'm getting to that.) She gave me a hug and I told her I was stressed about work. She said it wasn't worth stressing over. (Again, I know this kind of thing, but I seriously don't know how to help it.)

I believe that because I have had semi-negative expiriences in the cash office (I have been short money twice and the one supervisor was not mean, but not nice about it) much of my fear is actually going in there because of making mistakes while I'm there.

I hopefully have an appointment on Friday. <3

Thanks again for all the understanding.

Hi Ribear,

The first thing is don't be ashamed of your anxiety. I have had it on and off since the second grade believe it or not! I'm 31 now :)  I started so young not wanting to leave the house and the same situation as yours but it was not wanting to go to school. It was awful but I got through it with help of a psychologist. Therapy is nothing to be ashamed of and will help you sooo much. Since we are women, our hormones are constantly changing and this may cycle in and out from a couple of years having it to a few years not having it and vice versa. And the world we live in today? Having anxiety is pretty much normal, there's more people that have it than don't :) And making mistakes is just the way we learn. Everybody makes mistakes, no one is perfect! Try to enjoy your new job and take deep breaths and think happy thoughts! Think about your paycheck! I hope you have a  Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!