It’s Monday morning. Your alarm goes off, and suddenly, you feel your stomach in your throat. You may be worried about your important presentation in a few hours. Or maybe you had a fantastic weekend and are dreading another work week. If either of these sounds like you, you may be experiencing workplace anxiety.

Understanding Workplace Anxiety

Work can be a source of anxiety for many.  For the past 3 years, nearly 9 out of 10 employees have reported that stress from their position has been negatively interfering with their mental health (Adams et al., 2021). Workplace anxiety is characterized by increased negative feelings such as worry, stress, or uneasiness caused by going to or thinking about your job. Many of the symptoms of workplace anxiety overlap with other anxiety disorders but the difference comes from the source of where the anxiety stems. Symptoms caused by an anxiety condition are persistent and occur in all areas of your life. Workplace anxiety revolves around all things work. It is expected to experience some work-related stress, but it should not affect your overall health.

It’s important to know the symptoms and causes of workplace anxiety to identify within yourself. Here are some common causes and symptoms of workplace anxiety:

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How to Cope with Workplace Anxiety

Even though workplace anxiety may feel overwhelming, it is manageable. Here are a few tips to help:

Set ideal deadlines

Setting achievable deadlines will allow you to work at a manageable pace and ultimately lead to finishing the job ahead of time.

Identify the triggers and set up solutions

Identify the stressful events and create a plan on how to address them in a better way in the future.

Give yourself grace

Treat yourself like you’d treat your family and friends when they are going through a difficult situation.

Take breaks when needed

If you begin to feel burnout, go ahead and modify the task and give yourself short breaks when to resume the job in a clearer headspace

Create a life outside of work

You know that hike you’ve wanted to do for a while? Or that person you’ve been wanting to ask on a date? Do it! Engaging in activities outside of work can bring you lots of happiness!

As mentioned previously, it is common to feel anxiety from work, and there are many causes for it. Incorporating these tips into your daily life can go a long way.

When to seek help

If you’ve done all of the work to assist with managing anxiety at work, but nothing has changed this could lead you feeling defeated. Then, it may be time to seek professional help from our specially-trained therapists here at Pacific CBT, who are here to help. Contact us today to schedule a free 15-minute video consultation.

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References

Adams, T., Reinert, M., Fritze, D., & Nguyen, T. (2021). Mind the workplace. https://mhanational.org/sites/default/files/Mind%20the%20Workplace%20-%20MHA%20Workplace%20Health%20Survey%202021%202.12.21.pdf

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