Learn How To Manage Social Anxiety In Professional Settings
When it comes to your job, how easy is it for you to “get through” the workday? Have you ever gone in late, left early, or called off because you just couldn’t be there?
Perhaps when you’re there “on the clock,” you can overthink what you’re going to say or do, who’s involved, or how you’ll get things done. Why do these work concerns happen? What is it about these intense minutes on the job that challenge many people with anxiety?
Let me mention this first…
If you ever feel nervous about your job, you probably already want help with your anxiety symptoms. Fortunately, if you’re ready to take action about what’s happening, then an anxiety therapist can help you.
Long-term, you may want to consider preparation… and prevention. You can figure out both long-term strategies in anxiety therapy.
Here are a few mindsets you might have at the root of anxiety about work…
If you’re someone who can struggle with anxiety when it comes to work, here are a few ways you might be thinking about the situation that aren’t helping you move forward…
1. You might think you’ve got no other job options.
You might show up to work thinking there’s just this one job you can do. Or maybe you feel like you wouldn’t be able to successfully replace this job. If so, it’s no wonder you might get very nervous, and find yourself having high anxiety symptoms.
If someone thinks they’ve only got one option, then it makes the only one they’ve got seem very precious. That person might think things like if they make a mistake, it’s all over. And then that person might feel things like shortness of breath anxiety.
2. Maybe you overvalue this job.
You might think your job is in a class of its own and no other job compares. If so, then it makes sense why you might place a lot of value on it. But if you’re also having challenges working there, then you might consider whether or not you’re putting too much pressure on things to measure up.
3. You might think you need to impress people at your job.
This gets at a deeper issue. Many people are unaware of how much they want to impress other people. But have you ever thought about how it really affects someone when they’re trying hard to impress others?
If a person obsesses over impressing others, hoping to get over social anxiety symptoms that way… they might end up doing what gets them the opposite result. Thankfully, therapy gives you the safe space and support needed to truly understand what’s going on underneath your anxiety about work.
4. Perhaps you’re attached to high expectations.
Maybe you’ve built up huge expectations in your mind about something, and you got attached to them. Or it could be you found yourself gripping real tight to what you’d now like help learning how to let go.
In the middle of all this, someone experiencing anxiety may also be enduring additional problems in life. Anxiety treatment offers you healing and comfort during the cycle of worry and any experience that calls for support.
In the meantime, what are some things you can try if you feel anxiety about work? I’ll answer by responding to each one of the items we talked about above:
1. Take comfort from other job options.
Maybe you can’t make any big changes right now and you might feel like this job is all you’ve got even if it can be disappointing. One thing you could try is to look up at least one other job you could do. Ideally, more if you can.
That way, when you’re experiencing your work challenges, you might have an extra boost of confidence because you’ll know maybe there’s another job. This kind of reassurance might be soothing just when you need it, so maybe you can come up with more ways of “finding other options.” You’re reminding yourself how strong you are.
2. Understand this job is probably not permanent.
Most people work at jobs that aren’t where they work permanently for all time. So it’s likely you’ll be moving on to another job at some point anyway… which hopefully takes some pressure off however this job’s going right now.
Maybe it’ll comfort you to know it’s rare that someone’s working a job that’s their permanent position… so perhaps this current job situation doesn’t need to look or feel so permanent. And what ends up lasting instead could be your recovery from anxiety!
3. Instead of the help you can get, see what help you can give.
If someone has anxiety about how work issues impact them and cause them anxiety… they can try helping someone else. Maybe if you ever feel anxious, you could give something to someone else right there in that moment, too. I’ve found helping someone else is a great way to get rid of any anxiety I start feeling. And you might find that if you focus on giving, you’ll start to calm down.
4. Discovering your intention can be healing.
Maybe you’ve had certain work experiences and now you’re wondering what you want to do. Perhaps you need to make an honest assessment of your reasons for being there. You may need to get clear on your intention now. You can use the help of an anxiety therapist to make sure your professional experience gets your needs met without the undue pressure of high expectations.
I find when you get very clear about your intention and act from there, you’ll be able to adjust your expectations as you move forward. You’ll also be able to keep moving forward in spite of any setbacks you might encounter. Or, hey, it could be you want to totally change your intention, so maybe you’ve got an exciting new time of growth in front of you.
Whatever it may be, I can make all sorts of suggestions about how you might adapt to circumstances going forward, but that’s really all I can do on this end without working on this with you in anxiety therapy. If you’d like to get a better handle on how to manage your anxiety, I invite you to contact me for a free 15-minute consultation.
Find out more about Anxiety Treatment.
About The Author
John Younes, JD, MA, LPCC, NCC is a trained counselor who owns a private practice in Denver, CO. In general, he specializes in depression treatment and anxiety treatment using existential and cognitive therapy practices.
Final word: if you’re thinking about suicide and are in immediate danger, please call your local emergency number… so for Denver, Colorado, call 1-844-493-8255 or text TALK to 38255. You can also call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255.