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Author Topic: Can my job cause me anxiety?
Martin
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Posts: 21
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Post Can my job cause me anxiety?
on: April 8, 2015, 10:42
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Hi everyone!

I wanted to post this question here to hear your opinion about this or if anyone has also experienced this.

Basically, whenever I'm at work, I'm anxious. I work in a call centre as a customer support agent. It's not the nicest of jobs but the pay is really good and I'm relying on this job for a lot of things. However, I noticed that for some reason, I'm a lot more anxious at work than at home or anywhere else. Whenever I'm off work, during the weekends or on a vacation, I feel a lot better.

I'm trying to figure out what could cause me to feel worse at work. I know that trying to find the exact cause of any anxiety symptom can be a waste of time and energy but I'm still curious as to why this is happening. I came up with a list of possible reasons and I would like to hear what people think about this:

1. It's not the most stressful of jobs but I still get quite annoyed a lot at work, especially cause I have a short fuse. I'm not loving this job but I also can't say that I hate it.

2. Since I'm on chat support, my job is a bit passive, which I guess gives me a lot of time to think and worry about things outside of work.

3. Fluorescent lighting? I read that computer and phone screens as well as office and store lighting can cause anxiety, depression and just bad moods in general. If that is so, what could I do about it? As I said, I kind of rely on this job heavily and quitting is not an option for me. I'd like to do something different but for now the circumstances keep me here.

At this point I'd like to mention that I do worry and spend time in front of computer screes outside of work too, however I have less anxiety than I do at work.

I've been doing a lot better since my last post in this forum late last year. I'm handling my derealisation a lot better, to the point where I almost ignore it and brush it off and I'm more confident about getting better. Some days are better, others are worse, but overall I'm doing quite well. That is why I'm trying to find out if there is anything else standing in my way of recovery and what I can do to change my workplace anxiety.

I'd love to hear other people's take on this and am looking forward to your replies.

Cheers,
Martin
Paul-
Dooley
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Posts: 100
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Post Re: Can my job cause me anxiety?
on: April 8, 2015, 15:14
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Hi Martin,

Glad to hear that things have improved for you. In my view, a job usually isn't the direct trigger of anxiety (not impossible) but it can make things more difficult. For example, I used to work as a claims adjuster in a pretty fast paced environment. I hated the job and often felt stressed, but in my case I was already an anxious person. The job increased my stress levels and therefore my anxiety but, had I been less anxious to begin with, I don't think I would have been as affected as I was. In your case, sounds like your job isn't too bad in terms of stress, so perhaps it is the underlying anxiety causing the problem. I also doubt that the lights have a huge role to play. Here's something helpful to do when digging for anxiety causation - timeline!

Take a piece of paper and draw a line all the way across it. On the far left write a zero or "born." Then place a dash mark at every important interval in your life. For example, hash mark, age 5, grandma died, and so forth. Eventually the emergence of anxiety will come up as well. Look at all those events on the paper and circle the top 2 or 3. This is especially helpful if you had a triggering panic attack. Then after identifying the big events write out the surrounding issues - who, what, when, where, how kind of stuff. Doing this gave tremendous insight into my own history and the things that lead to high anxiety. Like you pointed out, identifying alone won't solve the issue, but I also don't think that it is a waste of time.

Hope that makes sense!
William
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Posts: 19
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Post Re: Can my job cause me anxiety?
on: April 10, 2015, 02:53
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Like Paul said, I'm not sure that the fluorescent lighting is causing your problem but you could try using a Happy Light or Full Spectrum light. You could set it up at your desk near your computer. I have used one on occasion. It does seem to help a little bit. I purchased one online for about $90. Just a thought. (However, these lights may be more for depression than anxiety, not really sure on that one.)
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