Experiencing anxiety about work is a common challenge that can manifest in various ways, from a persistent sense of unease to intense fear or panic. While some level of anxiety can be a natural response that aids survival and helps us prepare for potential difficulties, when it becomes excessive or interferes with daily functioning, it poses a significant problem. Understanding how to help yourself manage this work-related anxiety and knowing when and where to seek professional support are crucial steps towards regaining control and living a more fulfilling life.
Understanding and Managing Anxiety About Work
Much of the difficulty with anxiety about work stems from how we interpret situations and our own reactions to them. Often, this type of anxiety is driven by an excessive focus on potential negative future events and attempts to control things that are outside of our direct influence.
Several self-help approaches can be highly effective in managing workplace anxiety:
- Developing Awareness and Identifying Triggers: Recognising what triggers your work anxiety is a vital first step. These triggers aren’t always logical and can include specific situations (like presentations or meetings), interactions with certain people (like your boss), internal sensations (like a pounding heart), or even just certain thoughts or images. Keeping a record of situations that cause you work anxiety, noting the level of anxiety, frequency, and specific triggers involved, can help you identify patterns. This awareness allows you to know what you need to focus on changing.
- Acceptance: A core principle in managing anxiety about work is learning to accept, rather than fight, the presence of anxious thoughts, feelings, and physical sensations. Trying to control or eliminate these experiences often makes them worse in the long run. Acceptance means making space for your uncomfortable experiences without judgment, recognising they are a part of being human. This can free up energy and time that would otherwise be spent battling your internal experiences, allowing you to focus on activities that matter to you, including your work.
- Mindfulness: Mindfulness practices, such as focusing on your breath or observing your thoughts and sensations without getting caught up in them, can help you stay present and connected with your experience as it is, rather than as your anxious mind interprets it. This is a key skill for defusing from anxious thoughts and reducing their power over you. Mindfulness allows you to notice the process of thinking and feeling, rather than just the content of those thoughts and feelings. Practising mindfulness regularly can help you calm activation and observe anxiety responses patiently.
- Taking Action and Exposure: Often, the most effective way to manage anxiety about work is to face the situations or tasks you’ve been avoiding. This doesn’t mean diving into the most terrifying situation immediately, but rather gradually exposing yourself to feared work-related scenarios, starting with less challenging ones and working your way up. The goal of this kind of exposure isn’t necessarily to reduce anxiety directly, but to help you live a valued life even when anxiety is present. By staying in a situation until your anxiety naturally decreases, or by taking action despite feeling anxious, you teach your brain that these situations are not actually dangerous and that you can cope. This requires courage – acting even when you are afraid.
- Reinterpreting Thoughts: Our thoughts significantly influence our workplace anxiety. The anxious mind often jumps to worst-case scenarios or interprets neutral situations negatively. Techniques such as identifying and modifying these anxiety-igniting thoughts can help. This doesn’t mean engaging in unrealistic positive thinking, but rather questioning the validity of anxious thoughts and considering more realistic interpretations. For example, replacing rigid “musts” and “shoulds” with more flexible language can reduce self-imposed pressure. Recognising that thoughts are just thoughts, not necessarily truths, is key.
- Relaxation and Breathing Techniques: While relaxation alone may not directly impact the core anxiety response, practising techniques like deep breathing or progressive muscle relaxation can help manage the physical symptoms of anxiety. Being in a relaxed physical state can signal to your brain to shift out of panic mode. Regularly practising these techniques can also lower your baseline arousal level.
- Journaling and Writing: Writing down your worries or anxieties can help you gain distance from them and see patterns in your thinking. Writing can also serve as a way to mindfully express your anxieties, helping your mind organise them physically. It can also help you track your progress and reflect on your experiences.
- Setting Realistic Goals and Expectations: Perfectionism and setting excessively high or impossible goals can significantly contribute to workplace anxiety. Learning to set realistic standards and focusing on doing your “imperfect best” is more helpful than striving for unattainable perfection.
Seeking Professional Help for Anxiety About Work
While self-help strategies are valuable, sometimes anxiety about work is severe or persistent, making it difficult to manage on your own. In such cases, seeking professional help is recommended.
- Anxiety Coach: An anxiety coach can provide guidance and support using structured approaches, such as solution-focused techniques, to help individuals gain control of their anxiety. A coach can help clients challenge avoidance behaviours, manage difficult internal thought patterns, and channel energy effectively in the context of work. They work with clients to identify what isn’t working and explore alternative actions, focusing on future goals and strengths.
- Anxiety Therapist: Psychology professionals can assess the nature and causes of your anxiety and help you work out a program to deal with it. Therapists are trained in identifying anxiety-producing thought patterns and employing various techniques. They can provide a safe space to discuss difficulties and work through emotional and mental obstacles. Therapists can guide you through strategies like exposure exercises within a professional context. They can help you understand the underlying processes contributing to your anxiety, such as experiential avoidance.
- Havening Practitioner: In instances of extreme anxiety, particularly if it is rooted in past stress or trauma that may be triggered in the workplace, a Havening practitioner could potentially help. Havening techniques can be used to address the stress or trauma origin of physical conditions. A key aspect is that this work can be “content-free,” meaning you don’t necessarily have to verbally recount the traumatic events to experience benefit. This approach focuses on using specific techniques to help the brain process and depotentiate encoded traumatic experiences.
Recognising that anxiety about work is common and treatable, and being willing to try new strategies and seek support when needed, are powerful steps toward achieving a healthier, more productive, and fulfilling work life.
Summary: Anxiety About Work
Anxiety about work is a common experience driven by how we interpret and respond to work-related situations, often involving excessive focus on future problems and attempts to control the uncontrollable. Effective self-help strategies include developing awareness of triggers, practising acceptance and mindfulness, gradually facing feared work situations through exposure, reinterpreting anxious thoughts, using relaxation and breathing techniques, and writing down worries. When workplace anxiety is severe, professional help is available. An anxiety coach can provide guidance on tackling avoidance and managing internal states. An anxiety therapist offers structured treatment to understand and modify responses to anxiety. For extreme anxiety or that linked to trauma, a Havening practitioner may provide help, including processing experiences without detailed verbal disclosure. Managing anxiety about work involves understanding its mechanisms, employing targeted techniques, and seeking appropriate professional support when necessary.