A career is something that is at the topmost priority for a majority of people. And we all want to do our best in our respective fields. But sometimes this excessive pressure can degrade our performance instead of helping us out. There is nothing bad about worrying about your work or thinking about doing the best or good work. But as we say, anything over the limit is bad. Even concern about work? Yes. It’s very important to manage your stress and anxiety at the workplace.
Your workplace is a place where it is very important for you to stay calm. This is because the working environment can be quite hectic and stressful. This leaves room for you to make decisions in hurry and make silly mistakes.
Firstly, let us understand what is normal anxiety and severe anxiety.
What is normal anxiety?
We all feel anxious from time to time and it is very normal to feel so. Anxiety can be defined as a sense of uneasiness, fear, worry, stress, the nervousness about what is about to happen. Fear is a feeling that you experience during any threat or problem while anxiety is a feeling which is related to the expectation of threat, problem, danger in the coming future. This feeling of being anxious can be mild or intense, depending upon the person and the situation. Mild anxiety can give you a sense of uneasiness or nervousness while intense anxiety can make you experience fear, danger, or panic.
It’s a natural thing to feel anxious if something new, important or difficult is coming up. Being anxious when you have an exam, a big date, a huge class presentation, or competition is perfectly normal. Although these events causing natural anxiety never threaten a person’s safety, they can cause someone to feel “threatened” by potential embarrassment, worry about making a mistake, fitting in, stumbling over words, being accepted or rejected, or losing pride. A bit of normal anxiety is actually helpful. It helps us in being alert, focused, and prepared to deal with handling the coming situation. It can push us towards doing our best. But at the same time, excessive anxiety can bound a person in a situation where he might feel overwhelmed, tongue-tied, or unable to do what he needs to do.
What is anxiety disorder?
When small events start triggering your anxiety at a level that you feel things are getting out of control or when you feel anxious without any reason is where anxiety disorder stands. An anxiety attack takes place when there is something particular triggering the person. The majority of the times anxiety takes place due to some event or situation. Though, this is not the case always.
An anxiety attack majorly hits a person due to fear of something bad happening in a particular situation. This means there is a specific subject that is creating a sense of fear in that person. It tends to develop gradually over time. It can be mild, moderate, or severe.
There may be a sense that it can be over once that particular problem is solved. Even constant anxiety can worsen the situation and lead to panic attacks, which are severe and affect the patient a lot.
Also Read – Depression – Symptoms, Causes, Treatment
Anxiety and stress at workplace
A report by the national survey on anxiety in the workplace states that people with anxiety disorder commonly feel issues like
- Handling meetings
- Participating in opinion sharing
- dealing with sudden problems
- maintaining work up to date
- Setting and meeting deadlines
- Maintaing Social relationships at work
It’s totally your decision that whether you want to tell your employer or not. Some people tell their bosses as they need some cut-offs from work, some mention it in order to educate other people, some just don’t want to hide anything they are suffering from. Hence, it totally depends on you that whether you want to share your anxiety information with anyone or not.
How to manage anxiety at work
There can be many ways in which you can manage your anxiety at the workplace and work with less stress and worries
Work in motivation
Your work is not only your financial need but your mental need as well. Working boosts ups your self-esteem and is very important to keep up your confidence. Confidence and Self-esteem play a vital role in keeping you satisfied with yourself and ultimately you feel good about yourself. This can help you in staying calm and happy.
Also Read- Anxiety – Causes, Symptoms, Types & Treatment
Trust your co workers
Socializing is a choice. It’s totally your choice that whether you want to share your problems with someone else or not. But it is important that you have at least one person you can talk to in case you have any issues at your workplace. So, try to socialize and interact with people you like. Sometimes, you can calm down your anxiety just by receiving someone’s concern or reassurance. Hence, a co-worker whom you can trust can actually help you in overpowering your workplace anxiety
Educate Yourself
It is very important that you know what symptoms you have. A person with anxiety should always know his or her triggering point and initial symptoms so that they can ask for help or stay alert before having an anxiety attack. Also, you should know tricks that work for you in handling anxiety.
Learn to manage time.
It is very important for a person with an anxiety disorder at work to manage time. Make a to-do list and try to complete it before your day ends. This will help you to work within schedule and you can avoid procrastination. Procrastination leads to an increase in anxiety and hampers your work. A fixed routine will help you in staying calm as you would know what you have to do next.
Plan and prepare.
Whenever you have any meeting or presentation, make sure you prepare for it a day before. This will make you confident and less anxious before things like this. It can also boost your performance at work. A person with a plan will always feel confident.
Be realistic
Don’t commit anything you can’t do. It’s very important to be realistic at work. When you don’t have enough time to execute a task, don’t make commitments with yourself or your authorities. Because the pressure will only bury you down with anxiety and won’t help you in any way. So make sure you think and then commit.
Make yourself free from work at once.
Make sure you do the work right on the first go. Even if it takes a bit more time, at least you won’t have to redo any work. So make sure to make your work error-free and complete on the first go.
Take breaks.
Make sure you rest and work. Whenever you feel like your work is affecting your mental health, stop. Breathe, and take some rest, have a walk, or have some snacks. Talk to someone you love. Have a small break and then go back to work. You’ll see that efficiency in your work and calmness in your mental health.
