High stress job

MV,

I am sorry to hear of the struggles that your chosen vocation has started posing for you.

Unfortunately, once the anxiety trigger has been flipped...previous stressful circumstances that once presented no issue for us...can become problematic.

However, I agree that backing out of situation because it is challenging us, is not a good practice...at least not initially.

Continuing to do all you can...including therapy, use of an Rx (if indicated and chosen) and daily self help practices, should be the management/coping goal.

Remebering the reasons for choosing, and the passion that you have for your career choice will also be key in working through the challenges it presents.

You mentioned talking to your therapist about this...

...can you continue to work specifically with him/her in this area? Targeting your treatment could be key in getting through this.

Wishing you much progress...and sending encouragement for your work situation! Keep us updated, so we can keep you in support.

S.C.

I have a pretty stressful job as well and can't help but wonder why it's affecting me in ways it never did before.

I think life in general has become more stressful because social media projects all these images of people doing it all and we're trying to keep up.

As well, we're reachable 24/7 and don't get the opportunity to shut off completely. People expect answers and results immediately because of technology.

We're also getting older and the fear of someone younger without children who can work all hours without stress is always waiting in the wings.

Well, these are things I'm chalking my increased stress to.
Knowing them is one thing but truly shutting them out is another.

I can relate and hope your ongoing therapy can help. We're all here to vent to anyhow. 😊

Haha oh yes. I have really struggled at times being in science and having anxiety/panic & bipolar disorder.

There is nothing scarier than having a panic attack or a bipolar episode at work and fearing for your job.

I don't have much advice for dealing with the stress. Honestly, I have just pushed through again and again. When I was really sick for 14 months, I pushed through each day. I may have thrown up four times in the morning, I may have made it in a little late to work - but I still came in each day and pushed hard each day. I may have had an experiment and had to pause to throw up, then go back to the experiment.

In my first job, my boss did not understand it at all. When I was first going through medication trials when they first gave me the diagnosis of bipolar, I was a total mess. I had to go out on medical leave for two weeks. When I came back, my boss had completely turned around like a snake and all of a sudden I was number one on his crap list. It was a true case of discrimination, but I couldn't prove it. I left the company and went elsewhere. I have been at my job now for almost five years.

At my job now, it may have taken a lot of guts and it was certainly a risky thing to do, but I took the honesty approach. It helps that I work at a neuroscience company and my boss is a pharmacokineticist with experience in CNS medications. My boss is also an extremely sweet person, charismatic, and sees the quality of my work. I told him what my condition was, I told him the medications I was withdrawing off of and the medications I was being put on. I informed him when I wasn't feeling well. I informed him that I was having trouble with my time as I was sick and dizzy in the morning and not able to drive in quite yet. I even made it known to my director that I was very ill, but doing all I could.

I guess the bottom line is I communicated my issues and worked around them. I don't know how this would work in other areas of specialty. Again, since I am in neuroscience and the potency/potential toxicities of the CNS medications is well known by my superior, I feel that gave me an edge in communication. I think it would be harder to explain to a manager who doesn't have the knowledge of the drugs and conditions. The stigma about mental illness is still so bad and getting worse with recent events. It is still kind of a crap shoot when it comes to "sharing" this confidential medical information.

I've been trying to be an advocate about sharing this information, for us not to remain in the dark any longer. I've found that a lot of scientists really do stick to the "fine line between genius and insanity." All of us have something wrong in our heads.

Yes I can definitely understand that. In finance an anxiety "disorder" and it's effect is not even going to be at the forefront of their minds. If someone has a problem at work and they go, "yep, just got diagnosed with anxiety disorder," is met with compassion and empathy rather than a "oh geeze, why you worried now? So and so can't handle this and that."

I think mental illnesses in the workplace is coming to a brighter light nowadays, but the stigma is going to take a long time to crush. People on the whole, are still very sheltered and uneducated when it comes to mental illness.

I'm actually a smoker and that helps me at times. All of us smokers go out and have one together and vent. If you don't smoke (and don't start now if you don't), just try and grab your close work friends a few times a day and go out on a break together. Go walk around the building, go talk/vent for 15 minutes - or whatever your work will allow. If you have that trusted group of friends/people on the same page as you, with the same frustrations - it helps immensely getting through the day.

Well if there is a friend at work, even one, whom you can talk to, then do so. It will give you some peace of mind, only if just in the slightest bit, that you have someone there who knows what you are going through!