New Career Anxiety and What You Can Do About It
Changing careers or starting a new career can be nerve-racking, even for someone that doesn’t normally suffer from anxiety. For someone that already has anxiety issues, it can be downright horrible. Just having general anxiety over something is overwhelming, but there is more than one type of anxiety you may suffer from.
There is also more than one way to treat anxiety disorders and some treatments work well together. Treatment is an important step in living a healthier life.
Types of Anxiety
While there are many anxiety types, a few of the basics include:
- Panic disorder
- Social anxiety disorder
- Specific phobias
If you are suffering from generalized anxiety it could just be one simple thing that triggers your issues, like your new job. You feel anxious when you think about your first day, training, your schedule, what happens if you lose the job, and the list goes on.
Panic Disorder is an anxiety illness that causes someone to have panic attacks over different things. It’s a severe anxiety reaction. Your heart races, your face flushes and you feel as though you’re having a heart attack, or that you are going to die.
Social Anxiety could be something you are feeling when it comes to a new job too, if you are going to be working among other people. Maybe the idea of working in an office or factory with numerous strangers scares you greatly. You worry you won’t know what to say, won’t have anything in common with them, or will say the wrong things and they’ll all think your weird or dislike you.
Phobias aren’t just a fear of heights, clowns and spiders. Untreated social anxiety can lead to agoraphobia, which is a type of anxiety that makes you afraid to leave your home and get into situations where you may get hurt or embarrassed.
Treatments for Anxiety
You don’t want to lose out on a great new career because you are letting fear control you. That’s why it is important to seek professional help when anxiety is affecting your life. It’s definitely important to talk to a doctor if your anxiety is keeping you from work, meeting people or doing things that you enjoy.
Your doctor may prescribe medication for anxiety. While medication can help, you may also want to look into counseling. Sometimes counseling alone can help greatly. Your counselor may talk to you about changing your diet or even doing some breathing or visualization exercises to help when you are feeling anxious.
Therapy and counseling have no negative side effects, like some medications can have, but sometimes for extreme anxiety medication is necessary. If your medication isn’t doing its job make sure to talk to your doctor about it immediately, for your health and safety.
Your career, new or upgraded, is important to your livelihood. You don’t want to miss out on a chance at being a great employee because anxiety is controlling your life. Even the smallest amount of anxiety, if untreated, can grow into something more.
