WTF helps with regular daily anxiety?

[TylerDurdenGrace]

Sorry if this post is kind of a mess, I don't feel like whatever I'm lazy

I used to be insanely depressed but now my depression is very much under control, but I have awful anxiety. Some of this is existential anxiety and worrying about the future, about my long term plans, about life after my parents die, etc. But I can deal with that stuff through prayer and meditation. But I have very intense daily anxiety surrounding my work. I don't want to dox myself but basically I work in a store that sells tech products but I also provide a lot of customer support for said products. I have bad ongoing anxiety related to my work, which is very technical, with all sorts of different processes, and has a lot of different moving parts: talking a customer through a process while at the same time ensuring everything looks right in the system, troubleshooting, etc. I am a fairly competent employee, and my manager has told me as such. I've been working there about 4 months and still need a lot of help and guidance, but my manager told me this is to be expected, especially for processes we don't do very often.

There is a security camera on my monitor at work and I can always see people walking in front of the store, and I feel like I get such an awful sense of dread when I see any cars pull up, when people walk past, not knowing whether they will come in or not, and it just doesn't make sense at all. I can logically tell myself that 75% of people who come in, I can help them without assistance, 20% I do need assistance but can easily get it from my manager or coworker, and only 5% are there issues with a customer being difficult or me getting stuck as my coworkers are all busy and I run into an obstacle. But even these issues are easily solveable and I can figure it out myself eventually. But damn, I just feel such awful anxiety every time I see someone coming in, and every time I know we have an ongoing situation we are helping a customer with which is complex, I can't relax at all until it is finished, even if we are waiting days for them to come in.

It's all a bit hard to get into words, but how do I deal with this daily, ongoing work anxiety? It isn't panic attacks, it;s just upset stomach, dry mouth, hard to think calmly and mind racing anxiety. Fuck I don't know how to explain it, I just know my life would literally be ten times better if I just had a normal amount of anxiety at work...

 

[DewDr0p]

It's all a bit hard to get into words, but how do I deal with this daily, ongoing work anxiety? It isn't panic attacks, it;s just upset stomach, dry mouth, hard to think calmly and mind racing anxiety. Fuck I don't know how to explain it, I just know my life would literally be ten times better if I just had a normal amount of anxiety at work...

Have you ever tried some of the like CBT or ACT self help worksheets? I don't know if they would help you, but I find that a combination of grounding exercises, while also putting aside time to go through specific worries and create like ah catchphrases? or affirmations? that challenge the thought. one of the ones i really like is paired muscle relaxation, you take a body part, say your hands or shoulders or jaw or legs or whatever, and tense them up, contract them tight as you can while you breathe in, then hold for a bit and as you breathe out you relax the muscles and let the tension go. i often visualise the stress leaving with it and tell myself the like affirmation while i do it. it doesnt always work, but i find that i can get through the day with it.