Can you work? How Bad Is Your Social Anxiety

[gazelle]

 

[SourceCode]

I dont interact with people in the office. I dont even know, how to talk and what to say. I am a weirdo there. I have heard people talking about me, being rude or weird. It hurts and it makes me more under confident. Sometimes, I just feel that I should not go to office. I often take leaves and try to run from work. My SA has made my life worse. Sometimes I pray to god that somehow just listen to me and take me. I will not commit suicide because its a sin. But I pray to god all the time to just take me away from this world. I dont feel as a part of this world. I am existing not living. Working to survive. Doing things to make others happy. I dont even remember when the last time I did something for myself. I never had anyone because of my SA.

 

[lilmutegirl]

I am able to work now. I have to be very comfortable with a job in order to stay there for any length of time, and have quit (stopped going) to a few jobs in the past due to anxiety. I currently have two part-time jobs--one I have had for the past 7 years (was hired by a former manager/friend--I was still slightly uncomfortable in the beginning, but am better now, and it's easy money) and one I've had for about 10 months, which is in the field I want to have a career in. I am slowly becoming more comfortable there as I learn about other positions and how to use the computers. I plan on applying for a higher position as soon as I feel competent enough to perform functions properly.

School is much more difficult for me than work. It stresses me out a great deal, but is getting better.

I wish everybody here the best of luck with work and school.

 

[vj288]

Be careful because I think this is pushing the rules of the forum a little. Just saying.

He didn't say it was, he said he felt like it was. I know I feel the same way about my own as well. I think it becomes a problem with the mods when people start to try to one-up each other, and belittle others struggles.

As far as work and school are concerned, I've been able to do both. In order to do them well and get the most out of them a level of socialization is needed, but you're really be surprised how little of it is needed,at least at places I went to school and worked. Usually, I can go an entire shift at work (I'm a dishwasher) or an entire day of school (high school and now college) without saying a word.

Basically I didn't have an option (I felt) not to go to school, or to not work. So in doing so you're able to find ways to cope with it. My go to coping mechanism is just shutting down, and not talking to anyone or interacting beyond the absolute bare minimum, which is a lot less than you'd think.

I wouldn't recommend going through life like this, but it's better I feel to get yourself to do things than to do nothing because you can't do it they way you'd like to. But that's just a life philosophy of mine, I think it can be seen in the way I exercise. When running, if I'm exhausted I would sooner jog at an extremely slow pace until I finish rather than walk (at what may be faster than my jog) and regain my strength. Or to quote Finding Nemo, "Just keep swimming, just keep swimming."

 

[JuiceB]

My anxiety isn't so bad where I'm unable to work. In my case I have to work or live under a bridge. I had to adapt in order to survive since most family members refuse to look out for one another. I don't associate with anyone at work. Too many of them are backstabbers and I see it all the time.

I would like to be able to earn a living working for myself which would require learning something new but I often doubt I have what it takes.

 

[MistMoon]

While I do have a part time job, I still have bad anxiety and feel nervous whenever interacting with customers, even though I've been there for a year. My anxiety is also making it very difficult for me to find a more permanent job since I just graduated from college about five months ago. I don't apply for jobs nearly as much as I should. Either I don't apply because I'm not confident I deserve the job that about 100 people are competing for and feel under-qualified...OR I'm afraid to get the job and have to go to an interview or drive to a completely new area I'm unfamiliar with.

My family and friends all tell me the same thing - "All college students are going through the same thing" or "Everyone gets nervous" or "You just gotta do it". I understand where they're coming from and I'm perfectly aware I have to do it sooner or later, but saying that everyone is going through it doesn't make ME feel any better about it as an individual. Especially when I feel like I can't fake confidence enough to get a new job.

 

[destructoroflife]

I've never worked.


I don't leave the house much.

 

[lyricalliaisons]

No, I am not able to work. I was finally approved for SSI almost a year ago, so I have money now. Not much, but some which is better than nothing.

 

[anomicdeer]

I want a job where I don't have to worry much about not being social. And the job I most likely will get soon can't talk to anyone haha!

I can only think of my life as improving to be successful.

 

[WishingICould]

I feel my social anxiety is much worse than everyone elses.

I feel my social anxiety is very extreme and I possibly have AVPd

I feel nervous and self conscious even while walking down the street. I cant even maintain a job or go to school because im too nervous and uncomfortable

Can u hold a job or attend school? Do u get nervous on buses and trains/

How bad is your social anxiety because im even nervous around freidns and family sometimes that i've known for years

Mine's about the same but i can't afford not to work so i force myself to go. I work full-time.

 

[Marlow]

I used to be ok at work, though I have trouble staying at a place beyond the 1-year point. Once one year of working there rolls around I start thinking of excuses to leave for some reason. Self-destructive I guess.

But I was out of work for a while and then got hired at a new job and my anxiety kicked in worse than it has ever been. I had trouble getting up off of my bed to get ready before it was time to leave. Only way I can describe the feeling is just terrifying dread. I quit and haven't found another job since and I don't know what will happen if I do.

I should have been excited about having a job again but it was like I had the complete opposite reaction. It didn't help that they didn't have me doing what they claimed to be hiring me for. Within my first day they moved me somewhere else and it was a high stress environment compared to where they said I was going to be. That was a huge contributing factor. I couldn't shake the feeling that I had been tricked into doing something. I wanted to ease back into a work routine more gently than that after being out of work for a while. I didn't want to be thrown in the deep end of the pool and told to swim.

 

[Kiwong]

Be careful because I think this is pushing the rules of the forum a little. Just saying.


Wow, why? Becoming redundant?

I'm luckily okay to work, and actually am sociable there. My depression has always been worse than my social anxiety, so for that reason I am able to work with little anxiety.

There is a restructure MikeyC, chance are positions will be lost, and I will have to compete for jobs. I'm not sure how I can even survive an interview with my anxiety.

 

[fivepoint]

I'm starting a new job tomorrow and I'm rather nervous about it! I applied for a customer service position, which is obviously a very social job... but I took it hoping to improve my anxiety in social situations so hopefully it goes well. Sometimes I can be kind of quiet and awkward, other times I can be very talkative and friendly, so I'll be hopefully working on building up the latter

 

[Steiner]

I haven't left the house since highschool. =X Last job I had was back in my 2nd year of school and I quit after the first day due to blacking out the whole time from the anxiety.

 

[SomethingKeen]

For me I don't think it is keeping or functioning at work that is the issue, but getting it in the first place. I'm not a good interviewee by any means. I find the questions that employers ask to be very non-engaging, as they tell you very little about a person's quality of character.

I did recently turn down a promotion...I would have easily been making double my current salary. The social aspects of the position would have been the challenge, not the work itself. This is a very real problem.

 

[johan]

I feel nervous and self conscious even while walking down the street. I cant even maintain a job or go to school because im too nervous and uncomfortable

Can u hold a job or attend school? Do u get nervous on buses and trains/

How bad is your social anxiety because im even nervous around freidns and family sometimes that i've known for years

i am like you, i don't have a job don't take buses and feeling nervous around freind and family. so you are defenetly not alone.

hope you will gett better

 

[nicole1]

I did well for a time until it got too hard to manage. Last year I had a break down and quit school and my position at the student paper.

It has been so difficult that I've been in school for a very long time. I've failed courses for not showing up or participating in ways that was required.

I have social anxiety along with avoidance personality disorder, severe depression, other stuff.

 

[LazyHermitCrab]

I think you should still get a job. I work and people talk about how quiet I am, etc. but at the end of the day, the paycheck is still there. You may meet a coworker you like, even if it's only 1.

 

[OceanMist]

I've been fortunate enough to get out of the terrified state that I used to be in where I would just have long unemployed times of my life. I finally realized that I was just scared of the social setting that almost every job requires. I've been flower delivery driving for almost two years. It's only part time, but I'm currently applying for other jobs and already have gone to 3 interviews. Hopefully I can get two part time jobs.

My advice to you guys that feel like you can't work is to push yourself very hard and get out of your comfort zone. You must accept that it's going to be awkward at work and that it's ok because you are strong enough to show up and make your own money.

People like us should be satisfied with just having the courage to work a job and have our own place. I'm almost to where I want to be, living in my own apartment and having enough money to continue to live in that apartment.

Some people may be reading that and be like your dream is to scrape by and live in an apartment with low wage jobs? Well, yes, it is actually. I've been living at my parents' house for years and it's time for me to grow up.

One man's trash is another man's treasure.

 

[cobalt_bluester]

Hi. My social anxiety is really quite bad too. I also feel really self conscious and nervous when walking down the street, and I find it hard to make eye contact as I think too much about it.

I am looking for a job, not because I want to work or feel well enough to work but because I feel I have no choice.