Anxiety Support Group
Anxiety is a physical condition marked by intense and persistent feelings of distress, fear, angst or dread. General anxiety caused by routine day-to-day stresses usually passes quickly and is experienced by almost everyone at one time or another. However, such feelings that linger over time and are very difficult to cope with, and which lack a clear cause, may indicate...
I need to get a job. I don't have many skills. I'm heading for 50 years old and have defaulted on student loans. I just never had enough money to pay. It's very hard for me because of the anxiety to deal with people. My medication, Effexor xr, is the only one I've stuck with. I've tried so many others with terrible side effects. I just want a job where I don't have to deal with so many different personalities. I'll listen to any advice. Thanks in advance.
Looks like you're in a tough spot. I know how frustrating that can be. I've been looking for a fulltime job for almost three years now, and I also have a lot of social anxiety which makes looking for one hard. I don't have a magical solution or anything, but here's my shot.
There are certain jobs you can look for that don't have to deal with a lot of people and/or low stress. Data entry, for example, would be a good type of job to look for, since you mostly just enter numbers into a computer, and deal with very few co-workers. IT jobs are similar. Bookstores and libraries are low stress environments. Also, I don't know how many NGOs are in your area, but that may be another field to look into. Many NGO's are very small; I volunteered for one a couple of years ago that only had 3 fulltime employees. Needless to say, it was always quiet in the office haha.
So you're looking for a very specific type of job, but they do exist, you just gotta know the right words to type in your job search. You might just wanna type in your question in Google, like "jobs with minimal human interaction" or something like that and see what you get. Hope this helps, good luck in your job search.
It's not as hard as you might think; in fact it's easy. Most of those jobs that nobody else wants are perfect for someone only just re-establishing social confidence.
Street cleaners, for instance, can be expected to be socially non-functional. I'm not being mean: I'm just saying it like it is.
If you have social anxiety, what you need is an environment where nobody's going to be too erudite, too pushy, and too demanding. You need an environment where in smoko break you don't have to come up with anything interesting, in fact you can sit there for the entire morning tea without speaking, and nobody even notices.
You get that in a menial labour environment. I know you get it on an orchard, I have benefited from it. In fact, outdoor work might be just the thing.
There is definitely something healing about going to work and doing a full day's physical labour. No need to talk, just space, and yet meantime you are gaining skills, and refilling your emotional bank account. I noticed on the orchard I worked in that nobody wanted to know what you thought for at least 2 years anyway, so the quiet ones got on best of all.