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...

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mcgrathKT
mcgrathKT

I've been off for some time now about 3 weeks now because of my GAD and I was just recently diagnosed with nocturnal panic attacks. With this time off I've been selfish and just working on me with my last week coming up before heading to work, I don't find that I'm ready to go back or feel like I'm ready too. I explained it to my therapist like this if I were to go back now I would be 4 steps back from my progress that Iv'e made in the little time, and if I give myself some more time and when I go back to work it will be 1-2 steps back if I have a bad day. Just there is something telling me not to go back to work too soon or all this progress that I've made will be for nothing and I've work already so hard. I'm just stuck on how I'm feeling about the whole situation, has anyone else gone through this?

Tryingmybest02
Tryingmybest02
McGrath, thank you for sharing this. Two things- take care of you. That’s the most important thing. Second- we must be careful with this. If we let our anxiety keep us from work due to fear, it is giving it a lot of power. For example, I recently had a massive panic attack at work during a work presentation (which I give often). This made me terrified; and my anxiety said just give it up. I went back to work though and faced it and was glad I did. Was I nervous at work? Yes. Do I still get nervous? Yes. But I am glad I went back. Anxiety and fear take a lot from me, but I will not let it steal a job I love. Praying for you right now!
mcgrathKT
mcgrathKT
The thing is I miss my job and I have some bad moments at work. But for my mental and physical health, I need more time because I find if I got back too soon because I work with kids it's unsafe for all parties. It's hard because I work with the youth 6-12 years old and I dont feel safe for their well-being if I'm not 100%. I hope this clears on where I'm stuck also my body has been up/down because of my attacks and not physically there with the mental.
arfie
arfie
Yup, I've been through this more times than I counted. There is great wisdom in your reluctance to go back too soon, but equally, waiting too long makes for lazy habits and has even eroded my confidence that I will ever be ready to get back to business. I never have felt fully ready to get back to work after a leave of absence. I've lost more than one good job from waiting too long to get back to it.

It's a tough call, mcgrath and one that nobody can really call for you. Gentle support while you work your way through.
GirlinCalif
GirlinCalif
I think taking more time off that you need is okay as long as your work is okay with you doing so. Hugs!
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