Anxiety and too many expectations

[gloria10]

Hi all

I've been in a job and as I'm still new I'm learning the ropes.  The thing is with my anxiety I have a bad habit of expecting to learn too much too soon. Then I start to doubt myself about whether or not I can do the job and it becomes a vicious circle.

I left early today due to exhaustion and I was wondering if anyone else deals with this and what helps? Do you have any tricks to focus on what you're learning?

I'd appreciate some advice.

gloria10

[white knight]

Hi Gloria Welcome

Look around, ask others. What would others learn in one day? Ask yourself- if I only learned this amount today would they sack me for not learning enough? Ask your boss at the end of the day "am I learning the job at the right pace?"

Anxiety can take many years to get over. Every nigth before sleep do muscle tensioning exercises and deep breathing. Do deep breathing on the way to work and during breaks. Its the one thing you can do that no one will notice.

Keep your anxiety or depression to yourself. It wont help you to broadcast it.

Good luck.  And remember- some flog a willing horse so beware. Pace yourself in line with the others with just a little bit more work ethic.

Tony WK

[Miss-Anne-Throwpy]

Gloria, I hear you! Training is one of the hardest things. Especially when in a group training environment. Normally the structure is designed very much for the lean to extrovert personality. Introverts and those of us with anxieties or depression are not going to have an easy time. In my training I went home exhausted to the point of tears.

It's good that you recognise your part in the exhaustion. You may have no control over the training schedule, but you may be able to control your self expectations by comparing it with the company expectations and learn a way to be okay with that. You don't have to be perfect or top of the class. You're new, you have plenty of time to prove yourself.

[Neil_1]

Hi Gloria

Welcome to Beyond Blue and it’s great that you’ve received a very good response already from Tony.

Just to add to Tony’s reply, I’d also like to suggest about trying to write down as much as you can – with regard to processes, explanations, etc.  Perhaps you could even ask is there a need for you to write things down, as maybe they already have their own instructional guidelines written up?

But back to Tony’s – “am I learning the job at the right pace” is a great comment.

I do hope we’ve helped a little bit and would love to hear back from you on this.

Neil

[gloria10]

Thanks to everyone who responded. I have decided in this situation that the role isn't right for my health.  Most roles I can normally adapt to quite well but with my anxiety this particular role wasn't. Luckily I have been able to go back to my old temp job for the rest of the month at least so I'm happy about that. I have also learned that I need work time but rest time, something I haven't been doing.

[Sparkles183]

Hi Gloria..

Your story does sound like myself evrytime i start a new Job. I have found i quite often have high expectations on myself and expect to be the super employee by the end of the first day. But the truth is many employers will not expect that from us. 

Over the last few weeks i have been in a volenteer position and it is the first time in my working career i have spoke out about my mental health, and i have found it helps alot. As when i start to get high expectations on my self the i just talk to my employer and then they are able to tell me the truth if i do need to improve or if i am doing a good job...

i hope things get better for you.

Sparkles 

[gloria10]

thanks for your response Sparkles183, that's very good advice.

One of my big problems is that I try hard to hide my anxiety and depression, then it gets the better of me.  You are right about talking to your manager. I told the lady I was working for about my situation and she said to take it easy and completely understood that I needed to take care for my health.