Being “too busy” am I experiencing anxiety?

[Jig24]

Hello all,

I have recently dealt with mental health issues at work for the first time, which has lead to a lot of work related anxiety / stress. Since seeking help about this and learning more about anxiety in general I have started to notice other things that trigger me.

I often feel triggered when I am “too busy”. I say it like this because I generally am not that busy, but I feel very stressed and anxious if I know my weeks got something happening every day. It feels quite debilitating to the point I will count out the amount of hours / days I have with no plans, or time to myself. I enjoy being with my friends but spend so much time in my mind worrying that I have no time alone or I’ve committed to too much. I often will spend time when I am socialising thinking about how much time until I get home also. I also will look at my work roster and be fixated on my days off a month in advance and continously check back at it ( I work shift work) and begin to stress if I have little gaps with not enough days off.

I have realised this is something I have dealt with for years, but I am just not sure whether to identify this as anxiety or something else.

I would like to hear if anybody else experiences this as I feel quite alone. Thankyou

[MidnightOil]

Hi Jig24,

Welcome to the forums and I'm glad that you felt like you could share.

The first thing I will say is that anxiety looks different for everyone. It sounds like this could be what you're experiencing but if you don't feel like that really fits then that's okay too. If you haven't yet tried finding a psychologist or some other form of professional advice then that could be a step in helping you identify what you're feeling and help you to manage it.

I remember at my old job I used to feel like whenever I had a shift, then my whole day was written off (even if the shift was only 3 hours or so). I don't know if this is similar to what you are going through but something that helped me was instead of thinking in days, I tried to think in terms of 'morning', 'afternoon', and 'evening'. If I had something in the morning then yes maybe I would write off any time before 12, but then after that I could do other things. This may not work for everyone and it isn't really a permanent solution either but maybe it could help you in the short term (also feel free to ask questions, I'm not sure I'm explaining it very well sorry).

I think you'll find that many other people have similar experiences and, although it can feel like it, you aren't alone in this. I hope that you can find some comfort in the forums, as I have in the past.

Feel free to come back and let us know how you're getting on 🙂

All the best