Anxiety symptoms can be linked to chronic stress at work, ask yourself if you:

1. Wake up dreading going to work.

2. Have difficulty going to sleep on Sunday night thinking about going back to work

3. Notice that uncomfortable emotional or physical symptoms disappear when you are on vacation.

4. Feel physically tense and angry after a day at work

5. Allow issues from the workplace to creep into your life at home.

If you are experiencing several of these symptoms you can find relief working with a counsellor to explore the ways you can learn to create a healthy work/life balance and develop boundaries and self care strategies at work.

It has been long studied and understood that occupational stress contributes to anxiety symptoms.  Factors that contribute to these symptoms often include:

1. Little decision making ability over systems in place even if they don’t seem to make sense to you.

2. Interpersonal challenges, working with people who are demeaning, demanding or unpleasant

3. A higher level of work required than resources or time allow.

4.A lack of appreciation from supervisors or management for a job well done

5. Minimal opportunity to give useful feedback for change.

Although we cannot always change the parameters or personalities in the workplace we can learn to manage ourselves differently in the same situation to create a more balanced healthy working life.  Learning to understand interpersonal dynamics and alter communication styles can help you create a more positive situation for yourself.

 

Intense anxiety and panic attacks are much more common than you think.  But intense anxiety and panic attacks are often so unexpected that many people are often diagnosed for the first time at the emergency room.  Why?  Because they believe they are actually having a heart attack.

Based on my experience as a therapist specializing in treating anxiety and panic, the top five places where panic attacks occur are:

1.  On a plane

2. In an elevator

3. Going over a bridge

4. In a crowded room or mall

5. Driving alone in a car

When experiencing a panic attack the most common response is to try to run away however, when you are in any of the above situations running away is often impossible.  The inability to leave is why these situations tend to intensity anxious and panicky feelings.

The good news ease intense anxiety and panic attacks are easily treatable with the right combination or counselling and often hypnotherapy.