It's been a few months that I have lost sleep over my career and the thought of "becoming something". That's when I took a test for anxiety and depression and found out that I am topper for the anxiety test, I got 10/10. This led me to search more about anxiety and its root causes, and finally I locked eyes with the words I was searching for to have some valid connection in the medical world "Career Anxiety".
What is Career Anxiety?
It is self doubt filled worries in oneself regarding the way we perform in our careers. Always feeling anxious and overthinking about the future. When people say "Not knowing is the fun of it" they have been all wrong in the case of people with career anxiety for, they have a low self esteem and confidence in oneself that has also been one of the biggest driving force of sleepless nights.
Why do we have career anxiety?
-> When our jobs are not giving us a fulfillment
-> When we feel like we are falling behind compared to our peers
->When we are unsure what we are doing isn't good enough
->When we feel like we are not reaching anywhere
-> when we are not appreciated and rewarded in any form in the current place
->When we are hit with constant challenges at work and we are worried about our work performance.
->when you have a job insecurity, maybe a feeling that someone else is considered a better option than you or the feeling of you are not knowledgeable or qualified enough
-> A negative work environment and people
-> Long working hours
-> strained work relationships
And believe me, the list can go on.
Career anxiety can be a learning anxiety or survival anxiety but it can be both as well because in my case I fear it is both. Learning anxiety can be explained with a simple real life example, sometimes when Im piled up with alot of systems and workflows, I have the fear that the syllabus is too tough to crack. Then it makes me anxious that I need to really try hard, remember. I need to show eventually that I am getting better at it cause there is a learning period and within the time if I cannot fully grab it, then I can also be seen as useless and taken off Job. This fear and stress will be like a notification in your system that keeps repeating itself asking us to move on to what is the next best thing in our career, maybe to find some other role that can be less threatening as this one. Then comes, survival anxiety, this must not be tough to understand because, we all go through it at some point in our lives, when we have the need to survive in our current career due to our life situations , then we tend to really push ourselves and learn thus overcoming learning anxiety to an extend. That is,it is more of a need to bloom in adverse conditions, to show your potential, to soar. This is a time where you can look for a new position or company.
How do we realize that what we are feeling is "career anxiety"?
You should put yourself in hypothetical situations where you can evaluate yourself being in this role for the next couple of years and being in a few firm starting a new phase in your life for the next couple of years. What are the pros and cons you feel in both situations, which one predominates the other? You have the answers within you and that is not a joke, you just need to have to talk to yourself and understand yourself.
When to diagnose to a doctor?
-> when you feel edgy, or restless
-> when you feel distress constantly
-> If your daily life is affected by it.
Seeking professional help would be a wise choice
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