How Anxiety at Work Can Affect Your Career Performance

July 11, 2023

Working is an essential part of our lives, especially when you’re trying to build a career. So when symptoms of anxiety affect your job performance, it can feel like a career dead end. Luckily, anxiety can be manageable with the right mental health tools and treatment. 

Klarisana is a leading ketamine therapy provider for Colorado and Texas residents. Read on as we discuss some of the most common ways anxiety affects your career and what you can do about it.

HOW DOES ANXIETY AFFECT YOUR ABILITY TO WORK?

Anxiety disorders can affect your ability to work in many ways. Firstly, anxiety can make it hard to even come to work, much less get anything productive done – Getting up, driving to work, talking to coworkers, and more can all make you anxious before you’ve even made breakfast. Additionally, anxiety can make completing work difficult. This can be especially true if your anxiety makes you a perfectionist. The idea that your work might not always be perfect can leave you feeling too overwhelmed to start.

5 COMMON WAYS ANXIETY HURTS YOUR WORK PERFORMANCE

While there are many ways that anxiety can hurt your work performance, here are five of the most common reasons why you might feel your productivity slipping if you suffer from anxiety.

ANXIETY MAKES YOU LESS FOCUSED

When you suffer from anxiety, invasive and negative thoughts can pop up at any time. The constant cycle of anxiety can be incredibly distracting at times, causing you to become less focused on your work and hobbies. When you’re worried about everything, focusing on work is the last thing on your mind. Practicing mindfulness techniques can help improve your focus when your thoughts are out of control, but depending on the severity of your anxiety, you may need clinical mental health care and therapy.

ANXIETY MAKES YOU IRRITABLE

Having anxiety isn’t usually pretty. Anxious and intrusive thoughts can consume so much of your time that you get irritated easily at the simplest things. Keeping a professional demeanor at work is important, so finding yourself short-tempered can lead to further frustrations and problems. When you’re feeling irritable at work, keeping your emotions in check is essential but challenging. Deep breathing exercises and short breaks throughout the day can help decrease frustration and anger.

ANXIETY MAKES YOU DISENGAGED

Anxiety puts those who deal with it in a constant state of fight-or-flight, which makes focusing on anything but anxiety triggers nearly impossible. Additionally, anxious thoughts can leave you defensive or withdrawn from your work and coworkers. If you feel disengaged from work or left out, speaking up about your experiences or talking to a therapist can help.

ANXIETY CAN FUEL AN INTENSE FEAR OF FAILURE

Your anxiety can cause you to worry about everything, including your work. Anxious thoughts about your performance at work can eat at you all day, making you feel like a failure. You might feel like you’re failing even when completing all your work on time and exceeding your job expectations. An overwhelming fear of failure can cause procrastination because you’re so afraid to fail that it’s hard to start. It’s important to keep in mind that anxiety around your performance means you care about whatever it is that is making you anxious. You can help ease your anxiety by looking for ways to use that nervous energy to help you achieve your goals.

ANXIETY CAN STAGNATE YOUR CAREER

Anxiety can come out in many ways, one of the most common being social anxiety. Often, when dealing with social situations, those with anxiety just want to go unnoticed. This can cause you to miss out on interactions that progress your career, such as new position opportunities or networking events. The best way to deal with anxiety or work-related stress is to accept the discomfort. Understanding you are anxious and deciding to step out of your comfort zone can help you realize that what you were anxious about wasn’t as bad as you thought.

HOW TO RELIEVE YOUR WORKPLACE ANXIETY

While reframing your mindset and going to therapy can help to alleviate workplace anxiety, severe anxiety needs further treatment. Traditional medication can cause side effects, take weeks or months to begin working, and doesn’t always work for everyone’s specific condition. Ketamine therapy is an alternative treatment for anxiety that can alleviate symptoms with minimal downtime or side effects.

GET CONTROL OF YOUR ANXIETY WITH KETAMINE THERAPY AT KLARISANA

If you think ketamine therapy may be suitable to treat your anxiety, Klarisana provides compassionate help with locations in Colorado and Texas. Our mental health providers will work with you to determine if ketamine therapy might work for you and plan the best course of treatment. 

Contact us today to get started and discover how ketamine therapy can help relieve your anxiety and reclaim your career.

Image Source: Ground Picture on Shutterstock

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