Do I keep this job?

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ArtsieSteph

Senior Member
Apr 1, 2014
6,194
1,319
113
33
Arizona
#1
So I started a new job about a month ago. I’m a tech at a graphic design company.

Hahaa as I’m typing this, thinking about my job, I start to panic and feel anxiety.

That is the problem. On my work days I wake up panicked. Anxious. Stressed for the day ahead. I cry every morning. Not because I hate it, but I am scared. I dread the stress ahead. I shake. Heck I’m shaking now. My stress goes from 1-100 just at the thought.

I was in the sales division, and asked God if He wanted me to then if there would be a tech position. And I was chosen so I have to think that it was His will. But now that I’m in it, does He want me to stay in it? This doesn’t sound healthy. Am I going to be able to handle this long term?

There are only two of us in the entire tech department and I had never done this before. What do I do? I’m just so...

Scared. Heck I’m starting to shake and get crying like I do ok my work days thinking about it.
 

bobinfaith

Active member
Jan 10, 2019
101
191
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Daly City, CA
www.livingstoneministries.com
#2
So I started a new job about a month ago. I’m a tech at a graphic design company.

Hahaa as I’m typing this, thinking about my job, I start to panic and feel anxiety.

That is the problem. On my work days I wake up panicked. Anxious. Stressed for the day ahead. I cry every morning. Not because I hate it, but I am scared. I dread the stress ahead. I shake. Heck I’m shaking now. My stress goes from 1-100 just at the thought.

I was in the sales division, and asked God if He wanted me to then if there would be a tech position. And I was chosen so I have to think that it was His will. But now that I’m in it, does He want me to stay in it? This doesn’t sound healthy. Am I going to be able to handle this long term?

There are only two of us in the entire tech department and I had never done this before. What do I do? I’m just so...

Scared. Heck I’m starting to shake and get crying like I do ok my work days thinking about it.
Hello ArtsieSteph;

I'm sorry you are trembling at this new job and understand you completely. Many have experienced what you are going through in a new job and was able to get past the adjustments, transitions and went on to succeed in their career.

Unfortunately, Others haven't.

I'm sure before you started this new job you prayed and presented your purpose why you were applying for this job to God. When He opened that door and brought you and your new employer together, you may have also been an answer to prayer for your hiring manager's need as well.

Congratulations on your new job, ArtsieSteph!

I want to encourage you to give yourself a season with God, first, in this new job. It could be 3 months, 6 months or a year and allow God to show you that your skill, ability and talent was given you by Him to prosper (being that witness, servant and worker for Christ first,) then to your employer and associates, bringing all the glory to Him!

The fear, stress, anxiousness and low self esteem is not coming from God. Therefore, this principality of darkness is not blessing you and is hindering your Spirit. This breakdown is not from God.

God didn't bring you this far, develop you, so you could crash in your new job.

When you first wake up, I'm sure you pray to God first. Share and lay your heavy burdens of what you're feeling at His feet. Then trust God, not your new employer, to build you up.

Also, during this season (we rarely give this thought) but you are allowing yourself to discern if this is the right job for you. This also allows God to reveal if it may have been your will to start your new job instead of His. God understands us and the decisions we make at times in our lives. He knows we want to develop our trade, career, and earn a living.

At the end of the season (after 3, 6 months or 1 year,) if this job is not the one, God will open another for you. However, if this job is the one then the Lord will overcome your fears with HIS STRENGTH to go forth and prosper for His glory.

Prosperity in the workplace is our ministry, witness and service to Christ first, then the employer and your associates.

Others and myself are praying for you. Please be still, wait quietly as God already sees your heart and has gone ahead of you.

When Joshua was handed the "new job" God gave him this command, 9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” - Joshua 1:9 ESV

God bless you, ArtsieSteph and your family.
 

JustEli

Well-known member
Dec 23, 2018
1,374
983
113
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#3
Design is a stressful position. Know that, and decide, work is work and well........ own what you do. I think you will rock whatever you choose.
 
Aug 2, 2009
24,574
4,262
113
#5
So I started a new job about a month ago. I’m a tech at a graphic design company.

Hahaa as I’m typing this, thinking about my job, I start to panic and feel anxiety.

That is the problem. On my work days I wake up panicked. Anxious. Stressed for the day ahead. I cry every morning. Not because I hate it, but I am scared. I dread the stress ahead. I shake. Heck I’m shaking now. My stress goes from 1-100 just at the thought.

I was in the sales division, and asked God if He wanted me to then if there would be a tech position. And I was chosen so I have to think that it was His will. But now that I’m in it, does He want me to stay in it? This doesn’t sound healthy. Am I going to be able to handle this long term?

There are only two of us in the entire tech department and I had never done this before. What do I do? I’m just so...

Scared. Heck I’m starting to shake and get crying like I do ok my work days thinking about it.
You're still new. Things will get easier with time. Just hang in there for now. A lot of jobs are like that in the beginning. Especially if there's no one who can really devote a lot of time to training you or helping you. God bless.
 
Nov 26, 2012
3,095
1,050
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#6
The job isn’t the problem. Your lack of confidence is. The only way to gain confidence is to continually challenge yourself, and win the little victories. Obviously the person who hired you saw that you were capable, so trust their judgement, if not your own. I’ve heard of a few techniques that allow you to deal with this type of anxiety. One is go outside yourself and watch yourself. If you drink a lot of coffee, cut back. There are other dietary tricks that effect your cortisol release. Adrenal fatigue can make us less able to handle stress. Deep breathing, brisk walking, and being in a dark room listening to instrumental music works fantastic for females to help stress levels. I was overwhelmed at work before and felt extreme anxiety one night in particular. My heart was pounding, my mind was racing and I felt sick about work. Then all of a sudden it occurred to me, it was my fear of failure and not the work that stressed me out. I gave myself permission to make mistakes and learn from them. The errors I made were not blows against my ability, but rather opportunities to learn and improve. Immediately a weight lifted and I had the best sleep ever. I was better able to function at work without thinking every failure was going to expose my imperfection.
 

ArtsieSteph

Senior Member
Apr 1, 2014
6,194
1,319
113
33
Arizona
#7
I do have a very large fear of failure. To me messing up is a failure. And being in a job like this where my feeling 95% of the time is that I’m a failure, it’s really really really hard.

It’s getting to the point where talking about it at all is making me anxious and afraid and want to cry.

And that is one thing that I didn’t think about, adrenal fatigue. When my dad was sick, there was a time that every single day I would wake up and I knew during the day I would feel stressed and I would feel scared and I would feel emotionally drained. One day I was so drained that I actually felt like I couldn’t talk anymore. Daddy passed away in April, and I got my job in July.

Do I have like an adrenaline depletion still from all of it, because it seemed like afterwards very small things would stress me out and I couldn’t handle it at all compared to maybe two years ago. Did I get my job too soon? Did I get a job that’s so stressful too soon? Is this unhealthy?
 

ArtsieSteph

Senior Member
Apr 1, 2014
6,194
1,319
113
33
Arizona
#8
And also to clarify, I was in sales for six or seven months before I was in this job. There were times that I feel afraid and stressed but maybe once or twice. This is been consistent every day for the last two or three weeks.
 

ArtsieSteph

Senior Member
Apr 1, 2014
6,194
1,319
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33
Arizona
#9
I’ve been having to work on work things today and my shoulders are physically starting to clench from the stress because it’s work related. And my neck
 

mar09

Senior Member
Sep 17, 2014
4,927
1,259
113
#10
Hi steph,

I'm sorry to hear what ur going through. Let me just say there is a time for everything, and if u will keep looking back and say was it wrong i worked too soon, etc... u may well end up regretting an 'answered prayer.' It may be that the past 2 wks were rather stressful, but i hope u dont focus on all the hurdles and the physical pains now going on. May i say to focus again on Christ, trust in the Lord... for there are times we so magnify our problems and pains, and not the Lord enough. God's word says to magnify the name of the Lord.

Whatever is happening... be still, and know that He is God. He never changes, and can calm the waves and storms in ur heart, if u let Him. I believe u do read His word.. but try listening to an audio Bible at work, or uplifting music to take away ur thoughts from the fears and enemies' accusations and taunts, that ur a scaredy cat, that u cant do it, that God is not hearing ur pleas.. Move, stretch ur body too. I know how stress can linger around the neck and shoulders, so strive to have some workouts in those parts, and the back too.

We may not always be able to reply to everyone's requests, but i know some cc members are also pray-ers. So be strong in the Lord and the power of His might!
 

Journeyman

Well-known member
Jan 10, 2019
2,107
763
113
#11
Dear God, you are the great comforter! Please give ArtsieSteph comfort.
 

levi85

Senior Member
Jul 2, 2013
8,578
2,180
113
#12
Father God bless ArtsieSteph, in this matter. Let her job be, stress free and blessing for ArtsieSteph. Please bless to enjoy the teach work. Lord bless this prayer, in Jesus Holy name, Amen!
 
Nov 26, 2012
3,095
1,050
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#13
I do have a very large fear of failure. To me messing up is a failure. And being in a job like this where my feeling 95% of the time is that I’m a failure, it’s really really really hard.

It’s getting to the point where talking about it at all is making me anxious and afraid and want to cry.

And that is one thing that I didn’t think about, adrenal fatigue. When my dad was sick, there was a time that every single day I would wake up and I knew during the day I would feel stressed and I would feel scared and I would feel emotionally drained. One day I was so drained that I actually felt like I couldn’t talk anymore. Daddy passed away in April, and I got my job in July.

Do I have like an adrenaline depletion still from all of it, because it seemed like afterwards very small things would stress me out and I couldn’t handle it at all compared to maybe two years ago. Did I get my job too soon? Did I get a job that’s so stressful too soon? Is this unhealthy?
How’s your cholesterol?
 
Nov 26, 2012
3,095
1,050
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#15
The reason I ask is that because your body uses cholesterol to make some essential hormones, cortisol being one of them. When we have chronic stress or inflammation, we have other symptoms that bring us to the doctor. Because the body sees it is lacking in cortisol (adrenal fatigue) it tries mass producing cholesterol in order to fabricate it. Many doctors just treat symptoms instead of illness and try to lower cholesterol because it’s out of range. This impedes cortisol production furthering the dilemma of adrenal fatigue. If you were on statins like Lipitor or something it would effect cortisol and estrogen. Just saying. The mental effects the physical, and the physical effects the mental. Get lots of good healing sleep. This helps the body to balance and heal.
 
Nov 26, 2012
3,095
1,050
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#16
Also if your cholesterol is low you could try eating more eggs and fatty fish to aid cortisol production.
 

blue_ladybug

Senior Member
Feb 21, 2014
70,862
9,581
113
#17
Steph, if your stress goes from 1 to 100 in a flash, then this job is probably not for you. Especially if you're this anxious and dread-filled about it.. Maybe try finding a low-responsibility job. Something that brings you joy, not stress and dread..
 

ArtsieSteph

Senior Member
Apr 1, 2014
6,194
1,319
113
33
Arizona
#18
Woke up this morning after taking a little bit more of a stress pill, was not stressed. Thought about work for half a second, immediately threw up. Had to call in today.

One of the owners of the business had stated before that to be able to call out I needed a doctors note, so I’m working on getting one. Problem is that I may have to go to my psychiatric doctor about it since this is definitely a stress caused situation.
 
M

Miri

Guest
#19
Steph maybe try a bit of CBT. There are apps you can download to help
Like this one. It’s called pocket CBT and it’s free.

CBT takes you through your fear and the reasons for them and sort of
talks you out of them.

You can do it yourself on paper as well.

1). Write out the facts of the situation which made you feel bad, what was
happening just before your mood worsened, who else was there, what were you
doing.

2) Your thoughts write down what was the most upsetting thing that your mind went
through. What did that thought mean to you and how much did you believe it to
be true from a scale of 0 to 100.

3) describe your emotions

4) Then what physical sensation was the most strongly associated with the key
thought and the strength of it on a scale 0-100

5). What did you do in response to the way you were thinking and feeling. After
you did this how did you feel. Rate the strength of the feel 0-100.

Then you challenge the thought by picking one of the following

1) All or nothing thinking - also known as black and white thinking.
Where you may see things as either good or bad, see yourself as a success or a failure
etc.

2) Catastrophisarion - also known as predicting or fortune telling where a negative
future is predicted. Often no consideration is given to the likelihood of this future,
the coping abilities you have or the things that would keep you safe.

3) discounting the positive - when we discount ourselves that particular aspects of
our behaviour or experiences are not relevant. Like I got good marks in an exam but
I’m still really bad on my course so it must have been pure luck.

4) emotional reasoning - when we trust our emotions as enough to evaluate a
situation (that gut feeling etc). Despite evidence to the contrary - they tell me I’m
doing well but I don’t believe them. Etc.

5) labelling - when a fixed description of people or yourself is used. This can
prejudice yourself against alternatives leading to a more reasonable assessment.
Like I’m just useless, he is a bad person etc

6) magnification/minimisation - you may emphasise some elements and minimise others
which results in sustaining or increasing of your bad or negative mood.

7) selective abstraction- this describes the tendency to inflate the importance of a
particular aspect of a situation to the extent that it obscures the big picture.
Like if a friend says I like your shoes where did you get them. You say the name of the
shop and your friend says she’s doesn’t like that shop. So you then assume your friend
thinks you are poorly dressed or unattractive.

8) Mind reading - where we think we know how others think. “He thinks I’m an
idiot etc”.

9) over generalisation- when a specific instance is applied without evidence,
For example I didn’t enjoy myself at work, this means I can’t make friends with
anyone.

10) tunnel vision - tendency to narrow our attention to just one negative aspect
discounting everything else.

So anyway you identify one style of thinking. And write down what effect this
style of thinking has on you. Then imagine that you can’t use that style of thinking
and how would that effect you if you were not able to think like that.
Then you rate the strength of your feeling again.

Pick another, then say yiu can’t use that, rate strength of feelings etc.

And you basically continue to challenge your thinking.

As a Christian i would also suggest you add some positive bible verses into the mix.



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ArtsieSteph

Senior Member
Apr 1, 2014
6,194
1,319
113
33
Arizona
#20
Well I had to call in and now I'm sorta lost as what I can do. I had to get a doctor note to call in and I have't been able to get it....auhghgh....