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Pavlov's Cat
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Confused Jan 21, 2021 at 10:17 PM
  #1
I have had anxiety problems, particularly anxiety about my health for about 14 years now, and I haven't worked for about 10 years. (I also have social anxiety and general anxiety)

All of a sudden, after about 8 years of not even caring about work, I feel like I want to work again. I had a dream about someone from high school, and then I woke up and realised that I was fooling myself by thinking I had a life.

I still have strong anxiety at times, just the other day I was in bed all day and I had to take a Valium to fall asleep.

Nevertheless I feel that maybe with the right job I could work around my anxiety. For example if I started working for myself, or if I worked casually, or if I worked at a volunteer role.

I have even considered studying something online, although I've always been a bad student. I procrastinate at everything, unfortunately.

I'm sick of living with regret I guess. My regret is not just about my lack of work life, I really tend to avoid anything and everything.
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Default Jan 22, 2021 at 04:37 PM
  #2
Dear Pavlov's Cat,

I can definitely identify with what you wrote.

Bearing with anxiety is a virtue in my book and so I think you are a very heroic person regardless of what you decide to about your future.

I once worked in a stressful and high pressure job in advertising. It was totally the wrong fit for me as you can imagine since I suffer from anxiety and panic attacks. It was a pretty high paying job but I needed something "low stress" regardless of the pay.
Luckily I happened upon a government job shelving books in a library. Talk about low pressure and low stress. There was very little interaction with my superiors which was fine with me. It was a quiet and peaceful job. There was also a volunteer job if I wanted it as someone doing book sorting for the Library Friends Society but I needed some pay to live.

It was odd going from being a PhD Candidate and ad exec to taking a qualifying test on the Dewey Decimal System.

Since government people are in the business of spending money and not making it, they tend to be rather easy going. There was little excitement in my job. Once someone put a live chicken in a book drop and I was drafted to catch it and take it out to someone who had a farm. But as far as excitement goes, that is about it.

I am not, of course, recommending a library job for you. I am certainly not one qualified to give advice that you or anyone could or should rely upon!

I do hope you find something that works out for you. Anxiety can be awful.

"They" [the infamous 'they'] say work binds anxiety. I don't know if this is true but I found that it helped with my anxiety. I want to wish you the very best and hope others here will have more helpful words than my poor words.

Sincerely yours, Yao Wen
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Thanks for this!
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Default Jan 30, 2021 at 05:39 PM
  #3
Seems like a good idea to me, to find a project. Maybe nothing that innitially involves much contact to other people ^^
It could shake up your life, air out the sheets so to speak.

You know there are plenty of cheap online courses out there, maybe start with one of those? No risk involved, so even if you find it's not for you, you don't really lose anything in trying it out.
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Default Jan 30, 2021 at 05:42 PM
  #4
Quote:
Originally Posted by Yaowen View Post
Once someone put a live chicken in a book drop and I was drafted to catch it and take it out to someone who had a farm. But as far as excitement goes, that is about it.
what an awesome story!

And I agree, I have always found work is making me more stable.
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