This last summer has been quite the ride (twice to the ER) and thanks to Citralopram(sp?) I'm finally normal and clear headed again. No physical symptoms, no 'stoned' dizzy feeling, no panic attacks, no diturbing thoughts. Just the old me. My unemployment ultimatly brought on my anxiety.

So here I was lucky enough to find a job in this market and one that pays more than my last. And well I really, really really dislike my new boss.

I've worked at many companies and all the personalities and unfortunately I am stuck with the one I hate most - the micro manager.

I was hired 1 week ago. I was given tasks that were simply not attainable in the given time and circumstances (database IT stuff), and not only that my boss has the typical micro manager habit of looking over my shoulder every hallf hour for progress and then trying to tell me how to solve the problem. Then flip flopping back and forth changing his mind and then when nothing comes out right, he blames me. He'll go back to his office and start doing my work for me and then sending it to me without asking or notifying me. Sound familiar? I'm sure some of you here know very well what I'm talking about. Any book will telll you that all those does is make sure the work does NOT get done in time becuase you aren't given the ability to focus on solution or think for yourself.

He took me in his office today and started talking about my performance and generally making me feel bad. This is after literally 1 week working for him and only 3 days of having access to the data I needed. Funny.. I'm usually in the top of any job. My metrics score in the top 10 out of 500 employees. I've never been spoken to about my performance before so I was taken back to hear that.

This of course greatly upset me. He made me feel small and incapabale which is a classic trademark of the micromanager.

Anyhow, after this summer my main concern over anything is that the anxiety doesn't come back. I remember not being able to even look at these forums because reading about other peoples problems would actually cause me anxiety and light headedness.

I've come so far and would hate to go back. The anxiety came on slowely, but went away slowly too. It went very slowly becuase all the symptoms were gone. Even today after I eat and drink a bunch on Friday night I can feel mild simptoms the next day.

Now. I understand that anxiety is largy causes on 'worrying'. Or basically imagining negative outcomes on future events. Like.. a dog barking every night outside will bother you, but won't actually cuase you real anxiety.

Work stress.. is well work stress. A bad boss is not work stress.. it's more somone in your life that you really, really dislike and do not enjoy being around. It's more personal than about the work.

My question is, can the new boss cause anxiety? This is a small company so there's no HR or anything like that.

I'm not sure that really hating my boss is the same thing that can bring on anxiety. I'm hoping it's just like the dog barking at night - really, really annoying, but not something that can trigger real anxiety.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated on this....