Panic attacks at work!

I seem to get quite bad panic attacks at lunch times at work and its driving me mad! In my work place there is a staff room where everyone sits around a small table,where everyone is facing each other and has there lunch and where staff sit and chat....the usual thing. But i hate sitting around the table with them and get very nervous and start to panic when i have to ( because i'm afraid that if i dont they will think i am so weird sitting on my own on the other side of the room!) I'm not a very shy person but i hate lunch times now because of this and sometimes go without lunch to avoid stressful situtions. I get these thoughts that they will start to ask me questions about my personal life etc....(office people are so nosy!) I am quite a personal person. Anyone else get like this at work??

Hi there, sorry you find this lunch time session so awful, have no sound advice for you, but maybe, if you are close to any of your colleagues explain your situation..if that is not possible, just pretend you like to stretch your legs at lunch rather than sit round a table to eat, or your back needs a break from sitting etc..any little excuse. don't go without lunch it willl only make you feel worse and why should you go hungry? There is no reason why they should start asking personal questions, yeah, we are all nosy, but you can give a smile and short reply, you don't have to tell anyone, unless you wish, what goes on in your life...gosh does any of this make sense...xxxx

Hey Carlin...thanks for your reply! Well i am new at my job,have just been there 2 weeks now and so i am the new girl! I dont really know that many people so i am just getting used to everyone and so are they....so i guess they will be asking me questions about myself. I wish these panic attacks would stop and the silly thoughts!! I would enjoy my work so much more!

Hi Pixie

I do find I'm more likely to be anxious at the lunch part of the work day. At other times I'm too busy and can distract myself easily. Its almost as if I am mentally checking to see if the panic is starting or not. And just thinking about symptoms can sometimes start them.

I try to keep my mind busy and don't join in chat if I don't feel like it. Just smile and say I'm fine, just planning my trip round sainsbury or something equally dull! [8D] (Other folk just don't realise how exciting a supermarket can be with anxiety.)


Lisa.

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.

Hi Pixie

At last! Someone just like me! I feel better already. I, too, have this weird anxiety when eating lunch with people at work. I am ok either sitting on my own - or sitting with them without food. It's with them and with food that is the problem. Once I ordered a whole cooked breakfast (was hungry and looking forwrad to eating it) when my boss came in. I shook so much that I could hardly drink my tea and I didn't touch the food at all (he thought I was very strange - so did the cook!). I haven't any real solutions to the problem. Works Christmas dos are a nightmare! But be assured you are not alone. Take care.
Cobweb