Work fear/anxiety
Hi all, I apologize for being a bit of a frequent flyer as of late; I've just had a lot of things to stress about all at once and it's made it hard to cope with any one thing.
My biggest anxiety for awhile has been feeling unsafe in general. I had a big fear of being robbed or someone breaking into my house while I was at work. I also have a fear of someone doing it at night. Every night before I go to bed I go through my entire house just to make sure no one is hiding there (thankfully it's a smaller house), and have to check the window locks, etc. I still sleep with a light (and sometimes the TV) on, and with pepper spray and a screwdriver next to my bed just in case. Anytime I hear something that remotely sounds like a bang outside, I panic. I've been obsessively keeping up with the city police reports that they put out daily, but I know they're not super accurate because I've seen posts where the police have responded to gunshots but there's never a mention of those in the reports.
Unfortunately, my fears have now bled into my job. There have been some threats made towards someone at my workplace, not specifically in my department but in a department that mine works with regularly. I don't think that someone would target me individually because I'm low level admin. But people are just so crazy lately - what if they did? And what if they didn't even have to target me individually, what if they just came into my office and caused harm? I also have a lot of panic that what if they didn't come after me, but they came to my home and hurt my pets, or they went after my family members?
I know that I need to find a new workplace anyway, because even though I really do love my job, it really doesn't pay well (though the benefits are amazing). But this is like a kick in the pants to get moving. I was going to possibly make a push to move up in my office, but now I don't know if I should. And I have no idea what other career I'm going to step into. Or if I could have any job security with the recession coming up. I'm just so stressed and so scared.
And I was thinking, how would I even know I could find a safe place to live/work? I may be able to go somewhere that seems less likely to be under threat, but all it takes is one person to freak out. Schools aren't safe. Medical settings aren't safe. Banks probably wouldn't be. Tech might be physically safer but I'm hearing that those jobs aren't always stable. I'm just in a major panic and don't know what to do. I feel like I've made terrible life choices.
Last edited by .Poppy.; 01-07-22 at 12:06.
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