Anxiety in the workplace can be frightening, distressing and horrific. It for most is one of the worst places you can suffer from any time of acute time of anxiety or panic. Breaking down in front of others for a lot of people is also very hard. Even more so if you struggle with any kind of social anxiety.

This kind of thing is compounded when you have colleagues, a boss or underlings who don’t understand. In this situation you’re likely to get put down and made to feel even more anxious and depressed about the whole situation on top of what you were feeling anxious about beforehand. To counteract this you may feel like you have to be the best that a person can be at work. Take on as much as possible and deal with so much during a day that you feel at breaking point when you get home in the evening. You may also feel like quitting to try and find that dream environment where you don’t need to worry but that you will be fighting the anxiety about change.

So what can you do about it?

Promote an openness about mental health in your workplace. Convince management that they need to be aware and treat all people with respect and care especially when it comes to a person’s mental health. You could help arrange mental health awareness days and get information from leading organisations like No Panic for your human resources department. But for yourself it’s required that you keep to your limits, don’t make yourself ill to make others feel better about you. Make sure you look after yourself too.