Answered questions(2)
You have options when in a difficult job...
I have a job right now that I don’t really like. Basically I am a new dad and my job demands that I be ready to work at any time, even evenings and weekends. The standard work week is probably close to 60 hours a week but it can be worse than this in busy periods. The work pays very well and because it pays very well there is a lot of pressure to perform up to a certain standard, no matter what is asked, and no matter whether you’re, for example, on the beach on vacation with your family or not. I am tired of this lifestyle and I am tired of only getting to see my young son for a few minutes per day after getting home late in the evening. The problem is I really like the people I work for, especially my boss. In the past, I have had a lot of problems with a couple of bosses that were really riding me hard and this led me to have some anxiety and panic attack issues which it took me a lot of time, and medication, to get a handle on. I am thinking that I want to change jobs so I can spend more time with my family. But every time I think seriously about actually making a move I start to imagine a situation again like I have had in the past with terrible bosses and I can feel my chest tightening and my heart racing in anxiety again. I know it sounds crazy to stay in a job I don’t like just to avoid a possible future bad boss, but the anxiety I was having before with one particular monster boss was just so bad and so debilitating that it is very scary to imagine going back to anything like that again. To be honest, right now this is preventing me from making a move because I just can’t force myself to take active steps towards a move away from this high workload but low-anxiety situation. I don’t want to be on my deathbed some decades in the future though and realize that I stayed with a terrible job for 30 years because I was too afraid to do what I needed to do. How can I get past this so that the idea of something doesn’t cause my so much anxiety that I can’t even take action to try a new situation?
Read answer →Meditation - Friend or Foe?
My son has problems with anxiety and he has been diagnosed with social and GAD. He has not found medications to be an effective answer. Over the last few months he has become increasingly interested in meditation. He went on a week long retreat at the beginning and ever since then he has been spending more and more of each day meditating. He will now meditate for up to 6 hours a day. I was happy for him at first that he had found something that was helping him but now I am worried that he is using meditation as an excuse to stay at home and avoid the world or maybe that he is starting to feel depressed again. He really struggles with social situations but his doctors have always said he needs to get out and face his anxieties but now since he is meditating so much he is not going out very much at all? Wouldn't an hour or so a day do as much good as half a day in his room staring at the wall?
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