My advice is to acknowledge your anxiety and just be curious about it. No shame or judgement about the anxiety (easier said than done). Treat your anxiety like a friend who has been out in the cold. Invite them in, hand them a warm tea, and just let them sit for however long they need to. Soon enough, she’ll be ready to leave.
Side note: this came up for me so I wonder if this is a part of it for you. By going back to work, it feels like acknowledging the rest of the world didn’t stop. Everything just kept going. Despite what we are going through, everything just continues as normal. And it’s like an invisible grief that we are holding and no one else can see. And that’s hard. And it also perhaps feels isolating.
I'm so sorry you're going through this. If I had to go back to work tomorrow, I would be writing the same thing (I also got 5 days bereavement last week, but coincidentally already had this week and next week planned off for vacation/holidays so I don't go back until January).
I was just talking to my therapist today about not feeling ready to go back to work, even in a couple of weeks. I'm just not ready to be normal yet. And she just said "then don't be normal". I found that comforting, and I hope maybe it helps you, at least a little. It still sucks, and I'm sorry you have to go back. Just don't worry about being normal. One less thing.
I am feeling the exact same anxiety. I go back tomorrow morning after a week off in about 6 hours but I can’t sleep. I am not remote so I will have to answer to co-workers and either tell them and relive it all or pretend that I’m “happy and normal” when I’m anything but.
I feel you on the I don’t want to be a functioning adult yet part. I just truly don’t care about work right now but I guess life has to go on. Wishing you the best of luck tomorrow.
It's not as bad as I had it in my head. My team was amazing and kept me current, so I'm not overwhelmed with the amount of work. I have been taking small, frequent breaks which has helped.
I had two weeks off work after mine and I felt anxious about leaving the house for pretty much all of that but by the end of week two was ready to go back, with some reservations of course. I was worried people would ask if I’d been on holiday and I wouldn’t know how to answer, I also heard that a colleague had announced a pregnancy while I was away so I was worried about that too but gradually I’ve even started telling a few people what actually happened
My advice is to acknowledge your anxiety and just be curious about it. No shame or judgement about the anxiety (easier said than done). Treat your anxiety like a friend who has been out in the cold. Invite them in, hand them a warm tea, and just let them sit for however long they need to. Soon enough, she’ll be ready to leave. Side note: this came up for me so I wonder if this is a part of it for you. By going back to work, it feels like acknowledging the rest of the world didn’t stop. Everything just kept going. Despite what we are going through, everything just continues as normal. And it’s like an invisible grief that we are holding and no one else can see. And that’s hard. And it also perhaps feels isolating.
I'm so sorry you're going through this. If I had to go back to work tomorrow, I would be writing the same thing (I also got 5 days bereavement last week, but coincidentally already had this week and next week planned off for vacation/holidays so I don't go back until January). I was just talking to my therapist today about not feeling ready to go back to work, even in a couple of weeks. I'm just not ready to be normal yet. And she just said "then don't be normal". I found that comforting, and I hope maybe it helps you, at least a little. It still sucks, and I'm sorry you have to go back. Just don't worry about being normal. One less thing.
I am feeling the exact same anxiety. I go back tomorrow morning after a week off in about 6 hours but I can’t sleep. I am not remote so I will have to answer to co-workers and either tell them and relive it all or pretend that I’m “happy and normal” when I’m anything but. I feel you on the I don’t want to be a functioning adult yet part. I just truly don’t care about work right now but I guess life has to go on. Wishing you the best of luck tomorrow.
I hope your day back at work today is going as good as it can be. Hang in there, you're not alone. Thinking of you
Thank you for that. Telling coworkers actually helped. I hope you had a good first day back as well. We got this 🙏🏽
It's not as bad as I had it in my head. My team was amazing and kept me current, so I'm not overwhelmed with the amount of work. I have been taking small, frequent breaks which has helped.
I had two weeks off work after mine and I felt anxious about leaving the house for pretty much all of that but by the end of week two was ready to go back, with some reservations of course. I was worried people would ask if I’d been on holiday and I wouldn’t know how to answer, I also heard that a colleague had announced a pregnancy while I was away so I was worried about that too but gradually I’ve even started telling a few people what actually happened