How to deal with anxiety at work

[JessMal]

Hi,
I’m new here.. I don’t personally know anyone with anxiety so I have come on here for some guidance. I have been diagnosed with GAD for 3 years now but I decided not to take medication for it because I felt I could fight through it on my own. Recently however my anxiety has been at a completely different level. I have the general symptoms such as chest pain, difficulty breathing, and anxious behavior etc. However a month ago I started having this weird feeling of falling while i am sitting. Every time I drop my arms to my side I get a feeling of falling. Then I started having dizzy spells which at first I thought was dehydration...but even when I remain hydrated I still have this problem. This happened a few times a week but now its happening several times a day. I am a CMA and as a CMA I triage patients, do blood work and assist with biopsies. My main problem with all of this is that I am having the dizzy spells while I am in the room with patients and when I get the dizzy spells it scares me which means I start hyperventilating. This happens with every patient now. The last patient I triage I ended up leaving before I could finish my assessment. I then asked my manager to take me off of triaging for a while and I could do paperwork. This has helped but I am still getting dizzy when I go out anywhere. Also my coworkers are struggling to keep up with the patient load and I feel horrible that I’m not helping. My question is what should I do? What is the best way to cope with anxiety at work? Also I finally decided to take Lexapro as prescribed by my doctor but it will take 2-4wks before I see any improvement.

 

[Jones]

Hey Jess...dizziness seems to be what is bothering me most these days. I’ve been having issues with my ears, feeling of fullness, ringing or whooshing sounds. This has been on and off over the past several years. One time the dizziness got so bad that I had my husband take me to urgent care. They said it was vertigo and that it was probably due to crystals in the ear causing me to feel unbalanced and dizzy. These dizzy spells usually don’t last too long, but long enough to make me feel extremely anxious, which I’m sure causes the dizziness to get worse. I know this may not be of much help, but you are not alone in this. I assume you’ve gotten checked out and there is nothing majorly wrong. Hopefully starting on Lexapro will help you.

 

[triceps]

Hi Jess. just my opinion, but it sounds like your GAD has caused a bit of social anxiety also. I think you've chosen on e of the best meds in Lexapro as it has anti-anxiety approval along with it being a good anti-depressant. I've taken it for many years along with Klonopin. Let's hope that Lexapro kicks in sooner than later. I also think your dizziness symptoms are due to your GAD and not anything else going on.