Do you finish work but find yourself still thinking about it hours later?
Perhaps Sunday evening arrives and you can already feel the anxiety building about Monday morning.
Or maybe you’re coping outwardly — meeting deadlines, attending meetings and getting everything done — while privately feeling completely overwhelmed.
Work-related stress and anxiety can gradually become so normal that we don’t recognise how much they are affecting us.
When does normal work stress become a problem?
Most jobs involve some degree of pressure.
A busy week or approaching deadline doesn’t necessarily mean there’s a problem.
However, it may be worth paying attention when work stress follows you home and starts affecting other areas of your life.
Signs can include:
- Dreading going to work
- Sunday-night anxiety
- Constantly checking emails
- Difficulty switching off
- Trouble sleeping
- Feeling irritable with your partner or family
- Overthinking mistakes
- Feeling sick or anxious before work
- Struggling to concentrate
- Working increasingly long hours
- Feeling that nothing you do is good enough
- Loss of motivation
- Feeling emotionally or physically exhausted
Why can’t I switch off from work?
Sometimes the difficulty isn’t simply workload.
There may be underlying patterns contributing to your stress.
For example:
Perfectionism: “Anything less than perfect isn’t good enough.”
People pleasing: “I can’t disappoint anyone.”
Fear of failure: “If I make a mistake, people will realise I’m not good enough.”
Difficulty setting boundaries: “I should always be available.”
Comparison: “Everyone else seems to cope better than me.”
You can change jobs and still take these patterns with you.
That’s why therapy for work-related stress can involve looking not only at what’s happening at work, but also at the beliefs and behaviours influencing how you respond to it.
Work anxiety and the Sunday-night feeling
If you notice your mood changing every Sunday afternoon or evening, you’re not alone.
Your mind may already be anticipating Monday:
What’s waiting in my inbox?
What if something goes wrong?
How am I going to get through another week?
This anticipatory anxiety means work starts affecting you before you’ve even returned to it.
Eventually, it can feel as though the weekend isn’t really a break at all.
Stress, anxiety or burnout?
These terms are often used interchangeably, but they aren’t exactly the same.
Stress can occur when the demands placed upon us feel greater than our ability or resources to cope.
Anxiety can involve ongoing worry, fear and anticipation of something going wrong.
Burnout is generally associated with prolonged workplace stress and can involve exhaustion, feeling increasingly detached or negative about work and feeling less effective professionally.
Whatever label fits your experience, you don’t need to wait until you reach breaking point before seeking support.
How therapy can help with work-related anxiety
Therapy provides somewhere to step away from the situation and understand what’s actually happening.
Using CBT and an integrative approach, we can explore the relationship between your thoughts, emotions and behaviours.
This may involve working on:
- Managing anxious thoughts
- Challenging perfectionism
- Reducing overthinking
- Setting healthier boundaries
- Assertiveness
- People pleasing
- Fear of making mistakes
- Self-esteem
- Developing healthier coping strategies
- Recognising what you can and cannot control
Sometimes therapy also helps people recognise that something in their working environment genuinely needs to change.
The aim isn’t simply to teach you how to tolerate an unhealthy situation.
It’s to help you understand your options and respond in a way that supports your wellbeing.
Therapy for work-related stress and anxiety in North Lanarkshire
At Minds Matter Therapy, I offer individual therapy for adults experiencing work-related stress, anxiety, overthinking, burnout and low self-esteem.
Face-to-face appointments are available from my private therapy room in Glenboig, North Lanarkshire, convenient for Cumbernauld, Coatbridge, Airdrie, Gartcosh, Chryston and surrounding areas.
Online therapy is also available, which can be particularly convenient when you’re fitting appointments around work.
If work is occupying your thoughts long after you’ve logged off, or you’re beginning to dread Monday before the weekend has even finished, therapy may help.
Contact Minds Matter Therapy to arrange an introductory call and discuss whether therapy could be right for you.
