Tehui wrote:
I never thought I would ever post on this thread, but I believe I am experiencing anxiety for the first time.
About three weeks ago, there was a restructure at work. It is temporary restructure that is meant to be for 6 months. My reporting line changed, which means that I am now working away from my old team who are on a different level of the building. I had good relationships with them and always enjoyed their company. I am working next to people in the new team, and although they are nice people, I just don't feel a strong connection with them. I am also working on an important project largely by myself.
After a couple of weeks, I started feeling a sense of loneliness which is an unusual experience for me. Last week I experienced a migraine at work, which was my first migraine in 5 years. I also noticed that I experienced an acute feeling of loneliness when I attended a meeting in which I would usually attend with my old team. It felt like empty holes in my sides. I've kept in daily touch with my team and we exchange personal visits, and these have now become the highlight of my day.
Today, I experienced what can only be described as anxiety. I've never felt that feeling before. It felt like intense pins and needles in my body. I could also feel that my heart rate was up a fraction, and I had to leave the building twice to get some fresh air and try to bring myself back to normal.
I've started increasing my exercise output over the last week, and have started eating better food again. However, I am worried that these negative experiences are going to get worse, rather than better. The project that I am working on is about to amp up in volume and importance over the next few months. I largely enjoy the work, my problems lie with my current social context at work. My sleeping patterns aren't good at the moment, but that can be pretty normal for me anyway.
Next moves at work:
1. I am going to talk to an older guy at work, who has become my mentor and let him know what is going on for me, and see how he thinks I should handle the situation.
2. Following my talk with my mentor, I will also consider explaining the situation to my current manager, and ask if I can be relocated back with my old team but still report back to them for this work. I won't use the word 'anxiety' with her though, I will use softer language and simply say that I've become unhappy working away from my old team.
What are peoples' thoughts on this approach?
This is a thing you don't want to be caught up in for too long
Basically you can get caught in a trap of explaining shit to someone who doesn't take in what you are actually doing totally because it is probably legacy (guessing) from the other lot.
I would encourage you to ask whoever the new boss is what others are working on and try to get involved on the side, if poss.