There I was, staring at a group of nurses; one was on my left, taking my blood pressure. Another was sticking patches on me for the EKG machine. A few others were looking at a computer screen and there was one directly in front of me, asking me a series of questions. All the while, the only thing on my mind was why my chest kept persisting in pain. The nurse who was asking me questions, is telling me to try my best to control my breathing and I look around the room that looks as though it’s closing in on me. Some of these symptoms I had experienced before, but the pain always managed to eventually go away. Not this time; this time it kept me up all night. This time, it brought me to tears. The pain was the worst I had ever experienced. 

Eventually, I get a room. Like most of us millennials, I start browsing social media as I wait for the doctor. I come across this meme of an older, biker styled man riding what appeared to be a little girl’s bike and it read, “Don’t take life so seriously. It’s not like you’re going to get out alive.” I saved it because I thought it was funny, I was unaware of how true that would become for me. The doctor comes in and asks a series of questions. Another nurse walks in with some medicine to help with my pain. After some dialogue, the doctor told me the news; a panic attack. How did this happen?! I have never had one before; anxiety, sure but not a panic attack! Doctor, can’t panic attacks be avoided? What triggered it? The more I discussed with the doctor, the more I came to realize what happened. It was stress. I wasn’t stressed because of personal reasons, I was stressed at work. 

Let me explain how I got to this level of stress at work. Our previous manager had left his role and accepted a new one at a different department. I had then accepted his role with my peers as direct reports. My team was extremely sad that he had left and they didn’t have a tremendous amount of confidence in me. All the while, I was in charge of planning a graduation for the 1,500+ graduates that RSVP’d to be at commencement. I was also one of the three leaders of a homeless initiative group where we would drive around and pick up homeless individuals and take them to shelters. As if all of that wasn’t enough to consume my work time, we launched a “dress for success” campaign and you guessed it, I was one of those in charge. I was attempting to balance this amongst my normal job duties that I couldn’t just dump onto my team, I was working from home until about 2 or 3am and wake up at 6:30am. I should also note that most of these duties that caused the stress, were part of my job.

I pride myself on my “can-do” attitude and being able to work efficiently and quickly. In theory, all I needed to do was get a rhythm and then I would be good to go! In reality, I was completely overloading myself. I was in school at the time and my grades tanked. I should have seen the signs; they were very obvious. If I would have taken the time to look up “stress” I would have realized I met 90% of the signs. Good news for you all is you don’t have to go to the hospital, I’ve got your back! These are some ways you can identify if you’re either stressed at work, or someone you know is. 

• Thinking about your tasks or deadlines nonstop. Or worrying about your tasks and deadlines until it causes you to feel some sort of anxiety. This sign shows it’s consuming you. A little stress at work can help perform better but it’s never good to let this consume you or cause anxiety.
• Instead, find a healthy way of prioritizing what you need to do and create SMART (specific measurable achievable realistic and timely) goals to achieve it. 
• You’re not able to focus on anything because you’re overwhelmed by the amount of work you have to do.

Instead, try finding something different you can focus on for a while. Perhaps a three minute meditation or working on something else. Studies vary, but four hours is the cognitive limit. This means that it’s your “tap out” and you will not be able to get better or concentrate on anything else. Try switching tasks every 60 – 90 minutes. You might be surprised on how much you get done. 

• You’re always getting sick and what’s worse, you did not get sick this often before. The hormone cortisol, is something that your body releases when you get stressed. This hormone is important to preventing illnesses and keeping a healthy immune system. If cortisol never returns to being normal, you will likely get sick and stay sick for a while. Your body being sick is it’s way of crying for help under stress

It will sound crazy to suggest this, but consider taking a personal day. That doesn’t necessarily mean taking a day off from work, although it can. It’s just a day for you to unwind and relax. You need to attempt to bring your cortisol levels to normal so you can go back to feeling your best. If that’s not an option for you, consider turning off your phone and paying attention to something that isn’t work related and brings you joy.

• You don’t know when you last left your desk or you take your lunches and breaks at your desk. Even going to the bathroom seems like a break because you don’t do it often. Without going into the scientific reasons of it, skipping lunch and bathroom breaks are a huge sign of being stressed at work.

Try setting reminders on your phone every couple hours or so to go for a quick walk or break. Don’t fight the urge to go to the bathroom and if you’ve realized that it’s been a while since you have gone, go! 

• You can’t sleep. You are exhausted at the end of the day but yet you can’t sleep and when you do, you never feel rested. This is one of the biggest signs you can show when it comes to stress. This sign alone, directly affects most of the others. 

Attempt to create a nightly schedule for yourself where you start to wind down and putting up distractions (i.e. phones, emails). Also, try laying down an hour before you normally should sleep, this gives your body some time to rest. 

These are really just a few signs to be aware of in yourself or in others. We have heard it before but self-care is the most important thing we can do. We are not capable of reaching our full potential unless we take care of us. In most of our work, we constantly take care of others. We have to be there for them when no one else is and that can create a lot of stress. Giving back is so rewarding, just don’t forget to give back to you. 

Ari Breeding is the Training Manager at 211 Tampa Bay Cares and an avid advocate for work/life balance and self care in the face of stress.