Canadian Politics Today

Now that I am home with almost nothing on my plate, I am slowly filling up with anxiety... like a torpedoed submarine fills with water.  Something here may be related to rejecting a 2nd interview with a company that I was 50-50 on, and fearing there will be nothing more coming for months.

Do you get anxious ?  What do you do about it ?

I'm going to take the wife on a walk today to have lunch with a friend.  Maybe the company and exercise will work.

I have a granddaughter who has such severe anxiety that she cannot seem to function effectively in the world outside a very limited and safe space.  She tries to work but has not been able to keep a job and is on welfare.  She has been trying to get some kind of psychological or medical help for almost a year with no success.  I worry about her a lot.

I also see a lot of anxiety in young people and I wonder how this world looks to them.  Climate Change and leaders who cannot hold a civil conversation with each other, news that may or may not be true and lots of coverage of crazed killers who want to blow themselves and others up.   There is already some resentment against baby boomers and I wonder how that will play out in future as climate change begins to dismantle the good life so many of us have enjoyed.

Now that I am home with almost nothing on my plate, I am slowly filling up with anxiety... like a torpedoed submarine fills with water.  Something here may be related to rejecting a 2nd interview with a company that I was 50-50 on, and fearing there will be nothing more coming for months.

Do you get anxious ?  What do you do about it ?

I'm going to take the wife on a walk today to have lunch with a friend.  Maybe the company and exercise will work.

I've had different people in my life with severe anxiety.  I've read up on it too.  I've also had periods of unemployment & being on the job search like most people & being anxious about it & hating being home doing nothing.  Anxiety is often caused by fear and/or anger, among other things.  It's a mood disorder, so something is affecting your mood to make you nervous very likely.  Sounds like your joblessness.  Anxiety can also be related to feelings of depression (another mood disorder).

Since you're unemployed, the best advice I can say is for you to give an honest effort everyday.  Wake up every morning with a sense of purpose of what you're going to do & follow through on those plans, whether it be a goal of looking for jobs for a minimum of 2 hours and telling yourself you'll apply to at least 2-3 jobs that day.  You need to have goals, you need a reason to get up in the morning.  If at the end of every day you can say to yourself that you gave your best effort that daythan it's very likely you won't be anxious & depressed, or at least much less so.

Exercise is good, it releases more "happy" chemicals into your brain.

The worst thing for you to do is to sit around all day on the internet/PC/cellphone on these message boards.  You'll feel like a lazy bum and feel guilty for not putting in an honest effort to find that new job.  If there's no jobs to apply to, go online or to the library & find articles/books on how to make your resume better & to improve your interviewing skills.  Make sure to also get out there and interact with people, because staying isolated when unemployed & couped up in the house feels terrible (as much fun sleeping in until 11am can be LOL).  Get out & enjoy the sunshine.  To get out of the house and feel like you're working, you could also bring your laptop/cellphone to the library (or use their PC's) and connect to their wifi for a certain # of hours each day while looking for jobs online, it will give you more structure & feel more like you're going to your office to work on a task instead of staying in PJ's all day.

Also, try not to reject an interview even if you don't like the job, just doing the interview will give you more practice & confidence for the interviews you really want in the future.  You'll also be able to network a bit.  Good luck!

Ok.  So for today, wife has decided we're going to the CNE !

distract... distract...