Hello NezumiT,

I am sorry that you were fired from your job and it is unfortunate that “at-will” employment is allowed to do that. It saddens me that in todays society, mental health is always looked down upon as if it weren’t a real issue and a lot of people lack empathy in that area. They maybe able to empathise with someone who has a physical health issue but not mental health; with that being said, I too suffer from generalised anxiety disorder (GAD) and depression so I kind of understand what you are going through.

A quick background on my anxiety; it first started when I travelled abroad to study in college when I was 17 (i’m 23 now), I moved to a new country without family and friends and had to start a new life there. When the workload increased so did my stress levels and I developed anxiety and depression at a relatively young age; and without understanding what was happening to me and not being in my normal state of mind, I considered dropping out and moving back home. I had lost all confidence in myself and my abilities, lost a lot of friends as I became isolated, contemplated suicide and I just felt lost. Now fortunately for me, I was able to overcome some of these feelings and got help from therapy and moral support of family and friends.

Just some personal tips that may help you with your anxiety:

• Instead of questioning why this was happening to me, I started to embrace it and accept the fact that this is who I am.
• I too like you, always worried about making others feel good and try hard to make them like me but this only adds more stress and worry, so my tip is to be a bit more selfish and think about what you want for yourself.
• Consider going to cognitive behavioural therapy, it helps you change the way you think and react about common  day to day situations that we all are exposed to, helps you deal with them in a positive way. It can help you with your next job.
• Always be positive, even when everything seems to be going wrong, always believe there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Remember that change comes from within, and you need time for change. nothing happens over night, so you need to continue to work at bettering yourself and always remember that there are professionals out there to help you.

I really hope this post helps.

RB