“I feel anxious every time I think about work.”
For some people, it begins on a Sunday evening.
For others, it starts the moment they open their inbox.
Perhaps your mind and heart race before a meeting.
Perhaps you find yourself replaying conversations with your colleagues long after the workday has ended.
Or maybe you no longer feel anxious at all. Instead, you feel exhausted, disconnected, or increasingly unmotivated.
If this sounds familiar, you are not alone.
When someone tells me they feel anxious at work, my first thought is not,
“Let’s get rid of the anxiety.”
Instead, I often find myself wondering,
“I wonder what is making work feel so difficult?”
Work anxiety can have many stories.
Sometimes the answer is surprisingly straightforward.
The workload is overwhelming.
The expectations are unrealistic.
The workplace feels unsupportive.
Perhaps there is a difficult colleague or a demanding supervisor.
In these situations, our anxiety may be responding to something very real.
At other times, work becomes the place where something deeper begins to surface.
Perhaps our sense of self-worth.
Perhaps old beliefs about needing to perform.
Perhaps a nervous system that has learnt to keep striving and forgotten how to rest.
Sometimes work is genuinely the cause of our distress.
Other times, work becomes the trigger that brings an older pattern into awareness.
Part of therapy is gently discovering which is true for you.
Sometimes it is one of these.
Sometimes it is several at once.
This is why I try not to rush to conclusions.
Work stress lives in the body too.
As a body-oriented psychotherapist, I pay attention not only to what someone tells me, but also to how their body responds as we speak about work.
Sometimes I notice their breathing becoming shallower the moment they mention their supervisor.
Sometimes their shoulders gradually tighten as they describe a meeting.
At other times, their jaw clenches almost without them noticing, or their voice becomes quieter as they talk about certain workplace experiences.
These observations are not there for me to jump to conclusions or make assumptions.
Rather, they become gentle invitations to explore together.
Interestingly, these same patterns are often present outside the therapy room as well.
Some people notice recurring headaches before work.
Others struggle to switch off after they get home.
Or maybe you no longer feel anxious at all. Instead, you feel exhausted, disconnected, or increasingly unmotivated.
Work stress doesn’t always feel like anxiety.
Sometimes it looks like exhaustion.
Sometimes it looks like irritability.
Sometimes it looks like losing interest in work that once mattered to you.
Sometimes, it simply feels like not wanting to get out of bed on a Monday morning.
Our bodies often continue expressing what our nervous system has been carrying, even when we have left the workplace for the day.
Is it really about work?
People often think work anxiety is simply about work.
I sometimes wonder if, for some people, it may also be touching something deeper.
“What does my work mean about me?”
Our work is not only where we earn a living.
For many of us, it is also where we experience success.
Failure.
Recognition.
Criticism.
Belonging.
Sometimes our performance at work quietly becomes intertwined with our sense of self-worth.
A mistake no longer feels like,
“I made a mistake.”
Instead, it quietly becomes,
“Perhaps I am not good enough.”
These are very different experiences.
Curiosity before conclusions.
One of the things I appreciate most about somatic psychotherapy is that it reminds me not to assume I already know the answer.
Two people may experience similar symptoms.
Yet their stories can be completely different.
When someone tells me they are anxious at work, I don’t immediately assume it is perfectionism.
Or burnout.
Or trauma.
Instead, I become curious.
What is this anxiety trying to communicate?
What purpose has it been serving?
What happens in the body when work is mentioned?
I often find that the body begins telling its story long before we have found the words for it.
A healthy nervous system knows how to strive… and how to rest.
There are seasons in life when striving is necessary.
We work hard.
We learn.
We contribute.
We grow.
There is nothing inherently wrong with striving.
What I become curious about is something slightly different.
Can your nervous system also rest?
Can it slow down when the workday ends?
Can it recover after periods of stress?
Can it recognise that your worth remains intact, even when you are not performing?
To me, this balance matters.
A healthy nervous system is not one that never strives.
It is one that can move between striving and resting when life calls for either.
Perhaps the invitation is to become curious.
Perhaps, as you read this, you are already thinking about leaving your job.
Perhaps you have already handed in your resignation.
Or perhaps you are wondering whether changing your work environment might finally help.
These are important questions.
At the same time, I wonder if there might be another question worth exploring alongside them.
What has this experience at work awakened or revealed within you?
Sometimes changing our environment is exactly what we need.
Other times, changing our environment brings relief, yet we notice familiar struggles quietly reappearing elsewhere.
There is no right or wrong answer.
Perhaps the invitation is simply to remain curious enough to discover which story belongs to you.
Sometimes the question is not only, “Do I need a different workplace?” but also, “What is my relationship with myself when I am no longer performing?”
About the writer
Dominica is the founder of Soulmatics and a body-oriented psychotherapist based in Singapore. She works with adults and young adults navigating trauma, anxiety, burnout, grief, and relational challenges, integrating somatic psychotherapy with counselling to support each person’s therapeutic process in a way that honours the Bodymind. Outside the therapy room, she enjoys drawing and running. You can read more about her here.