Stayed home "sick" with anxiety today.

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It's happening again. Just like with school. Only a month at this job and I stayed home today because of anxiety and I had a headache & couldn't sleep all night too. It's horrible. I still feel horrible. My stomach is in knots and I'm shaking. I can't stop rocking and stimming long enough to calm down properly. I was rocking and stimming in the restroom last week at work, crying. And what makes me cry even more is that work and school does make me suffer. I am not lazy. It's just too much. But I can't even get benefits because my parents are well off and I haven't worked much. I just feel so weak...

I'm sorry you're going through this.

Maybe just take this day off, rest, watch TV, whatever. Is there any way you could make up the time?

Are you on any medications? If so, maybe you should see your doctor about adjusting it in some way. Maybe your symptoms are caused by the medication.

Please try not to give up. I know it's tough.

I've taken my share of "sick" days, too. Napping, watching tv laying down, or finding an easy read book helps me recharge. Just try to find something to absorb yourself in bit, and turn your mind off.

I totally understand the anxiety-driven "sick day" that isn't really a sick day. I did that chronically throughout school, and then work, and now even though I'm self employed and can't really afford to lose the job I'm sicking-out from.

I have several clients but one of them is a very chaotic family that I can't stand to be around. I take more sick days from their standing appointment with me than any other. Some mornings, on their day, I know I'm just not up to dealing with the stress. I've had panic attacks on "their" morning while getting ready for work, or have started to pace and stim and start talking to myself compulsively (always a sure sign with me that I'm getting into high anxiety and am seriously unhappy) and I've just had to text that I can't make it.

Once I know I'm off the hook I usually feel a lot better, can calm down after a while (still takes a while) and do calm things like the above poster mentioned: read a book, watch some TV, even do some things around my place that I finally get around to.

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Know how you feel. I just posted a rant about my terrible coworker. I wait until he leaves the lab to do something in the plant, and I find singing and doing repetitive work like cleaning glassware or whatever calms me down. This is usually only a temporary fix until I can get home and play music, draw, and be with my dog and cat, but it pulls me through the day. If you can, could you find something that can be a temporary fix until you can get home and relax? I feel exhausted some days when I get home, but just tell yourself that home is one place that work/certain jobs/people/bosses. I like to think of home as my 'haven.'

You have attributes I don't have:

1. Beauty

2. Linguistic ability

3. Acting ability

Somehow, I'm surviving LOL---I bet you'll do great subsequently, Girlwithaspergers!

Ugh, school and work, I don't think I would be able to handle it knowing myself. That is why I work part time now. It was either work full time and don't have kids or work part time and have kids.

I am wondering how the heck my brother and his girlfriend do it, they have kids, are going to school and working. People say it's stressful but I wonder how can it be stressful if it's not affecting them.

I don't really have any advice, just sympathy. I'm pretty much in the same situation.

I'm on an unpaid sick leave from an engineering job. I was having anxiety attacks, probably CPTSD. I'm not lazy, I'm not weak, but it just isn't possible to hold a lot of numbers in my head while vividly reliving something horrifying. If anyone said they could do my job while going through what I was going through, they're lying or they just don't know what they're talking about.

Since my employer found out my illness has something to do with mental health they've stopped returning my calls. I got the impression they don't want "crazy" people working in their engineering department.

You're not weak. It is a legitimate reason for a sick day. Punishing yourself with negative thoughts won't help.

Don't listen to people who don't think it's a real problem. Some people think they understand because they've felt a normal level of stress, like claiming to be a experienced astronaut because they can jump two feet in the air.

As far as I'm concerned, being mentally sick is every bit as valid as being physically sick.

I take sick days on those lines pretty regularly (~once every 2 months?) and I do it on a very calculated basis--I never bounce if I have super pressing things going on at work, but I will plan several days in advance in horrible work stretches to call out on a day when things are subsiding, and I use that as a point of motivation to get through whatever it is.