# I can never hold a job



## InContext (Jun 21, 2013)

Anybody else feel this way, it's starting to worry me... I always get really bad anxiety about six months into having a job and quit. I just don't like dealing with a lot of people when I work. I'd rather have a job where I can just keep to myself... unfortunately, my experience doesn't allow for a job like that. Anybody else hate going into work everyday due to mindless interactions with people?


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## Captainmycaptain (Sep 23, 2012)

Yes, I really understand where you are coming from and I'm sure most of the members on this site do too. Making it in this world is hard. Making it in this world with severe social anxiety is a pure hell. I have not met a soul as tortured as me in real life. I think there are some people on this site who may be in my league, but social anxiety on my level is certainly not common. People say Autism, psychosis, bipolar disorder, Schizophrenia, etc. are worse mental disorders than social anxiety. **** THAT ****!!!!


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## u8mypurplecookies (Jun 21, 2013)

When I don't really feel like talking to anyone at work, I put on headphones and play my music. Have you tried other options such as doing freelance work, both online or offline?


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## cloister2 (Sep 2, 2011)

Yes me too. I quit my first job at 18 due to SA. I just had a job for 6 months and had to quit due to 'performance issues' according to them, and well, SA. I am considering going on SSI but frankly would rather not live like that so what to do is beyond me.


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## cisarcesar (Sep 17, 2012)

*Regular Job is one of the worst environment for social phobic people*



InContext said:


> Anybody else feel this way, it's starting to worry me... I always get really bad anxiety about six months into having a job and quit. I just don't like dealing with a lot of people when I work. I'd rather have a job where I can just keep to myself... unfortunately, my experience doesn't allow for a job like that. Anybody else hate going into work everyday due to mindless interactions with people?


I think a regular job is one of the most hostile environment for people with this disorder. I am 31, I had maybe 10 jobs or more in this life and I have suffered a lot in any one of them. The reason why this environment is so hostile may be because it is a place where your condition is not going to be accepted even if you were courageous enough to expose. I maybe wrong, but for me, if an sufferer disclose it in an interview or even after being employed, your are done! What kind of company would accept an employee knowing about his condition? Difficult to imagine one.

And I think we are very conscious of it which makes us to spend a strong effort to hide at all costs, which makes the thing even worse. That's how I felt in all my past employment experiences.

In my case, besides the weight of social anxiety, I had to deal with the additional weight of a constant guilt of being a 24/7 lier.

Until I finally accept that regular jobs are not made for SA sufferers and SA sufferers are not made for regular jobs and stop insisting in this path and decided to focus in my treatment with the help of my family and at the same time, dedicating myself to alternative solutions which a phobic person can deal with, like online translation services.

Of course I am not suggesting this kind of solution would fit everyone's needs.


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## Captainmycaptain (Sep 23, 2012)

Look at how much all of us are suffering and there is NO treatment. The most recommended treatment on this board is benzodiazepines, which IMO are very mild sleeping pills. You are just as well off taking half a Tylenol PM.


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## JamesM2 (Aug 29, 2012)

Yeah, it sucks. I know most people don't like work, but at least confident, outgoing people can count these interactions as a positive that makes the day more bearable - for someone like me who is both extremely introverted and an SAS sufferer, it's just another reason why it's pure hell. I'd love a job where I could just keep to myself and not have to interact with anyone, but unfortunately that isn't going to happen so I'm just going to have to keep on suffering through it in order to keep the $$$ coming in. Sadly that's life.



u8mypurplecookies said:


> When I don't really feel like talking to anyone at work, I put on headphones and play my music. Have you tried other options such as doing freelance work, both online or offline?


 I do the headphones thing too - it does help because you get a boost by listening to your favourite tunes while also blocking out interaction around you. I'm heading off to work soon so no doubt I'll be wearing mine in a couple of hours to drown out the usual Monday morning "what I did in the weekend" speeches :roll


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## AxlRose408 (Apr 11, 2013)

Try to think of work as the 'normal' part of your life where you can be surrounded by people in a controlled environment. People at work must conduct themselves professionally so you don't have to worry about insults and negative remarks. After reading this thread, I didn't see any specific scenarios or details of what makes work so hard. Small talk? Nothing to say? No one laughing at a joke you made? The best thing to do is show some positive emotions and don't look sulky. That will alienate you from everyone else. Enjoy being out of the house and not alone. If you feel like an outcast and that everyone is persecuting you, find a new job if possible. Work is more about getting along with people than it is about your actual job duties. 

Good luck


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## evelyngilbert (May 27, 2013)

I can understand.. Even I do the SAME..!!


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## marokji (Aug 4, 2012)

I would be so happy if i had a job.


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## Rusty000Shackleford (May 20, 2013)

AxlRose408 said:


> Work is more about getting along with people than it is about your actual job duties.


Aint that the truth. Getting along with people at work also involves role playing. Eg. They are the client/customer and you are the professional, even if its just serving them food. There is just no way around that fact that you will have to play a certain role and for us playing the role is harder than doing the actual work.

Two words: dish washer

edit: and whistling is a good way to let off nervous energy and seem friendly. I'm much too self conscious to whistle actual songs, just whistle random sh!t, it works.


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## Latelymaxie (Jun 30, 2013)

*Take some classes*

Become a bookeepper. You sit in a room and cruch numbers all day. Provfammers can do that too, but I was too dumb to pogram, so bookkeepping it was. I,ve done it for 40 years and now make $65 p/h. Started out at about $10 back in 1985...


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