So how in the heck am I going to manage being in the workplace dealing, interacting and managing in the workplace for 8 or more hours a day?
If you’ve made the decision to go back to work? You take it one day at a time.
Each day you try again, you do what you can to improve your stamina, you check in with your distress levels regularly, and when you need a break, you take a good solid break.
Today? You pulled off less than an hour. But that was more than yesterday. It’s okay that you reached your threshold. It’s okay that you didn’t pull off a complete day today. Try not to let the panic about having a panic attack fuel more panic. You’re not going to go from zero to perfect in a day - that’s okay.
From your previous threads, my understanding is that you have legal advice to return to work temporarily till a severance can be organised? So the goal isn’t full-time work in your previous role for the rest of time. The goal is to return to work
for just long enough.
After a long absence? People won’t expect you to be at full capacity from the minute you walk in the door. Try and give yourself permission to be less than perfect, to be
recovering rather than
recovered, and have the goal of pulling off work for
long enough to sort things out.
Today didn’t go as well as you’d hoped, and that’s disappointing. But actually, you did great. You got out there and started to prepare. So try and take it one day at a time, and be as gentle with yourself as possible. Plan a task for tomorrow, and keep checking in with yourself and taking breaks to do self-soothing and breathing exercises when you need.
In an ideal world, we’d have more time. And life has been a long long way from ideal for you recently. But all you can do? Is the best you can do on any given day. Having a panic attack today
doesn’t mean it’s going to be a catastrophe, it means that we had a panic attack today. And tomorrow? We start the day knowing in advance that our anxiety is high, and we’re doing the best we can.
However it works out, the crowd here have your back. It’s been a tough road, but you worked out a plan with your attorney, and so tomorrow, like today? You just do what you can to get yourself as ready as you can be. That’s enough. That’s an achievement.
