Anxiety interferes with my job... should I quit?

[stopthissong]

Hi everyone,

Along with this phobia I have quite bad anxiety. I am a young high school teacher and I love what I do. However, as I don't have a full time teaching job, I work as a casual teacher in a school aka a substitute. So I get called up early in the morning to take classes for people that couldn't make it into work that day. The uncertainty and instability of casual teaching is really hurting my anxiety. Not knowing when I will work and not being able to make my own plans is really hard. I wake up super early and am instantly anxious and panicky because I'm waiting for a phone call that I might not even get. Also, if I've been particularly anxious or have plans and I have to say "Sorry I can't work today", I feel that extreme sense of guilt and disappointment that many anxiety sufferers deal with.

I know quitting will be like "giving in" to anxiety, but I just feel like I need to do more to help my anxiety BEFORE taking on more casual work so that in the future maybe it won't be so hard. Do you think quitting would be like failing? Or is it time I took care of myself and did what's best for my mental health right now? I'm not quitting teaching, I'm just quitting casual teaching. I'm always hunting for full time work which is what would really make me happy.

Thanks for reading. Hope you're all doing well x

[Afdpt]

Personally I believe in facing your fear and not letting it win. Obviously this is a personal choice for you, as you know what's best for yourself but my thoughts would be that IF you are going to quit you need to have a plan on how you're going to tackle this while you're not working. Are you going to look for more stable work, even if not in your degree field? Are you going to amp up therapy and exposure activities to overcome your phobia? I think the worst thing to do is to give in to your fear, quit your job, and then just try to hide from it. If you think you need to take a step away from the current job you're in, that's fine, but I think you should really have a plan of action that you're going to commit yourself to as soon as you stop working. Does that make sense?

Also, worth considering is the impact this will make on your finding full time work. Teaching is competitive and I think if you have gaps in your resume its going to hurt your chances of finding something permanent. So if full time teaching work is what you think will make you happiest - make sure you consider the implications of leaving your current position.

[canonguy]

don't quit. i know how hard it is and i struggle in a similar way in regards to work, but it is possible to work on your anxiety while working