I'm currently 24, unemployed and have never worked a proper job. Every time I get a call about interviews I end up ignoring them completely as I it makes me incredibly anxious. I also feel bad wasting their time since they take the time to take a look through my resume and are even willing to consider me as a potential employee. It's unfortunate as I think I had a proper chance at some of these jobs but it feels like my body physically can't pick up the phone and answer it. I think I've slowly been getting better at this though as it used to be that I was too afraid to answer emails but now I can do them pretty comfortably. I feel like the only way to get through this anxiety is to keep applying and slowly become more comfortable with calls and interviews but if anyone has any other suggestions I'm open to taking them.

Hi Cram72,

Well come to our forums.

Jump right in!

One thing I learned about anxiety was the more that we do what the anxiety is telling us to do the more we reinforce it.

You are so much stronger than your anxiety.

I understand anxiety can be hard to deal with, you could make an appointment with your gp and do a mental health plan this will enable you to see a psychologist who can help you with strategies for anxiety.

Hi Cram72,

Sorry to hear that you've been struggling with anxiety and haven't felt comfortable taking on job interviews. It sounds to me like you've made huge steps in terms of getting to the point to set up these interviews and comfortable communicate via email. Its small victories like these that you need to give yourself credit for. In terms of other strategies, there's a technique called 'thought challenging' that my doctor runs me through which helps me try and challenge that negative self talk and irrational fears or guilt. I used to excessively worry about others thoughts and this helped.

There are many other similar strategies that clinicians can use within CBT. I definitely recommend raising something like that with your GP or psychologist.

I know many have strong views on this one but I believe anxiety medication can be very useful in just getting you past that first hurdle. If you could get a prescription for something just to take the edge off a bit, you might feel more empowered to get through an interview and so on. I’ve done this just for an interview - not for ongoing use. Once you have a job, then cbt with a psychologist will be helpful to get you into a better mental place going forward where you can continue to be successful without the need for meds. Wishing you all the very best with it. You got this!