Career Anxiety Is Exhausting. Here's How to Cope (Therapist-Approved)

Jun 29

June 29, 2025

Your job shouldn’t feel like a 24/7 panic attack. Career anxiety is real and you’re not lazy.

You’re staring at your laptop with a pit in your stomach. Your to-do list is growing faster than your paycheck, and every Slack notification feels like a jump scare. Meanwhile, your brain whispers:

“You should be doing more.”
“You’re falling behind.”
“Everyone else has it figured out.”

Welcome to the millennial career anxiety spiral, brought to you by capitalism, student debt, hustle culture, and the belief that your job should be your identity and your passion project and your purpose.

Spoiler: That’s not sustainable. But don’t worry… therapy has tools for that!

First, What Is Career Anxiety?

It’s that chronic sense of unease, dread, or pressure related to work, money, success, or the future. It can show up as:

Impostor syndrome
Burnout
Fear of failure (or success!)
Constant comparison
Paralysis when making decisions

Sound familiar? You’re not alone… and you’re not broken.

Therapist-Approved Tools to Help You Cope

1. Cognitive Reframing (aka Stop Believing Every Thought You Think)

Your brain says: “I’m not good enough.”
You say: “Cool story, brain. What’s the evidence for that?”

Reframing is about challenging anxious, irrational thoughts and replacing them with more grounded, balanced ones.

Try this: Write down your anxious thought. Then ask:
What is this thought trying to protect me from?
What’s a more compassionate way to view this?
If a friend said this, what would I say to them?

2. Set Boundaries Like a Therapist Would

Therapists don’t take client calls at 11 p.m. Why are you answering work emails at midnight?

Boundary tip: Create a work shutdown ritual. Close your laptop. Say, “Work is done for today.” Literally say it out loud. Your nervous system needs the cue.

3. Somatic Practices to Calm Your Body (Not Just Your Mind)

Career anxiety isn’t just in your head. It lives in your body. Heart racing, jaw clenching, chest tightening? That’s your nervous system in overdrive.

Try this:
Shake it out (literally shake your arms and legs for 30 seconds)
Box breathing: Inhale 4, hold 4, exhale 4, hold 4
Lay on the floor with your legs up the wall for 5 minutes

Your body needs to feel safe before your brain can problem-solve.

4. Values Clarification

Sometimes anxiety is actually your intuition whispering, “This job isn’t aligned.” Are you hustling for something that doesn’t match who you are anymore?

Ask yourself:
What do I value more than money or prestige?
What kind of life do I want to build and is this job helping or hurting that?

Therapists call this “values-based living.” You don’t have to love your job, but it shouldn’t be crushing your soul.

5. Get Out of Your Own Head (aka Externalization)

Talk to a therapist. Or a friend. Or journal it. Your anxious brain is like a messy desktop. Things feel more manageable once you drag them into the open.

Try this:
Journal prompt: “What am I afraid might happen if I fail at work? And what would I do if that actually happened?”
Talk it out with someone who won’t just say “You’ll be fine,” but will sit in the messy middle with you.

Bonus Tool: Redefine "Success"

Not every career move has to be a ladder climb. What if success looked like:

Working fewer hours and having more joy?
Saying “no” to projects that drain you?
Doing work you like without tying your entire identity to it?

Success that honours your mental health is still success.

Final Thought

Career anxiety doesn’t mean you’re failing… it means you care. It means you’re trying. And it means your body and mind are asking for a new way to do life.

With the right tools (and maybe a therapist), you can build a career that doesn’t cost you your well-being.

You deserve peace, not just a paycheck.