Unemployment anxiety: how does it arise, and what to do?

The existence of unemployment anxiety demonstrates the extent to which mental health is linked to social phenomena happening around us.

In this article we will see why it occurs frequently, and what can be done in these cases.

• Related article "Types of Anxiety Disorders and their characteristics"

Causes of unemployment anxiety

Unemployment is one of the social phenomena with the greatest psychological implications: its effects are felt in very varied areas of life, for two reasons.

First of all, a purely material aspect: most working-age people spend a good part of the week working on their professional side, so the lack of this element of the day-to-day is a great change that forces us to position ourselves on the question of how to manage that time.

Second, the workplace is one of the main elements that constitute the existence of civilizations, whose existence is made possible by the social division of labor (that is, not everyone has to do the same subsistence tasks, but rather offers goods and services to others), so that practically any area of ​​life in society is connected to professional life.

This means that, in most cases, the longer we stay out of this reality, the more problems arise.

Now... what are, specifically, the psychological consequences of not having a job, from which unemployment anxiety derives? Let's see which are the most important.

1. Introduce a feeling of urgency into everyday life

Anxiety is a predisposition to the arousal state to be able to react quickly to warning signs, all based on pessimistic or disturbing thoughts about what will happen in the near future.

This logic fits perfectly with the attitude that unemployed people are expected to have: always alert for the slightest sign of find a job gap to fill with their own workforce, so that they can integrate as soon as possible into the productive gear of the society.

On the other hand, given the lack of information about what the labor market will bring us, it is very easy to feed catastrophic ideas about how we will have to end up living or working: The ambiguity of an increasingly diverse and changing economy makes fear and anguish what we fill in that knowledge gap.

2. Affects self-esteem

In a society where money has a powerful emotional charge and is associated with certain lifestyles and concepts of social labeling, the fact of not having paid work often erodes the self-esteem of those who do not have a job. In fact, it is not uncommon for this to happen even to those who, because of their privileged economic situation, do not even need to work to maintain a good standard of living.

Furthermore, this phenomenon interacts with gender roles. Normally, beyond the economic aspects of the lack of work, it is men who suffer the most by not having paid work, seeing that they do not fit with the masculine role of self-sufficient person or that brings sustenance to the family.

• Maybe you are interested "6 good tips (and habits) to boost your self-esteem"

3. Alters future plans downward

Much of the emotional stability of people is linked to the future plans that they are considering; projects that help to perceive a sense of continuity in what is done: studying a career, saving to buy a house, learning an art, etc.

For this reason, unemployment is usually associated with problems when setting meaningful goals, given that as long as there is no stable way of having a livelihood, it is not realistic to assume that in a matter of months we can be in a clearly better situation than in the Present. Which brings us to the next section

4. Difficulty finding sources of motivation

Having less to choose from due to a sense of urgency to find a foothold, people with unemployment anxiety have more trouble getting their imaginations to fly about what they can achieve if they do the right thing.

5. Influences family dynamics

For all the above, unemployment makes it very easy to escalate the conflicts that were already latent in the families' day-to-day lives (distribution of tasks, job expectations, stress due to lack of resources, etc.) or it causes new sources of conflict to arise.

To do?

Here are some tips to keep in mind when dealing with unemployment anxiety.

1. Establish a clear and sequential plan of action

Starting to organize your ideas about what to do is the first step, and one of the most important.

Focus on these very concrete and simple goals, leaving the rest for another moment, It will allow you to progress without having that feeling that you are trying too hard without achieving anything specific. Once you see that you are progressing, surely the anxiety will reduce, when you realize that your Physical and psychological efforts can be channeled through a series of tasks that are tools.

2. Structure your day to day well

Create clear schedules and make the most of time on two fronts: times to work to end to that unsatisfactory situation in relation to your career path, on the one hand, and moments for you, for the other. You should not underestimate the latter, since if you are psychologically ill due to lack of rest, this will affect your performance, in your personal relationships, and in everything else.

And, of course, it is crucial that you get enough sleep. Failure to do so will create a snowball effect with unattended problems and responsibilities due to your physical inability to take care of them.

3. Learn relaxation techniques

Incorporate small relaxation or Mindfulness exercises into your day to day, even if it is only a five or ten minute session before going to sleep. It will help you to let go of recurring anxious thoughts and adopt a more constructive mindset and objective about what to do.

4. Don't blame yourself for what you feel

Anxiety always has a component of self-fulfilling prophecy: negative feelings make that it is more likely to live negative experiences, which in turn generate more sensations negative.

So don't feel bad about feeling the way you feel; limit yourself to accept that for a while you are going to experience a certain level of discomfort, to which you should not give more importance than it does trying to eliminate it from your consciousness or getting frustrated by not getting it. Limit yourself to achieving objective changes in your material reality, do not try to perfectly control everything that goes through your mind.

5. Seek psychotherapeutic help

If you notice that the situation is overwhelming you and that you are not able to manage it from your own means, do not blame yourself: it is normal for unemployment to have a strong psychological impact that is difficult to manage without having a foothold. Seek psychological help for professional and personalized help.

Are you looking for psychological support?

If you are interested in having psychological therapy to learn to manage anxiety problems or to overcome any other type of emotional or behavioral alteration, we invite you to get in touch with our team of professionals.

On Psychomaster We have a full team of psychologists specialized in various areas of well-being, and we offer therapy both in person at our facilities in the center of Madrid and through online therapy by video call. If you are interested in knowing more about us or seeing our contact information, go to this page.

Bibliographic references:

• American Psychiatric Association (2013). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Arlington: American Psychiatric Publishing. pp. 189 - 195.
• Bienvenu, O.J.; Ginsburg, G.S. (2007). Prevention of anxiety disorders. International Review of Psychiatry. 19 (6): pp. 647 - 654.
• Gu, R.; Huang, Y.X.; Luo, Y.J. (2010). Anxiety and feedback negativity. Psychophysiology. 47(5): 961 - 967.
• Otte, C. (2011). Cognitive behavioral therapy in anxiety disorders: current state of the evidence. Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience, 13 (4): pp. 413 - 421.
• Phillips, A.C.; Carroll, D.; Der, G. (2015). Negative life events and symptoms of depression and anxiety: stress causation and / or stress generation. Anxiety, Stress, and Coping, 28 (4): pp. 357 - 371.
• Torpy, J.M.; Burke, A.E.; Golub, R.M. (2011). Generalized Anxiety Disorder. JAMA. 305(5): 522.