Working with social anxiety AKA the good side of my job

Heyo!

So  a couple of weeks ago I posted a very long and very rant-y blog about how horrible working with social anxiety is, I still kind of hate my job but I thought I should make a post about the good as well.

I also might be feeling more up to this post because my depression finally broke about three days ago and I have some time of not feeling completely horrible at the moment and I figured I should use it while it's available.

So into the goods of working!

The first good thing about having this job is having somewhere to go most days.
When I wasn't working there would be days at a time where I wouldn't leave the house or even just step out side of door and I'm sure you don't need me to tell you how bad that can be for your mental and physical health. Having this jobs kind of kills all chance of me staying in bed and/or the house all day long.
I'm not saying that it was easy to make myself do this and go to a job that I don't particularly like but for me I didn't really have choice unless I wanted to live on the streets, but regardless of my reasoning, having a job forced me to leave the house and get outdoors which helped with my anxiety and depression. Here is an excerpt from an article that explains some of the benefits of going outdoors:

Spending time in nature has been shown to lower stress levels, Seattle-based environmental psychologist Judith Heerwagon tells The Huffington Post. “Just looking at a garden or trees or going for a walk, even if it’s in your own neighborhood, reduces stress,” she says. “I don’t think anyone understands why, but there’s something about being in a natural setting that shows clear evidence of stress reduction, including physiological evidence — like lower heart rate.”
One reason Mother Nature may work as such a great stress-buster is through scent. The smell of many flowers, including jasmine, lilacs and roses, have been proven to decrease stress and increase relaxation. The scent of fresh pine has even been shown to lower depression and anxiety.

The second good thing about having a job is daily social interaction.
When I didn't have a job, someways I wouldn't leave my room at all and would barely speak to my house mates. As you can imagine this is not a very healthy way to live. Humans are social creatures and even if socializing gives me major anxiety it's still healthy.
Do I still get anxious at work when I have to speak with customers? Absolutely! When I see a customer I just repeat "please don't come to me" over and over in my head lol But the truth is that with each day it gets easier and easier to deal with the daily social interactions (the weird thing is that I only get used to interacting socially with the customers at my job behind the counter, it has no effect on how bad my anxiety is in any other type of social situation, but that's a topic for another post).

The third good thing about having a job is making new connections.
This goes hand in hand with the social interactions but on a more persona level I believe. Before working I couldn't really say I had very many friends besides my sister that is one year older than me. I had acquaintances, but no one I really felt I could call a friend or that I would hang out with. I'm not saying I have that now, but I do have work friends that I enjoy talking to. It's nice to have people at work that I can talk to about mundane things and actually feel comfortable talking with (of course there is problem of the uncomfortable questions about when I'm going to get a boyfriend and of my married and sex talk, which honestly makes me very uncomfortable, but I don't feel comfortable telling them about being ace either, so lose lose situation).

So that's all the good things I have noticed about having a job.
Btw, if you notice that this blog is lighter than majority of my previous blogs it's because my depression has decided to break and I'm feeling better at the moment, so yay me!

More post to come soon.

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