Hello and welcome to my podcast, The Wellness Project with Des. On today’s episode, I speak with Anjum Bhandari about becoming physically sick from the stresses of her full-time job.
I’m Desiree, a Mental Health Therapist that is passionate about helping people improve their mental health and live a healthy and fulfilled life. One way I do this is by interviewing experts in the field of mental health and wellness as well as those that have struggled with their mental health but have gained control over it and now live fulfilling lives. In this episode, we will hear from Anjum about how her poor mental health manifested physically due to the stresses of her job.
When she first started her job, Anjum realized it wasn’t the right fit. It wasn’t something she enjoyed. Each day, she had a difficult time getting out of bed in the morning to get herself to work. All she looked forward to was leaving her job in the evenings. On top of that, she lived far from her family and her job didn’t have the flexibility that would allow her to visit them as often as she wanted. She spent most of her time alone in the city.
Anjum suffered from anxiety and depression for years while being stuck in her 9-5 corporate job- only she didn’t know what she was suffering from was mental health and she didn’t know her symptoms were stemming from the stresses of her job. Anjum’s symptoms strongly presented physically. She experienced many digestive issues, rapid heartbeat, nausea, vertigo, sweats, body aches, a lack of energy, and she was losing weight. She explains that she was having anxiety and panic attacks and that every time she had a panic attack she thought she was going to die. Thinking her symptoms were from a physical illness, Anjum went to Gastrointestinal specialists, heart specialists, and neurologists…they ran many tests, took MRIs, and prescribed all sorts of medications. Nothing seemed to help and not one doctor brought up the possibility of these symptoms being connected to Anjum’s mental health.
It wasn’t until Anjum started googling her symptoms and started reading other people’s stories that she realized what she was struggling with was her mental health. Then she made the connection that her mental health struggles were stemming from her toxic job.
Even after discovering her symptoms were connected to her job, Anjum had a difficult time leaving her job. She faced a lot of pressure from loved ones to stay at her well-paying, stable job. She also didn’t want to have wasted her time and energy on a field she wasn’t going to work in. She explains that she got educated in this field and worked so hard to get where she was. She did all the interviews, and studied this field extensively- how could she leave it? She also explains that it was scary to leave something so secure.
Anjum’s story is so important because we spend a majority of our days at our job yet we don’t talk about how they impact our mental health. Her story is also important because mental health issues often present physically and it’s something that can get overlooked.
Listen to Anjum’s story to learn how your job may be impacting your mental and physical health and how she came up with a plan to leave her stable, well-paying job.
And remember- no job is worth damaging your mental health.
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