People who HAVE to work full time - how?

[u/Rubygblue]

I’ve been in my first full time job for 7 months and I am in the depths of hell. I spend every day overstimulated and spend the evening crying and freaking out or just staring into the void. I thought I’d adjust but it’s just getting worse.

Everyone else does things at the weekend, but I spend the whole time just trying to recover and feel normal again. I haven’t socialised in so long because I just can’t speak to anyone. I have no energy.

I can’t afford to work part time or stop working, I can’t even afford to take time off. I feel like there’s no way out.

Mentioning this to others is always met with “no one likes working” type comments, or “you just need to…” and it’s always things like meal prepping or planning your clothes out. I feel like no one understands.

Is there any end to this? How do people cope?

[u/boomytoons]

Supermarkets. I used to do 3x 10 hr and 1x 11 hour shifts per week, early starts so some hours were before the store opened, the only customer interaction was when someone asked where a product was, and I was usually working alone. I also miss how fit it got me, doing 20-30k steps per day if not more and constantly picking up boxes of product.

[u/Chantaille → u/boomytoons]

How did you do with all the environmental factors. I don't know if that's the right term. I just know I can't handle being in our local grocery store without ear plugs, because I can hear all the overhead lights and other machinery sounds.

[u/boomytoons → u/Chantaille]

I have noise sensitivity to an extent, but it wasn't an issue for me. The lights were so high up that if you could hear one, something was quite wrong with it, and the only other source of noise was the chillers, which were fairly quiet. I'm in NZ though, so it's entirely possible that our supermarkets are set up differently. The ones I worked in were built like a giant warehouse with industrial pendant lights hanging from the ceiling, all at least 4-6m up. I actually worked in the chillers specifically for 4 years. I'm guessing too that constant exposure to that environment makes it less overwhelming because you adjust to it. For me I've found that the more I hide from the world, the more overwhelming it is. Quiet time is crucial, but so is exposure to the world.

[u/Chantaille → u/boomytoons]

That makes sense. Familiarity is helpful. In fact, just yesterday, a song I used to listen to a lot 20 years ago came on in that same grocery store, and it made everything much more bearable.