Job Search Depression is Real: Heres How to Overcome It

Job Search Depression is Real: Heres How to Overcome It

  • October 1, 2020

People struggling with mental health issues should try working as a postman. The time and location may vary according to the position. These are compatible and even prove to be good for your mental health. Have a look at this list and choose a stress-free job for yourself. Underuse of available resources
Browsing only job search engines narrows your vision and limits options.

  • If you’re searching for a job because you’ve been laid off, it can feel like a real blow to your self-esteem.
  • If you’ve experienced a prolonged job search without success, you might be familiar with job search depression.
  • In fact, the Americans With Disabilities Act considers clinical depression a protected disability, which means you can’t legally be discriminated against because of your depression.
  • We’ve all learned the hard way that life is fragile and fleeting.
  • Or a company might hire tutors to teach specific skills to their new batch of employees.
  • Keep in mind that while your job search may take some time, it won’t last forever.
  • The main reasons for its emergence are hopelessness and a declining feeling of self-worth.
  • Because you have experience with one event playing out a certain way, you assume that all future events will have the same outcome.

Instead of blaming yourself for something that happened, consider external factors or other people’s actions that might have also been contributing factors. One way to overcome this cognitive distortion is to reframe how you attribute events. Instead of seeing positive outcomes as flukes, focus on noticing how your own strengths, skills, and efforts contributed to the outcome.

The problem with a fixed mindset: How outlook shapes our lives

CBT is an approach that helps people recognize these cognitive distortions and replace them with more helpful, realistic thoughts. Techniques that your therapist may utilize include cognitive reframing and cognitive restructuring. Emotional reasoning is a way of judging yourself or your circumstances based on your emotions. This type of reasoning assumes that because you are experiencing a negative emotion, it must accurately reflect reality.

There are reasons why the job search takes a psychological toll. If you’re refreshing your inbox every few minutes or perusing job boards constantly, you’re keeping your body and mind in a high-alert stress mode that can do damage over time. If you are constantly worrying about the future, feeling fatigued, becoming socially withdrawn, … [+] getting easily irritated, losing interest in everything and ruminating over negative thoughts, it may be time to talk with someone.

Set yourself up for some wins

You might think your skills and abilities aren’t strong enough for your chosen career, or you pursued the wrong degree altogether. Maybe you feel embarrassed seeing that your fellow graduates are snagging jobs, but you’re still unemployed. Perhaps you feel a loss of control over your destiny, or feel lonely, unloved, or hopeless.

It also discusses hypothetical examples to show how this kind of thinking affects behavior and what you can do to help overcome these distortions. Cognitive distortions are negative or irrational patterns of thinking. These negative thought patterns can play a role in diminishing your motivation, lowering your self-esteem, and contributing to problems like anxiety, depression, and substance use. She has experience in the social impact space in Baltimore, Maryland, the educational museum sphere in Columbus, Ohio, and the literary world of New York City.

Coping With Cognitive Distortions

Make a list of job postings you’re applying for, with information like interview dates, contact details, and interview questions you’d like to ask. If you don’t get that dream job you applied for, have a plan ready to pick yourself up. Focus on what you can learn from the experience rather than feeling rejected. I began naming their depression and job search depression in our appointments, asking them how they were feeling overall — outside of looking for work. I’d comment they seemed tired or down, and ask how they were looking after themselves. For many of the people I worked with, they didn’t have someone asking them about anything other than when they were going to get a job.

depression and job search

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