Margaret was interviewed in The Irish Times article “Anxiety in the workplace: ‘I see it in CEOs and in young people starting and everywhere in between’” by Olive Keogh Friday Jul 14 2023 – 05:00.
Organisational psychologist and psychotherapist Margaret Forde says anxiety is one of the most common reasons people seek her help.
“I see it in CEOs and in young people starting their careers and everywhere in between and I think it’s useful that this author is normalising the conversation around it,” she says.
“People can function with anxiety but if it’s the dominant theme in their lives, they will not be at their best and it will affect them in areas such as decision-making and mental focus, so you end up losing concentration and staring at a screen or a document but nothing is going in.
“The thing to remember about anxiety is that it can be managed and that it is possible to break that anxiety loop that people often get caught up in. It’s a question of what works for you, and sometimes people need a bit of help to find it. When people are anxious, they often discount the positives and their perceived ‘failures’ loom much larger than their successes. It’s important to redress the balance.
“I’m a great believer in self-compassion, which is not about letting yourself off the hook. It’s about treating yourself with the kindness you’d extend to someone else in a difficult situation. This helps stabilise your mood and get you into a more creative and functional space instead of being stuck and hard on yourself.
“Anxiety is often disproportionate to achievement, and high achievers can be very anxious,” says Forde. “When you learn to externalise it – and self-awareness helps here – it’s easier to look more objectively at what you’re anxious about and what you fear may happen.”
Read the full article here: