I’m looking for some advice and audio/field recommendations for a specific type of anxiety and cognitive block I experience.
To give some context: I have an extremely high tolerance for physical danger, death, or social confrontation (I stay completely cold-headed). However, when it comes to administrative tasks, procedures, or going to hospitals/medical centers, my anxiety spikes.
I recently learned this is closely related to Executive Dysfunction and Cognitive Overload. When I enter these complex, poorly signposted environments, my brain gets completely overwhelmed. I get distracted, lose my sense of direction, and my “inner coordinator” freezes. I don’t know where to go, I forget the steps I need to follow, and I get intense performance anxiety about making a mistake or standing in the wrong line.
Hmmm
In my experience this usually boils down to looking from too far away and seeing too many tasks at once.
It would require a field that with which you can separate all these smaller tasks and processes into smaller ones, and then proceeding ahead one by one. The overload comes from thinking “wow next step is this but further ahead are another gazillion things to do, f this shit” and your body freezes because you wanna be in control.
I think ego dissolution might help to some extent, maybe Emotional Release whenever you are in this situation. Also fight to flight.
I can’t seem to pinpoint one specific field or not sure if an exact one exists for this special case.
But yes, simply centering your mind, and breaking down the overload of tasks into small steps and taking them one by one will help.
I’d probably go with vagus nerve stimulation, amygdala healing, attention and focus, and temporary boosted memory and thinking.
The first two would mainly help calm down that overload fear response so your brain isn’t already half-fried before you even try to figure out what you’re supposed to be doing. Then attention and focus + m,emory and thinking should help more with actually staying on task and not getting mentally scattered by everything going on around you.
I think that fits what you described better than something like willpower, because you clearly don’t have a courage problem lol. It sounds more like your brain just gets overloaded in those environments and the coordinator part stops working properly.
I’d probably try one play of each before going into one of those situations and see how you respond. If you ever wanted to add a fifth, remove unconscious clutter could be worth experimenting with too.
Hey bud I also work in the medical field and I go through a situation similar, performance anxiety and fear when other people are watching you. I found that mindfulness of 10 minutes a day really helps to just relax that nervous system, I’ve tried all fields and they do work but only temporarily at least for me. Mindfulness allows me to go in that flow state. I was always worried about what other preceptors thought of me but honestly just focus on giving back and keeping patients healthy.
Second of all be kind to yourself, most people are nervous in these settings it’s tough when you have patients who are vulnerable and dependent on you. It’s okay to be anxious.
Good luck my friend and I hope nothing but a positive joyrney for you.
Executive dysfunctioning and excelling under pressure compared to a neurotypical could be signs of ADHD. Although you need 6-7 symptoms to be diagnosed, ask yourself: Is my focus scattered around because I’m unconsciously noticing things in the environment? (It could be because you’re brain is looking for a dopamine hit) When I’m not under pressure, do I feel unproductive because it takes a lot of mental energy to start and finish a task? (It could be because of executive dysfunctioning) Does the world seem less magical, colorful and more dull than a normal person? (The root cause could be due to lack of mental stimulation) Is it very difficult for me to stay on task if I don’t have a routine? (Weekly planning rituals are S-tier for ADHD and highly recommended)
If you say yes to all of these, I wouldn’t be certain you have ADHD, but I encourage you to get a consultation.
If you don’t say yes to all of these, but a few stand out and you’re dealing with perfectionism including symptoms such as repeating rituals until you feel okay and having intrusive thoughts, I would encourage you to get a consultation for OCD. Both are very similar but ADHD affects dopamine and OCD affects serotonin.
If you are 100% sure you are neurotypical in the sense that you don’t have either, I would encourage you to chant the “aum” beej syllable mantra in your head and not out loud to ground yourself internally from your anxiety while you’re working. This might seem woo woo, but this has helped me in college when I had maxed out credit hours for classes, a full-time fast paced food service job at Chipotle, and had to function a day-to-day life with 3 challenging roommates.
The second best thing I could recommend is actually studying the patterns of your workplace setting to engineer your environment to make your work follow the path of least resistance and plan out your day so your productivity is tamed into situations you have control over so you spend your energy frugally to maximize your performance and reduce your stress levels. This method has helped me a lot with my ADHD. This is because everything requires willpower so I will stack habits and rituals together so I can do more things and spend less mental energy by making your own convenience.