how to stop constantly feeling a sense of dread

Written By self love diaries 🤍

The feeling like something bad is going to happen isn’t a good feeling. A feeling of dread for no reason doesn’t feel good either.

It’s like an invisible dark cloud surrounding you that you can’t see, but you can definitely feel it growing. You don’t know when the storm will hit, but you know something’s coming.

I’m going back to work after having a full week off, and I’m feeling a growing sense of dread that I can’t explain.

Having to fake niceness, not look annoyed when I’m assigned things and pretend I love it in the office is very hard. It’s causing me anxiety, and it hasn’t even happened yet.

Dread and anxiety are emotional states that many people deal with, especially about a future event or task that you’re not feeling good about.

To dread something or to dread every day can become overwhelming and be detrimental to your life and productivity. It can feel paralyzing, as you’re so anxious about a later event that you can’t think straight about the present.

Dread is “highly unpleasant, feels uncontrollable, and comes from getting stuck in your head,” according to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America.

“You become preoccupied with some experience you’re about to face and all you can think about is how bad it will be. You try to think optimistically,” the association wrote.

what does dread feel like?

Dread feels like an underlying, constant anxiety about what’s to come. It’s a negative feeling that can feel overwhelming sometimes, especially when a future event is far away or very important.

For example, I currently feel dread about going to work on a daily basis at this point because I’m so desperate and hungry to leave my job. It makes me so miserable that I feel anxious about having to go into the office.

Now, if you’ve been keeping up with me, you know that I’ve had some recent job rejection I’ve been dealing with. It sucks, and it really takes a hammer to your motivation and excitement of potentially progressing.

It’s not fun to be told a company doesn’t want you. It’s not fun to feel stuck and like you might never leave where you are. I feel this on a daily basis, but it’s not healthy for me to be stuck in a cycle of dread.

I want to live my life happy most days. I don’t want to have to look forward to the few hours after work every day, and then to the never-long-enough weekend. Because it’s an endless cycle, and I don’t want to spend years like this.

And I don’t want you to go a long time with the feeling of dread and anxiety either.

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how to cope with daily dread

I encourage you (and myself) to break free from the notion that you have to live your life in a cycle of daily dread.

You can cope with daily dread and anxiety by focusing on the present and what you can control. Worrying about the future won’t change the outcome, though anxious thoughts aren’t just a switch you can flip off.

Intentional breathing, releasing some sense of control and fantasizing the best outcome can help you in a low moment.

Keep reading for all the ways you can cope with daily dread!

find one daily positive in your day.

It can be small or large. For example, my job offers Bagel Wednesdays and sometimes Summer Fridays. That’s two days out of the week I can look out for a little treat.

Maybe for you it looks like treating yourself to a coffee the day you have a big meeting or presentation, taking a walk outside in nice weather when you start to feel overwhelmed.

If you know you’re set to receive big news or hear back about something that’s scary, you could plan a nice dinner for yourself or set up some friend time right after to distract you if it doesn’t go well.

Finding a daily positive or something to look forward to can help you distract yourself from feeling dread all day.

I truly do believe in the power of excitement, and that’s one way you can make a difference in how you’re feeling.

lean into your emotions and don’t hide how you’re feeling.

It can be annoying to constantly complain about your situation. I often feel myself cringing about how often I rant to my friends and family about how much I can’t stand my job, or how nervous I am about a future event.

But hiding your feelings don’t make them go away. They’re still in the back of your mind.

So have you fully faced how you’re feeling, and what’s causing you anxiety? Do you feel comfortable embracing them? Would it be okay to let them out every once in a while?

I’m not saying let your feelings control you and be upset all the time about a future situation. But I do think when you’re overwhelmed or upset, it’s more than okay (and encouraged!) to lean into your emotions.

Embarrassingly enough, I’ve cried in the office way more than I thought I would as a career woman. 

Just yesterday, I had to step away for a few minutes to let it out in private. It’s not a daily (or even weekly) occurrence, but it does make me feel better when I let it all out.

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work on ways to get out of a situation that consistently brings you dread.

If there’s something or someone that is consistently bringing you dread and anxiety, it’s not good to keep letting it bother you, especially if it’s something you can control.

I know I mentioned how I’ve had job rejection (multiple times in the last few months) recently and how much it sucked. But there’s nothing like hoping and fantasizing about yourself getting out of a situation causing you dread.

Whether it’s due to work, family, life, health, etc. Try your best (if possible) to think of small steps to take to get out of your situation. Obviously, easier said than done. But the power of hope and excitement is so real.

I’m not going to stop looking and applying for more jobs because I know and believe that I can get out of here. It sucks in the meantime because I do feel so hopeless at my situation. 

But once I get a little more motivation, I fully plan on getting back in the race for another opportunity.

changing your mindset when you wake up with a sense of dread

Waking up anxious for something later in the day is one of the worst feelings to me. It causes me to not want to do anything else because the feeling is so debilitating.

That anxiety can make me less productive, glued to my bed and in pain from physical symptoms of anxiety.

To fix your morning, try to distract yourself. Be productive, get out of the house, set up plans. Do what you have to do so that your plans later in the day aren’t ruining the whole day.

Repeat some affirmations to yourself to reset your mind and get your head in a more positive, optimistic space.

Start with these positive morning affirmations to start your day if you wake up feeling a heavy sense of dread.

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