Healthy Coping Strategies for Work Stress When Neurodivergent
Featured image by charan sai
Having healthy ways to cope with stress can have a huge impact on our wellbeing. In this article, I’ll share some ideas for coping with work stress that I’ve used myself as well as some I’ve learned from others. I’ll also include some reflection questions as a guide to support you in bringing more awareness to what may work for you and your unique situation.
Understanding What Is Causing Stress
Understanding what is causing stress is often an important first step in being able to address it. There are so many things that can cause stress, and for those of us who are neurodivergent, that list gets even longer. Here are a few common stressors that can show up during the workday. This is by no means an exhaustive list, but one that I hope will help to further your own exploration:
Cognitive overload: This can show up when there’s too much of a task that overwhelms our mental capacity. For some this may be task switching, or other tasks that are difficult to sustain over a period of time such as processing a lot of information.
Understimulation: This can show up as feeling bored or having too much down time and not enough structure, challenge or direction.
Sensory overload: This could be due to harsh lighting, too much background noise or any other sensory stimulation that feels like it’s distracting or too much for our nervous system.
Self-critical thoughts: When these show up, they can impact our emotions and actions. Self-critical thoughts may sound something like, ‘I’ll never be able to do this’ or ‘I’m just not smart enough.’
Other unmet needs: Maybe what you need is more support, autonomy, or communication with your supervisor. Maybe it’s something else entirely. To identify what unmet need is showing up and causing stress, you can ask yourself what feels like it’s missing in your workday that would make it easier for you to do your best work?
Sometimes what is causing stress isn’t easy to identify, or it may be several things at once. Even if this is the case, taking some time to sit with this and stay open to moving forward can be beneficial.
Reflection Questions
Here are some questions you can ask yourself to better understand your stress:
- When do you notice that you feel the best during the workday?
- When you are feeling stressed during the workday, what thoughts and feelings show up for you?
- If there was one thing that you could change in your workday that would help you to feel less stressed, what would it be? What difference do you believe this would make for you and your life?
Photo by Antoni Shkraba Studio
Coping Strategies to Try
When it comes to finding a way forward, sometimes the most effective solutions are right in front of us. Other times we may need support and ideas from others to find what works. Here are some things that I’ve used or have picked up from others as ways to help with work stress. It’s less important about when you try out a strategy and more important that you find a time in the workday that feels supportive for you. For some, this may be before or after work hours.
Keep a journal to thought dump. Journaling can be a really helpful way to move thoughts out of the mind and onto paper. When I feel stuck or in a negative thought loop, I open up a document on my computer to jot my thoughts down. When I do this, I often end up getting clarity around them.
Check in with spoon levels throughout the day. Checking in with spoon levels (units of energy) can be a helpful way to assess where you’re at throughout the day and inform what you have capacity for. For example, when you notice that your spoons (energy) for focusing on single tasks is low, you might choose to focus on tasks that require connecting with others.
Challenge your self-criticism with self-compassion. The basic idea of self-compassion asks us, how would you feel towards a close friend or family member who was going through this same situation? Often, we find that we would feel more compassion and understanding towards them. With that in mind, you can write down your self-critical thought and then rephrase it using a compassionate lens. An example of this might look like rephrasing the thought ‘I’m such a failure for not getting this right the first time’ to ‘It’s okay to make mistakes. I’m human and I can learn to improve over time.’
Use a feelings/needs chart to check in with yourself. This is a tool I use often to help me identify what I’m feeling. Seeing a list of feelings acts as a prompt to be able to recognise and acknowledge them, while identifying what I’m needing helps to point me in the direction of getting that need met.
Incorporate favourite sensory tools and supports. What kinds of sensory tools help you to do your best work? For some this might be noise cancelling headphones, crunchy snacks, a weighted lap blanket, or tinted glasses to help with sensory differences around light. When sensory triggers are impacting you, finding ways to mitigate them can make a huge difference.
Photo by Andrea Piacquadio from Pexels
Strategies Can Change Over Time
Keep in mind that what works for you now may change in the future, and that’s okay. There have been many strategies that I loved and that worked for a while, but then over time, due to needing novelty or feeling underwhelmed with them, they stopped being as effective. Through trial and error, we can keep exploring to discover new tools and strategies.
When to Seek Additional Support
If using coping strategies on your own isn’t helping, or helping enough, asking for additional support is a completely valid option. Some people find that they can’t significantly reduce their stress at work until they get the accommodations, training or mentoring they need. Beyond work-specific supports, coaching and/or therapy can also help to identify deeper challenges and obstacles such as internalised ableism or imposter syndrome. Seeking out resources such as these can help with feeling more confident, fulfilled and supported.
When starting a new habit, beginning with something that is very doable helps to sustain that habit over time. What feels doable will be unique to you and your current capacity. Over time, one small thing done consistently can make a significant difference. I hope that this article can aid in your exploration of reducing stress at work, and that you find the support and encouragement you need to flourish. Please feel free to comment and share what other coping strategies work for you.
Further Resources
For more on Spoon Theory:
The Spoon Theory for Professionals – Exceptional Individuals
For more on Self-Compassion:
A feelings/needs chart that you can download:
https://www.nycnvc.org/feelings-and-needs-sheet
For more on sensory preferences:
Building a Sensory Toolkit for the Workplace – Exceptional Individuals
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