I am freaking out at work right now

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I am on my break now, but only for 20 more minutes and then I work for another 6 hours. And I can't calm down, I feel extremely tense and I want to just start hitting my head and yelling, or something along those lines, but obviously that's not appropriate behavior at work.

Since I'm on break I've calmed down a bit but I don't know how I'm gonna get through the day without flipping out at somebody or breaking something. I am trying really hard not to.

Does anyone have any advice on how to deal with this without having a meltdown? Or am I just stuck holding it in till the end of the day?

I'm sorry but I can't help much.

It happens to me about 2 to 3 times a week at work.

I feel really edgy and uneasy and cannot focus.

I usually just end up becoming a distraction to other people around me and nothing really gets done production wise.

Just try distract yourself from it and get through the day.

Don't get yourself into trouble though.

What brought it on? Do you know?

Talk to somebody you trust if that is an option.

Tell a manager or supervisor but do not freak out in work.

I think what brought it on is that for some reason they kept shutting all the doors and turning on these industrial heaters that blow a ton of hot air, and it was getting extremely hot and muggy in there. I felt really itchy and hot, and extremely uncomfortable.

That's not the only thing, it was that plus the fact that it's always loud here and there's a ton going on at once. I'm doing better now that they turned off the heaters though.

Oh well I'm glad you're feeling a bit better and you've managed to keep yourself together.

It's those flipping heaters, they do it every time!

I can't stand the heat either. It can be stressful to deal with.

Try to shift your focus away from the feelings of the meltdown.
Shift attention to look at some spot on the wall.
Shift to the floor, the table, a bunch of objects in series.
For 30 seconds at a time, try to put attention on objects and away from emotions.
Then go back to emotions and see if you find them reduced.
Continue back and forth and see if you feel less like meltdown over several minutes.

Maybe count something? Like, maybe you could count ceiling tiles, or the tiny holes in the tiles; or, cinder blocks in the wall. If you have a desk job, maybe count paper clips? It helps me, ALOT. Also, I string paper clips together, and then take them apart----if it's MY desk, I wouldn't do it at someone else's desk----and that calms me down. Sometimes I just hold several (about 5-10, I guess) paper clips in my hand, for awhile. There's this whole "thing" about "transference"----something like.... using something to transfer your negative energies to. I've tried plastic and wooden objects, but nothing works as well as metal, for me.

What precipitated this reaction?

I hate hot and muggy. If you can tolerate ice cubes, I used to rub the on my wrists and under my neck and chin (not where any one can see me do this), and it made me feel less gross. The wrist and hands worK good if you can't have privacy.

I'm a NT, and hot blower motors would do me in.

To be honest, I think that my medication might be making me worse too. I was on Adderall IR and last week I started taking the extended release version, and I've been getting mixed results. I do know that Adderall can cause irritation, but I got used to it before. But if it is, then it's combined with the fact that I have had quite a few days like this before even starting Adderall, and so it's making it worse.

By "it", I mean all the unexpected and strong stimuli like people yelling, or getting randomly hit with a mist of water; those are the main things. I carry a hand towel with me for the water. It still gets pretty stressful after a while though.

I'm going to go talk to the pharmacist and see what he says about it, maybe I should stop taking it or change the dosage or something.

^^It might be worth a try. Does the medication make your temperature rise as well?^^

I use Equasym for ADHD and it makes my temp rise a bit, but I don't get irritated by things like you do.

Apart from looking at the meds you are taking, can you wear loose fitting clothing at work for the heat, preferably cotton, no synthetic? And are you allowed to wear ear plugs for the noise?

We have a uniform, which consists of a certain brand of work pants (synthetic and loose-fitting, still slightly uncomfortable though), a short-sleeved T-shirt that is partially synthetic material, boots and a hat. The pants are not restrictive, neither is the shirt. I actually wear a 100% cotton long-sleeved shirt underneath it though because long sleeves are more comfortable for me, and it helps keep water from getting directly on my arms, which bothers me (I just don't like how it feels when it is dripping on my skin). I also spent around $90 dollars on a pair of boots that are very long-lasting and comfortable, the interior is padded; I hated using the ones that were all rubber.

As for hearing protection, we are actually required to have it; they give us ear plugs to start with, but all of the kinds they offered were uncomfortable for me, they made my ears feel bruised after using them for a while. I ended up buying ear muffs instead, for comfort and because they also block the sound better; nobody else wears them so sometimes people will make comments about it, but the manager said it was ok. They have helped a lot; I still seem to have more issues than others though, as I still jump at sudden noises even with the ear muffs, and I've never seen a single person there get startled by a sudden noise, even without their ear plugs.

What will really start to irritate me, though, is when people are continually rushing me or giving multiple instructions at once. Also, if they ask me to explain something, it seems like no matter what it is I will confuse them because I over explain it and have trouble organizing what I say. Then they start to get visibly annoyed, and sometimes even yell at me, particularly this one co-worker who yells all the time; usually I try to just comply, but sometimes I am to the point where I can't hide how aggravated I am, especially if they are being a total jerk about it. That is really hard to deal with.

http://www.freemeditation.com

Listen to one of these free guided meditations. They're very calming.