Not all careers are cut out for people with social anxiety and making money with anxiety, finding the right job, and going to work can be one of the most challenging.
I used to feel sick the morning of, I would dread going into work talking to people, I would not sleep the night before because my thoughts would overwhelm me. My negative thoughts of going to work made me sick and miserable.
I do think that pushing myself helped in time as working with the same people and getting to know them, not only boosted my confidence, and just practicing being around people gets you used to the public as a whole.
Over time with the use of some natural supplements for my anxiety it helped me lower my anxiety levels, along with my doctors help and finding the perfect job for me. It took time to find where exactly I fit in and was comfortable, there were definitely ups and downs and lots of anxiety in between.
I held many different jobs such as retail, a produce store and installing heating and air conditioning in peoples homes just stressed me out. To the point I had to quit.
Jobs For People With Anxiety
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A number of years later I found a wonderful job working for a company taking care of their grounds as a landscaper and maintaining their buildings. 20 years later I’m still working there and enjoying the atmosphere. I also have become a blogger helping people overcome not only their anxiety but depression and negative thoughts.
This allowed me to create a passive income from home, which helped me work during my most anxious days. Working from home helped me beat the 9 – 5 and not have to hide my pain.
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As you’ll see in my list below, blogging is one of the many jobs you can do and actually make money doing it.
I love blogging as I can help people in my own way how to Manage Stress, Anxiety and Depression, teaching them techniques about Yoga Exercises For Anxiety Relief, along with using Essential Oils for Anxiety and Panic Attacks and so much more.
Because I know what it’s like to have Social Anxiety I decided to write a post to help others make money from home or find a job that’s not socially taxing.
Many of these jobs may be perfect for the introvert who would rather have little social interaction or just work alone all together.
Making Money With Anxiety
Writer
Making money as a writer you could do anything from writing your own books, ad copywriting to freelance work. Popular with people who have social anxiety because this is a solitary job, you must be creative and learn to write. Average pay is about $55,000 a year but you could make more or less depending on your experience.
I prefer to freelance write but I suggest keeping your day job until you start making money as a writer.
Offer your writing services to companies for a stable income. Upwork is a great place to offer your writing services. You control your own hours and can work from anywhere in the world.
Graphic Designer
This job needs lots of creativity and is emotionally filling. You can either learn on your own as I did, or be trained using the software. Once trained you can work from home and would only need to contact your clients through email, IM or skype.
This is another popular job with introverts and people with social anxiety because most of the time you’ll be working on your own, even in a business setting.
This field is pretty competitive so focusing on a preferred niche and just making great content is key. You can get your feet wet in places like Fiverr or Upwork. Here’s a few articles to get you started:
Warehouse
This job is pretty cool and I’ve done this one in the past and really enjoyed it. If you don’t mind working with people in a building or a store, on the back end of things, you don’t have to deal with customers. You’ll have minor interaction with your co-workers and can just do your job.
Working behind the scenes can be a fulfilling job because you don’t have to deal with customers and all their nonsense.
Trades
Piggy backing off our last job of working “behind the scenes”, this can be a great choice for someone who want to make money with anxiety. You will interact with clients and customers, but the majority of your daily work will be independent. An excellent choice for someone with anxiety. If your serious about increasing your pay then going to school and getting a 2 year degree and a license may be necessary.
- Carpenter
- Electrician
- Plumber
- Welder
- Heating and Air Conditioning Specialist
IT Technical
If you enjoy computers and networking and understand the latest technology, this is a great paying career. You can be a Data Analyst, work at the IT Helpdesk, be a Network Administrator or so many other positions.
You will have to speak with people from time to time and consult and diagnose their computer problems, you’re the expert and they are calling you. You’re in control basically which can help our anxiety sometimes.
You could also try jobs as developing or testing software and hardware if you suffer from severe social anxiety.
Shelf Replenishment
Working at a supermarket or store at night is something I’ve done. It’s so much easier to work and stock shelves when there are not customers to bother you. If a store is open 24 hours the amount of people actually there at 1 am is minimal. Hardly anyone shops at a store late at night which is good for people with social anixety.
One great thing about working overnights is you get paid more! It varies depending on the store but I’ve made $2.50 extra an hour by doing this. Having social anxiety has it’s perks!
Working With Animals
You don’t have to deal with people so much with animals and they can have such therapeutic benefits. You can be a dog walker, dog groomer, vet assistant, work at a shelter or kennel, or even be a dog trainer. There are so many things you can do with animals.
Today it’s so easy to become a dog walker too because there’s an app for that! Apps such as Wag and Rover can help you get started. There are some very basic quality checks by them and Wag you just have to have some initial training which is very simple. Everything is controlled by the app. You almost never meet the dog owners because you get access to a key box. Average pay for dog walking is around $13.
Other things you can do with animals are:
- Zookeeper
- Rescue worker
Surveyor
If you don’t like sitting in an office and like being outdoors you might consider a surveyor. Rarely talking to anyone these people are the ones on the side of the road in neon outfits surveying the terrain.
Janitor
Janitors make a decent wage and can include some minor maintenance to a facility. Depending on where you work, you could work during the day or have a night shift, again with higher pay for working over nights. Average pay can be around $14 per hour depending on where you work.
Cleaner
Cleaners usually work early in the morning or late at night before people arrive or have left for the evening. Not much social interaction is involved here so you can just do your job. Average pay is $12 per hour.
Housekeeping
The amount of human interaction varies especially depending on your work schedule and clients personality. Most people choose to have their house cleaned while they are at work and your duties would include cleaning the house or cooking before or while they are home.
Postal Delivery Person
You may visit every single house in the community but you won’t have to talk to a single person. It’s you, walking and driving all day delivering the mail to peoples homes and mailboxes. If you have packages to deliver, people will be eagerly awaiting your arrival happy to receive their package.
Landscaper
I love spending time outdoors in the warmth of the sun, trimming the bushes and cutting the grass. As a gardener or landscaper you will either work for a company, own your own business or find a business like I have and continually work at the same place with no surprises. Some work is hard like mulching or planting, but the majority of the work is easy and enjoyable. Especially cutting the grass on my lawn mower with my headphones on listening to music or podcasts.
You will want to learn a little about plants, basic landscaping, fertilizers and how to care for the property you are taking care of. One benefit of working outside is getting plenty of Vitamin D from the sun which will help lower your anxiety levels.
Counselor
This probably isn’t the first thing you would think of if you have social anxiety, but what better way to use your social anxiety experience than helping other people who suffer from the disorder? You can share your fears with your patients, ways you coped and you may even learn from them.
Counseling means meeting new people but truly the best anxiety counselors are the ones who understand it first hand and it’s rewarding helping others having the same struggles.
This is a competitive field but demand is growing and is expected to continue growing. On average counselors make about $20 per hour.
Park Ranger
This job is something I have often thought about doing. Working and spending a lot of time in nature, seeing the animals while I’m working. Working for a National Park is hard to get into, but demand is expected to grow.
X-Ray Technician
I used to work in the Medical Records department of a hospital and got to know a few of the X-ray Technicians there. It is a great job for someone with SAD, social anxiety and wants little social interaction.
You’ll need an associates degree from an accredited program and registration as a technologist by the A.R.R.T is also required.
An X-ray Technician prepares patients for the radiological exam and produces the actual xrays or radiographs. Average salary is about $52,000
Statistician
If you like crunching numbers and not much interaction with people, then this is the job for you. This job is not easy to get into as it requires a great deal of education. Once you earn your degree however, you will work along the majority of the time. It pays well and it’ll be you and the numbers.
Auditor
You will have to deal with a few people and they may hate you because you are auditing them, but this can be a great job. Being an auditor is a tough job because you need to be thorough and not miss anything and pay close attention to detail.
Medical Records
I used to work in medical records for a hospital. I loved this job as the only people I really had to have social contact with was the people I worked with. Some jobs require you to have patient interaction because they want their records along with doctors requesting their patients records.
Other parts of medical records include scanning charts and analyzing them to make sure everything is intact.
Another job apart of the medical records is a coder, in which you would code the patients charts for billing. You’ll need to go to school for this to learn all the different codes for the procedures and medial terms.
Surgeon
Surgeon salaries vary anywhere from $100,000 to $500,000 a year. If you don’t mind people to much, there is limited interaction with people other than speaking with families and then the team you will work with in the operating room. Other than not speaking with to many people, this job can be very stressful because your patients life is in your hands depending on the type of surgery.
Accountant
Average salary is around $50,000 – $80,000 a year. As an accountant you will analyze and prepare financial documents. This is a great choice with people with social anxiety as it requires little human interaction.
You will need to get at least a bachelors degree.
Jobs For People With Anxiety At Home
Blogging
I love blogging and it’s a passion of mine, in fact I started about 15 years ago wanting to find a way out of my stressful jobs. This has become not only a great way to make money, but also allows me to work from home, work my own hours and help people along the way.
If you have a passion for something that’s in a great niche, the income potential could be great! There are so many different ways to make money online blogging. It’s not easy and you can’t just put up a website and think the money will come rolling in.
Like any other job you have to do the work.
Some ways that will make you money are affiliate links, ad networks, selling products, creating and selling our own ebooks, writing sponsored content. To be able to do this you will need to start a website.
You’ll need to:
- Find a topic that interests you
- Find a website name, URL etc.
- Write good content
- Advertise
There is a lot more to it but a lot of money can be made if you are willing to put in the work and do it correctly.
Ebook Writer
This is something I’ve done, and I love not only writing about the subject, but also creating the layout and look of the ebook. You’ll need to figure out what you want to write about, do some research, write a book in detail with original interesting content, then sell it. You can sell it on so many places but the best place I’ve found is on Amazon. Here’s a great guide on How to write your first Ebook in 30 days.
Paid Surveys
I’ve used paid surveys when I first started out in my online career. You won’t make a ton of money, but some of the surveys can actually be fun. Some can require a bit more time than other income sources and you’ll have to do a lot of them to make a decent income.
If you have the time, or instead of watching tv wasting your time, try signing up for a couple and make a few bucks here and there.
Flipping Websites
I’ve actually tried this, and it actually didn’t work so good for me, mainly because I did not have the time to do the work. You have to buy a website or blog that’s already established with an income, invest some money, your time into building it further and bigger. Then when it’s worth more sell it for a much higher price.
If you have the time and knowledge it can be done, this is great for people with social anxiety as you only communicate over the internet.
Amazon Associate
If you own a website already and blog often and write good quality content, either recommending products or reviewing them, you could become an Amazon Associate. You set up your account with them, place your link on your website and when ever someone clicks and buys something you receive a commission.
These are only a few of what types of jobs are possible. People have different degrees of anxiety, some can do well in social situations while others can not.
Do what feels most comfortable to you and what you can handle, there are so many different jobs out there.
Don’t focus on yourself, don’t worry about future events, focus on the here and now, the present. Remember, our own thoughts make us who we are, the sky is the limit.
Related Post: Handling Your Negative Thoughts The Positive Way
