Career Change Stress: Adjustment Disorder & Identity Transitions
The idea of one straight career ladder is a thing of the past, and many people now change jobs regularly, retrain, and even take time off for career planning. But whether you’re embarking on a new role, moving into a different industry, becoming self-employed, or retiring completely, career changes are major life events.
While professional transitions can be positive steps, they can also create a lot of uncertainty and anxiety, particularly around identity and capability. In some cases, when big life changes are too challenging to cope with, professionals can develop adjustment disorder. This is when career change anxiety spills over into daily life and affects normal functioning.
Adjustment disorder can have a variety of challenging symptoms, but with the right support, most people move through it successfully. To help anyone experiencing anxiety from professional transitions, this article will cover:
- Career change stress and its causes.
- The connection between identity and career changes.
- Adjustment disorder, career change, and mental health impacts.
- Therapeutic options for job change anxiety.
- Strategies for coping with adjustment disorder from a career change.
Career Change Stress
More people than ever are transitioning between careers over the course of their working lives. While this has become more common, professional transitions can still be disruptive and stressful to navigate. Previous generations often stayed in one line of work, but careers today are more complex and unpredictable, and career transitions can be emotional experiences.[1]
Career transitions take many forms. You may be:
- Retiring.
- Embarking on an entirely new role.
- Sidestepping into a different industry.
- Being promoted or demoted.
- Moving from employment to self-employment.
Whatever the situation, career transition stress often stems from multiple sources at once.
Identity and Career Changes
A key reason why career transitions can be stressful is the impact they have on identity. A professional identity is made up of many components, including:
- Skills.
- Values.
- Impact.
- Roles.
Often, identity is tied up in someone’s relationships to other people, which often change when careers change.[1]
Some experts suggest that the process of renegotiating your identity during a career change can be as challenging as finding a new job or acquiring new skills.[1] One reason for this is that when someone starts a new career, their identity is no longer tied to the old role but has not yet settled into the new one. This in-between state creates career uncertainty that can be very disorientating.
Identity is also linked to emotional well-being. A great deal of confidence, self-worth, mood, and motivation comes from the concept we have of ourselves. When this is thrown into disarray, it’s natural for our mental health to take a hit.
When a job transition is stressful, it’s easy to get caught up and lose sight of the bigger picture of your life. You’re also introducing yourself to new colleagues who know nothing about your professional history. All these aspects of switching jobs can be quietly taxing.[2]
Other Causes of Career Change Anxiety
While identity is a strong factor, there are other aspects of career transitions that can be stressful. For example, career change anxiety may come from:
- Meeting new work colleagues and fitting in.
- Financial changes.
- Acquiring new skills.
- An unknown sense of the future.
- Being the “newbie” or less experienced in a certain field.
Depending on your past experiences, personal vulnerabilities, and patterns of relating to others, your particular career change stressors can vary.
What Is Adjustment Disorder?
Everyone responds to stressful life events differently, but sometimes people have a stronger reaction than may seem appropriate. This is characteristic of adjustment disorder, where someone’s response to a significant life event is considered bigger or unhealthier than expected.[3]
It can be difficult to define, as it is hard to say what a normal response is to loss or a major upheaval in your life. Crucially, however, adjustment disorder describes a stress response that significantly interferes with daily functioning.[3]
Some experts question whether a diagnosis of adjustment disorder is outdated because it may pathologize normal reactions to stressful life events.[4] However, it can still be a helpful framework. For those experiencing adjustment disorder from a career change, the diagnosis can open doors to appropriate mental health support.
When an adjustment disorder isn’t addressed effectively, it can worsen and significantly impact both mental well-being and daily functioning. Adjustment disorders can also escalate, contributing to more serious mental health conditions like generalized anxiety or major depressive disorder.[5]
People may be more susceptible to an adjustment disorder if they don’t have a good support system. Other risk factors include a genetic predisposition and personality traits that make someone less tolerant of stress.[5]
Some research finds that women may be more susceptible to adjustment disorder than men, as well as adults under 25 and those from urban environments.[6]
Signs of Adjustment Disorder and Career Change Anxiety
When something external happens that demands more from someone than they can cope with, it can create a great deal of emotional distress. Adjustment disorder can cause both emotional and behavioral symptoms that interfere with daily life in a significant way.[5]
Signs that work stress has led to an adjustment disorder include:[3][5]
- Heightened levels of anxiety and jitteriness.
- Feelings of hopelessness and depression.
- Withdrawing from social events and previously enjoyed activities.
- Somatic symptoms such as headaches and stomachaches.
- Decline in work performance.
- Increased stress in relationships.
The most common subtype of adjustment disorder is mixed with anxiety and depressed mood, though this can manifest in both the emotional and behavioral symptoms listed above.[6]
Any treatment for adjustment disorder should address both the symptoms of the condition and the underlying source of stress.
Mission Connection is here to help you or your loved one take the next steps towards an improved mental well-being.
Coping With Professional Transitions
Career change anxiety and other professional transitions can be managed in several different ways. Commonly, an adjustment disorder from career changes will be a time-limited experience. Once the transitional period has passed, symptoms are more likely to disappear.[5]
However, symptom elimination is not the only goal when treating career transition stress. It’s also important that people get support for cultivating coping skills and resilience for future stressors.[5] This can be achieved in therapy, and also through important self-work that professionals conduct within themselves.
Treatment should also address the root cause of the career anxiety, whether it’s:
- Insecurity.
- Identity.
- Fitting in with colleagues.
Both personal and therapeutic strategies can address these factors.
Therapeutic Options for Job Change Anxiety
Though there are many types of counseling and psychotherapy that can support you during career transitions, we’ve chosen to focus on three that may be particularly helpful:[5][7][8]
- Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT): CBT is a highly recommended treatment for stress and anxiety, particularly when someone’s symptoms interfere with daily activities. Courses of CBT treatment typically involve exposure (or stress inoculation) therapy, which aims to improve resilience to stress and disprove unhelpful beliefs.
CBT can equip people with practical ways of challenging the thoughts that perpetuate anxiety and depression.
- Existential therapy: Counseling and psychotherapy with an existential lens can be incredibly insightful for career uncertainty. The existential approach accepts that change is inevitable and uses specific techniques to help people identify what’s meaningful to them.
These therapists believe that we all already have the inner wisdom and ability to make choices that align with our authentic selves.
- Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT): ACT is similar to CBT but with a greater focus on increasing psychological flexibility. That focus makes ACT a highly relevant treatment type for any kind of life adjustment that requires greater flexibility.
An ACT therapist will help you to tolerate and accept unpleasant emotions and sensations, equipping you to challenge thoughts that contribute to stress, depression, and anxiety. ACT also places great emphasis on personal values, which can be helpful during a significant career change.
Personal Strategies for Coping with Adjustment Disorder
Therapy for adjustment disorder can equip you with practical strategies for coping with career change anxiety. Though many personal strategies can be helpful, counseling is often an important part of the process and can help ensure the transition is managed effectively.
In that spirit, many personal strategies will be informed by therapeutic approaches. For example:
- Practicing mindfulness.
- Noticing and challenging the thoughts that keep you in a stressed state of mind.
- Connecting with your personal values and using them to direct career decisions.
- Leaning on friends and family for emotional support.
- Maintaining hobbies and relationships during stressful periods.
- Having an exercise routine to burn off stress.
- Engaging in sauna-bathing or cold water therapy.
It is also important to tell any relevant work colleagues about your adjustment difficulties. Whether it’s a team member or manager, having someone at work who understands what you’re going through can really help you feel comfortable.
Your workplace may even have an employee assistance program that gives you access to advice and therapy for navigating the transition.
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Benefit From Counseling for Career Stress With Mission Connection
A career change can be an incredibly challenging life transition, often marked by uncertainty, identity crisis, and lifestyle changes. Understandably, it often results in career change anxiety.
If career stress has spiraled out of control and is affecting your life or the life of a loved one, reach out to us here at Mission Connection. We offer many evidence-based therapy options for adjustment disorder in working professionals, as well as for other mental health conditions.
The focus at Mission Connection is personalized mental health treatment, which means we’ll consider your life’s context and treatment preferences when treating you for adjustment disorder. Our team of licensed professionals can help design and deliver a unique treatment plan that suits you.
Our flexible outpatient treatment options include in-person programs at our locations in California, Virginia, and Washington, virtual telehealth, and hybrid programs that combine in-person and virtual care.
Mission Connection is Joint Commission-accredited. We also accept almost all insurance providers, so that your recovery is not hindered due to financial issues. Reach out to us online or call us at 866-833-1822 to find out how we can support your long-term recovery.
