Email Anxiety: What It Is & How to Overcome

What Is Email Anxiety?

Email anxiety occurs when individuals are nervous about email communications and can cause people to feel anxiety symptoms about both reading and answering emails. At times, email anxiety can result in email avoidance, where one does not even check their emails out of feelings of anxiety and overwhelm. This avoidance can further maintain or even increase one’s email anxiety.

Some signs of email anxiety include:

• Catastrophizing
• Sweating
• Racing thoughts
• Troubling focusing and concentrating
• Feeling tense or on edge
• Restlessness
• Increased heart rate
• Shallow breathing
• Nausea
• Dizziness or lightheadedness

Why Do Emails Make People Anxious?

There are multiple reasons why people feel anxious about emails. Individuals with anxiety disorders such as social anxiety or generalized anxiety disorder may be more susceptible to email anxiety, as they are more prone to increased feelings of anxiety. People may become anxious about responding to emails that pile up or fear that they may be misunderstood or judged by others.

Here are some reasons people experience email anxiety:

Number of Emails Received Feels Overwhelming

Email is one of the most popular forms of communication, and many people receive multiple emails a day. While many emails may not require an immediate response, the overall number of emails can steadily increase throughout the day. Trying to juggle keeping up with emails and maintaining one’s day-to-day responsibilities can quickly become overwhelming and anxiety-provoking.

On top of that, many people have constant access to their email, whether that be through their phone, tablet, or computer. Because of this, it can be difficult to disconnect from a growing email inbox, which only further leads to increased anxiety. Having constant access to one’s email can greatly contribute to feelings of overwhelm.

Possibility of Being Misunderstood Is Nerve-Wracking

Non-verbal communication makes up a large percentage of communication, and some experts believe that verbal communication is only about 35% of communication.1 When communicating through email, non-verbal cues are absent. The absence of these non-verbal cues can make it difficult for individuals to accurately interpret messages, sometimes leading to misunderstandings or confusion. People with email anxiety may worry that others may misinterpret their email or they may misinterpret an email sent to them.

Potential for Making Mistakes Is Paralyzing

Grammatical errors, typos, and sending incorrect attachments are common occurrences when writing emails. Many people experience paralyzing anxiety surrounding these potential mistakes, resulting in excessive proofreading and editing. Individuals who experience perfectionism and anxiety may especially struggle with this. Continuous proofreading and editing of emails can quickly take up a lot of one’s time and energy, resulting in continued anxiety and stress.

Keeping Up Is Difficult When Busy

In some cases, such as in a high-demanding job, emails can be very difficult to keep up with. It can feel impossible to keep up with responding to emails while also managing other important day-to-day tasks. Some individuals may struggle with time management and prioritization of emails, which can lead to increased feelings of stress and anxiety.

Waiting for a Reply Is Stressful

For many people, waiting to hear back after sending out an email can feel anxiety-provoking. Individuals can feel on edge after sending out an important email and waiting for a response. This can result in increased anxiety, which can present as catastrophizing or expecting the worst.

Responding Triggers Social Anxiety

For someone who experiences social anxiety, email communications can feel particularly overwhelming. Individuals with social anxiety may become hyper-aware of their email inboxes and how they are writing their emails to others. Fears of being judged or criticized by others may further increase their email anxiety, resulting in unhealthy patterns such as procrastination or email avoidance.

5 Tips for Overcoming Email Anxiety

While a growing email inbox can feel stressful, there are effective ways to manage this anxiety. Practicing and implementing healthy coping skills for anxiety can be particularly helpful when navigating email anxiety in order to decrease feelings of stress and overwhelm Setting realistic expectations and boundaries can help one learn how to manage stress and overcome email anxiety.

Here are five tips for overcoming email anxiety:

1. Be Realistic About Email Response Time

Setting realistic expectations regarding email response time can help one cope with email anxiety. Having a more neutral and balanced outlook on why one may not be responding to an email right away can help lessen anxiety. For example, an individual may take some time to respond to your email because they are busy with other tasks or out of town

It is also helpful to set reasonable expectations for yourself regarding email response times. Setting unrealistic expectations of yourself and your email response time will only increase email anxiety and feelings of overwhelm. Allowing yourself to be flexible with your email response times can help decrease anxiety and lower your pressure to answer every email in a certain time frame.

2. Set Boundaries on Checking Emails

When work and leisure begin to blend together, it becomes harder to disconnect from work life, including a growing email inbox. Most people have constant access to their emails through their phones, making it much more challenging to set boundaries with your email usage.

Setting boundaries around work and how often you check your email can help lessen anxiety. For example, it can be helpful to only read and respond to emails during business hours, or one may set a boundary to log out of their email account at the end of the work day.

3. Remain On-Task When Sending Emails

Email anxiety can lead to email avoidance, which only further increases one’s anxiety and stress. In order to not fall into email avoidance behaviors, it can be helpful to dedicate your full attention to completing your email-related tasks when tackling them rather than jumping between sending emails and completing other tasks throughout the day. This can further lead to procrastination and email avoidance, which increases anxiety levels.

4. Take a Break When Checking Emails

Sometimes, it can be beneficial to give yourself a break when checking emails. While it is not always possible to fully disconnect from your inbox on a busy work day, it may be more manageable to take quick breaks to reground yourself. Doing so can allow space for one to take a step back and focus on increased self-care and coping patterns.

These breaks can be short or long in duration, depending on what feels best for you at the time. Focusing on increased mindfulness for anxiety can allow one to reconnect with the present moment and cope with email anxiety and stress levels. Examples of helpful mindfulness activities can include practices such as mindful breathing and progressive muscle relaxation.

5. Turn Off Email Notifications

It can be difficult to disconnect from emails throughout the day if your email notifications are on. Studies suggest that pop-up notifications may be related to increased mental health symptoms, such as depression and anxiety.² Turning off notifications can promote healthy boundaries, allowing one to more easily disconnect from email anxiety.

When to Seek Professional Help for Email Anxiety

While anxiety is a common emotion that most people experience from time to time, some people experience anxiety to a heightened extent. When email anxiety and other forms of anxiety begin to impact your day-to-day life, it may be beneficial to reach out to a mental health professional for support.

There are multiple online therapy for anxiety options to explore, and using an online therapist directory can help direct you to a therapist who best fits your needs and preferences. Finding a therapist who specializes in the treatment of anxiety disorders may help one learn tools to help manage symptoms related to email anxiety.

Treatment Options for Email Anxiety

If email anxiety is impacting your day-to-day functioning, it is possible that it is part of an underlying anxiety disorder such as social anxiety or generalized anxiety disorder. Through treatment options such as lifestyle shifts, therapy, and medication, email anxiety can be more easily managed and coped with.

Treatment options for email anxiety include:

Therapy

Therapy can help one learn strategies on how to manage their email anxiety. There are many options for anxiety therapy available, such as individual counseling or group therapy. Meeting with a mental health professional on a consistent basis may allow someone to learn how to better manage their anxiety symptoms.

Common types of anxiety therapy include:

• Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT): ACT for anxiety focuses on increasing one’s psychological flexibility, which allows one to better cope with and accept uncomfortable experiences and thoughts, such as feelings of anxiety.³
• Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT): CBT for anxiety is an effective form of psychotherapy that focuses on challenging cognitive distortions and examining one’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors in a more balanced and neutral way, resulting in decreased anxiety.
• Dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT): DBT for anxiety involves skills training in the following four domains: emotion regulation, interpersonal effectiveness, mindfulness, and distress tolerance. With these skills, individuals are better equipped to cope with and manage uncomfortable thoughts and feelings, such as anxiety.
• Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR): EMDR for anxiety targets the brain’s adaptive information processing system to alter the emotional intensity of difficult memories and experiences. EMDR can help with multiple forms of anxiety disorders.
• Psychodynamic therapy: Psychodynamic therapy is a form of talk therapy that focuses on the exploration of one’s unconscious mind, increasing self-awareness. This modality of therapy can assist individuals in gaining insight into their anxiety symptoms.

Medication

Medications for anxiety may also be implemented in one’s anxiety treatment plan. The use of medications can help decrease anxiety symptoms. A licensed medical provider can help you determine if medications are a good fit for you and your mental health needs.

Common medications prescribed for anxiety include:

• Antidepressants: Antidepressants, such as SSRIs, SNRIs, and tricyclic antidepressants, are commonly prescribed to improve one’s overall mood and increase feelings of wellness and relaxation. This, in turn, can help alleviate anxiety symptoms.
• Beta-blockers: Beta-blockers for anxiety are fast-acting medications that affect one’s cardiovascular system, decreasing heart rate speed and lowering blood pressure. These physical benefits may help promote feelings of calmness and decreased anxiety.
• Benzodiazepines: Benzodiazepines are another form of fast-acting medications that target one’s central nervous system and decrease physical symptoms of anxiety, such as racing heart and quick breathing. Benzodiazepines have a heightened risk for substance dependency and should be closely monitored by one’s prescribing physician.

Lifestyle Changes

Our lifestyles and anxiety levels are greatly linked to one another. Specifically, healthy lifestyle choices and modifications are greatly linked to decreased levels of anxiety.⁴ Engaging in healthy choices, such as regular exercise and getting enough sleep, can help someone cope with anxiety symptoms.

Common lifestyle changes to help cope with anxiety include:

• Getting daily exercise
• Avoiding alcohol
• Avoiding recreational drugs
• Maintaining a healthy diet
• Getting adequate sleep
• Practicing meditation for anxiety