I think you are doing all the right things - meditation, counseling, journaling.
I would add exercise if it's possible for you, it has a big effect in lowering anxiety for most people.
> If you have any tips on the above, have similar programming-related anxiety issues, and/or have overcome them, please share what you can. It will really help me out.
I think all devs hate Jira boards and being judged on how many points they score each sprint. Estimating things well is extremely hard so even great devs sometimes don't finish sprints well - which causes unnecessary angst if your boss is the kind of guy that gives a hard time over something like this. There is no magic bullet here - I think the most important thing is a sympathetic boss who you connect with and who doesn't pressure you constantly. How were your previous bosses?
> I do want meaningful work—I don't want to pick my nose all day. But I need a less demanding environment. All I see on LinkedIn are "fast-moving" startup roles. Are there any slower paced web dev jobs?
Yes, for sure. These roles exist, especially in non software first companies and/or big legacy systems. Banking, insurance, manufacturing etc etc. The odds are the pace would be slower.
> The only other option is to change career within or outside of software. I have no ideas here, and to be honest, this is rather frightening. I'd be curious to hear what others have done.
Who doesn't entertain this thought here and there, even people who love software development can get fatigued after 10 years.
I have no idea too ; I'm thinking I have no idea I'll even be able to remain employed 5 years from now with the pace AI is advancing at, but that's a different discussion.
Anyway to recap - key to job longevity is your direct boss that's the most important thing. higher chances of slower pace in legacy or non software businesses. Second career is something most of us think about and I don't have a solution either - but I think getting fired once or even twice doesn't mean at all you have no way of succeeding in your next role. It just means you had one bad role. Good luck and take care!
> I think the most important thing is a sympathetic boss who you connect with and who doesn't pressure you constantly. How were your previous bosses?
The previous job the boss was quite 90% of the time easy to work with. But this was let down by the remaining 10% where he could be rude, passive agressive and overbearing. He is an amazing engineer but sadly his soft skills were lacking. It definitely contributed to the anxiety.
> I think getting fired once or even twice doesn't mean at all you have no way of succeeding in your next role. It just means you had one bad role.
Thank you for the encouraging words. I definitely think my last role was a bad fit and contributed to anxiety. A better team will probably be a big help in getting over this.
Thanks again for taking the time out to reply! Much appreciated.
> If you have any tips on the above, have similar programming-related anxiety issues, and/or have overcome them, please share what you can. It will really help me out.
I think all devs hate Jira boards and being judged on how many points they score each sprint. Estimating things well is extremely hard so even great devs sometimes don't finish sprints well - which causes unnecessary angst if your boss is the kind of guy that gives a hard time over something like this. There is no magic bullet here - I think the most important thing is a sympathetic boss who you connect with and who doesn't pressure you constantly. How were your previous bosses?
> I do want meaningful work—I don't want to pick my nose all day. But I need a less demanding environment. All I see on LinkedIn are "fast-moving" startup roles. Are there any slower paced web dev jobs?
Yes, for sure. These roles exist, especially in non software first companies and/or big legacy systems. Banking, insurance, manufacturing etc etc. The odds are the pace would be slower.
> The only other option is to change career within or outside of software. I have no ideas here, and to be honest, this is rather frightening. I'd be curious to hear what others have done.
Who doesn't entertain this thought here and there, even people who love software development can get fatigued after 10 years. I have no idea too ; I'm thinking I have no idea I'll even be able to remain employed 5 years from now with the pace AI is advancing at, but that's a different discussion.
Anyway to recap - key to job longevity is your direct boss that's the most important thing. higher chances of slower pace in legacy or non software businesses. Second career is something most of us think about and I don't have a solution either - but I think getting fired once or even twice doesn't mean at all you have no way of succeeding in your next role. It just means you had one bad role. Good luck and take care!