[Update] I [30/F] have been feeling insecure about my performance at work these past two weeks due to various events and my anxiety and tomorrow I have to do a presentation to all the office. I'm scared I'll have a panic attack and I don't know if it should be good to talk to my boss [32?/M]about it

Hi hi Reddit! Yesterday I came to you asking for help for my presentation at work. Original post here for more details!

Honestly, your comments helped me a lot! And for some reason the ones telling me that I wasn't suited for my job, telling me to quit and to hide my worries to my boss striked a cord in me. As I was reading I was thinking "Wait a minute, this is not the situation at all!" and made me focus on the good things I've done in my work and all the situations where I had a problem and my boss have been nothing but helpful without judging. I just had some bad weeks, and I'm still learning. I guess my stuborness did me some good, haha

I want to thank also the beautiful people who provided support, experiences, and suggestions for my anxiety. Just reading them made me feel so at ease!

Sadly between reading your comments and the nervousness I couldn't have a single hour of sleep! None! I don't know why, but I tried to close my eyes but it was imposible. Time passed very fast and was morning already. I felt like the day increased a difficulty level in me because I didn't feel rested at all, but I said "Fuck it, let's do this zombie style!".

So, I got up and prepared, I used my make up in my best abilities to hide the bags in my eyes and I left for the office. We have flexible work hours but my boss arrives very early, and my intention was talking to him at first hour.

I got to the office and he was the one who opened the door and the first thing I said was that I wanted to talk to him about something. I told him that I was feeling very nervous about the presentation, that at first I wasn't sure that I was able to do it but yesterday I read things on the Internet (I don't think he heard that as I asked a bunch of online strangers) that made me feel better about the issue.

He probed a little about my reasons to feel nervous. I told him that I was feeling stressed and I felt vulnerable when I had to speak in front of other people. I compared the situation of playing a game and trying to beat a Lv 10 boss with my Lv 1 Warrior. I felt that it was very overwhelming to me.

He listened very carefully and told me "Alright, but what would happen if the Lv 1 Warrior has friends of higher levels and play with him?" I answered "Well, the warrior would level up more easily". He really emphasized the need for the more experimented members of team to help the newcomers and he told me that I should see the office as a safe space where I didn't feel vulnerable since everyone would be helping me during my talk.

We started rehesal my presentation. At first I kept forgetting things and babbling and he gave me feedback, especially with my language because I couldn't use technical words since the whole office would be present. I didn't have the chance to practice the whole presentation but I already felt way more relaxed though the day. It also helped that he invited the team pizzas celebrating the fixing of some critical bugs :)

The presentation was ok. Everyone gave feedback about the things I talked about and my boss and my other team members made additional comments when necessary. When I was talking I felt like my voice was shaky and quiet, but my boss told me I was perfect. So, there's that! Incredible how distressed I was about this whole thing.

And the best thing was at the end of the day, that my boss made the team play Keep Talking And Nobody Explodes (google it! It's a cooperative game about deactivating bombs). We got some good lessons about teamwork. Next week we will play Left 4 Dead :D

Well, sorry for the wall of text, it seems that everything is going good and I'm confident the bad weeks are behind... for now! I learned many things these days and I'm grateful for that.

Now I can't wait to go back home to sleep.

TLDR: Talked to boss, he's still the best, made a rehelsal of the presentation and everything turned out good even though I was in a zombie state. Also pizza and games at the office :)