So my job has been getting quite busy lately. As to be expected with any 9-5 job (mine is 9-6 unfortunately), the work can be stressful. But I’ve learned a lot about my stress tolerance and how my body reacts when it’s fighting through stress.

Looking back, I’ve never actually stayed at a single company for more than 2 years, so you could call me a true job hopper. I’m only in my 5th year working a corporate job, but I’m already at my 4th company.

I pride myself at being good at my job, and being young and motivated pushed me to perform at a high level and continue to pursue bigger opportunities. To be 100% honest, most of my job hopping choices were due to salary, because I couldn’t stand seeing others who aren’t even doing half the work I am, receive a similar salary as myself. So I continued to look for opportunities to make these jumps.

Until I made a jump to my third company. I won’t put the name out there, but it’s a huge company that anyone would recognize and likely have used their services before. I admit this position was an ambitious one, where I didn’t necessarily have the exact skill sets required for the position. But that’s how I started my career anyway and I figured I’d figured it out on the way, as I always did.

Yet I crumbled within 3 months. A manager who knows nothing about the work that I need to do, a passive aggressive colleague who micromanages my every move, a company cultures of “that’s not my job, figure it out”. Before I could realize, I was so miserable. Every commute was a legimitate struggle, since I’d get constant stomach pains and start to feel nauseous as I enter the office.

At first I thought I was just tired and stressed out from adjusting to a new environment. But these symptoms never went away – if anything they continued to get worse. I was diagnosed with what we call “Adjustment Disorder” in Japan. In simple terms, it’s when there’s a clear stress factor, which causes all of the other physical symptoms.

I always thought I was resistant to stress. But with mental conditions, you really never know when it’ll get the best of you. Being jobless and income-less for 6 months definitely put a gaping hole in my savings, but thinking back, this experience was just all bad.

It’s taught me a lot. The biggest thing is understanding how my body reacts to stress. I know my stomach will hurt when I’m nervous about something, or heading into a day in the office where I know I’ll be busy. But when I start to feel nauseous? Now I know that’s a red flag.

Also, I think that you truly cannot understand a mentall condition like Adjustment Disorder or more commonly depression, unless you’ve experience it yourself. Even though you might think it’ll never happen to yourself, really it can happen to anyone for any kind of reason. So I like to think that in the future, if family, friends or my future child faces a similar situation, I can really help them – because I’ve gone through it myself.

Finally, it’s taught me that you’ll get through life, no matter how hard it gets. While taking time away from work, I couldn’t even get on the train without feeling like throwing up or having to clench my stomach from the intense pain. I’d have to get off every 5-10 minutes just to get the symptoms to settle down. I had no income, but I had a wife to support. Hell, I literally got married right in the middle of my time off. My savings hit rock bottom.

But guess what? Here I am, back on my feet, working a new job with great people, working reasonable hours (trust me, this has never been the case in my past jobs), still happily married to my wife and now looking to build our own dream home.

Life will hit you with these challenges, but it’s never a challenge that you can’t overcome. In the end, you’ll figure it out. And I truly believe that for myself.

So when I notice myself stressing with work, I think back to some of my hardest times and how I’ve overcome them to be where I am right now.

“I’ll figure this out. I always have.”