Isolation, anxiety, and depression in the remote workplace

I’ve been working remotely for about 2-3 years now but due to a new job I will be working at an office now starting tomorrow.

It is a terrifying feeling to say the least. I am trying to be optimistic and hope to get over it quick.

Working remotely have been amazing and was a life changing experience for me. It was good in that I got to see the world as it is for the first time. Being able to drive out or walk around the town at any time or anywhere is the most liberating feeling you can have. Prior, I was working in office for over 8 years so I had no idea there was a bustling world outside of the office.

So yeah it is scary to be going back but I am going with the mindset that being able to socialize will be worth the trade off.

I started remote-working in 2016 and, for the first year, I pretty much did what you're saying. After moving around, I settled back in London (I'm not originally from the UK) for its professional environment. Working remotely makes it difficult to maintain professional network, but that gets easier if you live in a busy city -- frequent events and opportunities to network, but more importantly, a higher density of people working in your field. I still spend quite a bit of time outside of the UK (especially in the winter months), but as a "home" or HQ, I'll still pick the busier city. It's also not that bad when you don't need to commute and you find a neighbourhood with enough of a community culture. I really don't get as stressed as I used to be when I had to take the tube every weekday.

Out of topic but do anyone know an online community of remote workers?

>a victim mentality of helplessness and doom

This isn't what accepting that you have mental health issues look like. This is what happens when you don't have support to handle your mental health in helpful ways.

As others have said, in this thread, there are a lot of mixed issues in this article.

Living a nomad/traveling lifestyle =! remote work. Loads of people remote-work from home, but change nothing else in their lifestyle.

I've been working remotely my entire life. 30+ years now. One thing that is key, is looking at the blue sky. Being outside occasionally.

You will note that the article talks about work/life balance, about working a lot, working long hours. And after months and months, become more and more depressed.

What I suspect is happening is, winter! Shorter days! With shorter days, it is harder and harder to find sunlight when you just happen to wander outside. In the summer, at least where I am, daylight lives from 4am to 10pm. I doesn't matter when I wake up, or when I go to sleep.. if I wander out just once, there's almost always light.

Further, there's a much better chance of good weather. In the winter, if it isn't night, it's often cloudy, and therefore darker.

Unless you work away from all windows, this affects the type of light, even when working inside.

On top of all that, in the winter it is more often unpleasant. You think with glee, it's cool/cold, raining/snowing, and I work remote! I don't have to go out into that! Yet, this is a trap, for going out in that is key to your health... just for the light!

My point in all of the above is -- when you work on site, you have to go outside, and transit outside, to and from work. This gets in that vital light, even often in the winter.

It's about the light, it's about blue light from a blue sky, it's about being outside.

That's what 30+ years of remote work has taught me.