AI job anxiety. You're not being dramatic.

This isn't paranoia. Companies really are announcing AI plans and cutting jobs, sometimes in the same press release. Whole kinds of work, from support desks to copywriting to junior coding, are being openly talked about as things software will do instead. When the people in charge say that out loud, being worried is the sane response.

Here is the honest part: nobody knows how this plays out. Not the CEOs, not the consultants, not the people on podcasts. Some jobs will change a lot, some a little, and some predictions will look daft in five years. Anyone who sounds certain about your job, in either direction, is guessing or selling something.

Uncertainty is often the worst part. A bad outcome you can plan for. A maybe that hangs over every week is harder.

It shows up in boring, grinding ways. You read every headline about layoffs. You check the company channel for bad news. You feel sick when a new tool is rolled out at work. You feel stupid for being scared, and then angry that you're expected to be grateful.

Some people get the extra twist of being asked to train the thing that might replace them, or of watching their own work scraped to build it. Of course that makes you furious. Those are normal reactions to a real threat you don't control.

It leaks into the rest of life too. Some people go quiet and stop mentioning work at all. Some snap at the people closest to them. Some throw themselves into every course going. None of those make you weak, and you're far from the only one doing them.

No miracle fixes here. Just things people in the same spot say make it more bearable.

• Split what you know from what you read. Write down what has actually happened at your work, and what is only headlines and rumour. The first list is usually shorter than the fear.
• Put a fence round the doom feed. Reading every AI announcement doesn't protect you. It just means you feel the fear forty times a day instead of once.
• Talk to people in the same boat. Colleagues are often more worried than they let on. If you have a union, a staff association or a professional body, they tend to hear about plans early and have seen changes like this before.
• Keep the basics going. Sleep, food, getting outside. Nobody thinks clearly about the future at three in the morning.
• Say it out loud somewhere. Fear that stays in your head grows. Said out loud, it tends to shrink back to its real size. Sometimes you find out you're not the only one.

LODA AI is a place to vent, not a source of advice. We're not career coaches, financial advisers, doctors or therapists, and nobody on the wall is either, however sure they sound. Nobody here can tell you whether your job is safe, what to retrain in, or what to do about money.

For decisions like that, talk to someone qualified who knows your situation. Take what strangers say in the comments as what it is: someone else's experience, not a plan for yours.

Worry that stops you sleeping for weeks, that you can't switch off, or that makes ordinary days hard to get through is worth taking to a doctor or someone trained to help. That isn't weakness. It's what they are there for.

If you are thinking about hurting yourself or ending your life, contact your local emergency number now, or a crisis line. findahelpline.com lists free, confidential helplines by country, many of them open all night.

This is the “say it out loud” part. Post anonymously. No email, no phone, no real name. Nothing on the site ties it to you. Just leave out the details only your team would know. Rants about layoffs, freezes and training your replacement collect under Job Displacement. Read a few first. It helps to see how many people are carrying the same thing.

Swear if you want. Name the company if you want. The only lines are the legal ones, listed in the Community Guidelines: nothing illegal, no doxxing, no real threats against real people, no explicit images.