I know it sounds bad, but I numb myself every morning. 2814 ssv here that opens pretty much every morning and have for a few years.
I feel less and less anxiety the more I treat the job like going to war. I’m a very non confrontational peaceful person but working for Starbucks made me tough in ways I didn’t expect.
I drop my emotions at the door and pretend I’m going into battle 😂
I sweat and battle the job and then when I clock out I become the soft sensitive empathetic person I usually am.
Sounds delusional but it may work for some. Best of luck. This job doesn’t define you, you define the job. I believe in you!

I’m an opener and I get anxiety every single night….. Thinking about how much sleep I’ll get if I fall asleep right now, and if my alarm will even wake me up.
Once I wake up I’m usually ok.
But it definitely helps to have a routine. Like at this time to this time I’ll shower. This time to this time I’ll get dressed and do my hair and makeup. And by this time I need to be downstairs putting my shoes on and out the door.

My fiancé has the same issue that you do. I am also an anxious mess when I have to be in early. I think that by taking good care of yourself when you’re not there and trying to shed those negative thoughts (I shed them by saying, “Nope! Goodbye,” literally out loud and by mentally pushing them away) and just curling up into your comfort zone. Watching tv, being creative, taking walks. Do anything to keep your mind off of work. I’m a manager at a tarbucks now, and I remember how bad it was when i worked 4 am at corporate. I had to figure it out or else I wasn’t going to last long! You also might have general anxiety and maybe look into taking care of that itself first. My fiancé had to go on medication and while I know the stigma is bad, he thought about it for years and how to deal with it, but ended up with the medication anyhow. Some people’s brains are simply chemically imbalanced and need something to help with it. Just take care of yourself first, always. And at the end of the day, it’s just coffee! I hope you feel better soon. <3

ive dealt with many issues with my sleep, so becoming an opener was the biggest anxiety inducing information i ever received. my first opening shift, i stayed awake all night scared that if i slept i wouldve missed the whole shift (at my old job, i worked at 10 am-2pm and woke up during the final 10 mins of my shift LMAO). for sleep, i highly recommend weed but its not everyones cup of tea and not everyone has easy access to it, but melatonin is great as well. i deal with anxiety keeping me up all night and just never getting tired because of it, and melatonin knocks me out (even when i don't smoke) but don't let this anxiety over take you! maybe go for a run, shower, get into bed, and sleep within the next few hours (if im not asleep by 9 pm, im not sleeping for my morning shift LOL ik myself too well i wont wake up) but all i can say is try to sleep early any time between 6-9 pm and remember it's just coffee. you'll get through this! it's just one shift and maybe a couple more times after this. also, if you're not enjoying having chaotic hours like a close one day, an open another day, a mid-day shift the next, ask for a more permanent schedule!

I was hired as morning crew and I've been working early AM shifts for my whole time at Starbucks so far. I was really anxious at first about it, because I'm historically very nocturnal and struggle a lot with waking up on time (I used to show up 10 minutes late to my 10am shift at a bookstore literally every day). But in the 6 months that I've been working early am five days a week I've only overslept... twice? I use the Alarmy app which makes you do different tasks before you can turn off your alarm, and doesn't have a snooze option without doing those tasks, and it's been a game changer for me. I get up on time every day no sweat. I do like three math problems to turn off my alarm, get up, and get going.

I also split my sleep, though--I usually will sleep 3-4 hours before my shift, and 3-4 hours after. If I tried to get a flat 7-8 hours before by going to bed at 7pm, it would never work, so I just don't try. It's called polyphasic sleeping and it works well for me and my schedule, though I know it's not an option for everyone.

this job triggered my anxiety and nausea so bad that i had to put the 2 weeks in. just thinking about early morning shifts still make me queasy

I had to get anxiety meds because I would not be able to sleep knowing I opened the next day :)

Omg this was when I started my anxiety was crazy… stomach hurt, sweaty, couldn’t sleep . I struggled for like 4 months , I literally had to change the way I think and be like “listen your doing a great job and if they don’t like it oh well I’m trying” everything will be ok .. it’s hard then I transferred to a cafe lol cause it was just over load for my brain.. and now I’m much more comfortable… so just don’t be so hard on yourself and yes I even covered at DT lol 😂 especially as a shift I was a soo nervous but it worked out lol so don’t worry and just communicate with your partners like hey I’m Nervous so be nice lol

Do you know what it is exactly that causes the anxiety? Are you worried about not waking up on time? Are you worried about not being able to handle peak? I know that for me being late to work or oversleeping for my entire shift is very anxiety inducing. I found that making sure I set lots of alarms on different devices helps with that. I have an Alexa alarm that goes off and like 5 different alarms on my phone. I also make sure that I go to bed early the night before and try to spend some time winding down and relaxing so I know I’ll fall asleep quickly. When I first starting working opening shifts my boyfriend would call me at 4 to make sure I was up and sometimes he would talk to me on my drive to work if he wasn’t already in bed. He’s a night owl so he was usually still awake when I was leaving. I know that it is probably rare to find someone who would do this for you but if you happen to have a friend or family members who is up all night you could possibly ask them to help make sure you’re awake. And remember, it’s just coffee. There is no reason to be worrying yourself sick over this job. If you over sleep one time you’ll probably just get a write up which will go away after about 6 months. It won’t be the end of the world and you’ll probably forget all about it.

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I got shifted from mid shift to nothing but openers without being told, and had to very drastically change my sleep schedule on a dime (incredibly shitty, but what was I gonna do?). I initially stressed a lot over potentially not getting enough sleep, since sleeping any later than 10pm would bork me for the next morning, but there were a couple of things that helped. Firstly, just laying with your eyes closed is better than nothing at all, your body still counts it as a sort of "diet sleep", even if your mind is still going. Knowing that in and of itself helped me a bit. Secondly, know that regardless of how much sleep you get beforehand, you can take a fat nap afterwards. It is an incredible incentive to get the shift out of the way, and made me feel a little less stressed about not getting spectacular sleep the night before. Shit's rough, and I'm sorry that it's got you so worried, but the night prior is always worse than the shift. You got this