How do I deal with a toxic work environment that gives me chronic stress?

Hi Lee, This sounds like a very difficult and anxiety provoking experience to be going through, I sense that you are feeling frustrated here and helpless because you think you have no where else to take this problem. Your disappointment sounds like it comes from thinking you were making a positive move in life and progressing in your career, and you now feel disheartened at the fact your co worker is sabotaging your work and you can get no one to see and understand what is going on for you.

Not being seen or heard in this environment, sounds like this is what is having a detrimental affect on your mental well being, and the feeling of being trapped financially, as you say at a time when most people are finding it a struggle to pay bills and eat, also worrying if we can keep a roof over our heads, this sounds like it is causing you a lot of anxiety.

Without knowing more about the way your colleague is sabotaging your work I can not help you find a solution to this problem, but i do wonder here if there is somewhere else you can take this issue to. Possibly to someone on the Human Resources team?

I am also wondering if there is a way that you can budget in for this loss of earnings so that you do not feel completely trapped financially, and that you can somehow see some light at the end of the tunnel.

I am sensing here that your situation is making you feel that you have somehow made a mistake, but you have to look at the reasons why you made the decision and that was to progress in your career. You had no knowledge of the toxic environment you were going into, and could have had no way of knowing this before moving jobs.

Try to show yourself some compassion, and look at the solution to the the problem, do not look at yourself as being the problem. The problem is the environment you are in and the solution is to try and change the environment or move to different environment.