Introduction

The mind is a funny thing isn’t it?  You can go from being this normal happy carefree person and BOOM something bad happens, a break up, death, illness, etc can leave you suffering with anxiety.   You may feel like you've recovered, or you may not but something in your mind changes and it is almost like you don’t know yourself any more.  In others it comes from nowhere, life is going relatively normal then all of a sudden something in your brain shifts.  You're having these thoughts and worries you have never had before.  You question am I normal? Why am I feeling like this?  Over the years speaking to others and doing research on anxiety I have heard a wide range of stories and reasons behind why people suffer.  Sometimes there is simply no reason at all.  Everything is going swimmingly, and these thoughts just begin from seemingly nowhere, Weird huh? 

 

A quick back story on myself, my personal experience with anxiety issues began from two sudden deaths in my family.  The first one being something I witnessed which was quite traumatic.  At first I was in shock, muddled on through life, going back to work, living as normal.  But it festered away inside to the point I was over thinking and worrying so much I couldn’t even so much as watch the television because I couldn’t concentrate on anything else but the thoughts in my head.  I was suffering with not only anxiety but OCD, crippling panic attacks, depression and possible PTS.  I went to see a doctor three different occasions who kept referring me to counselling which I refused as in my head, I had enough thinking about these things 24.7 I didn't want to talk about them too.  Eventually the panic attacks were getting so bad they were on a daily basis and it was hard hiding them from my now 10 year old daughter.  I accepted the counselling, found although it was challenging it was so beneficial and helpful.  I found its good to talk, its good to off load, its good to hear 'yes you are normal'.  I began my own research into anxiety, took some online courses.  Through the help of all of these, I learned different coping mechanisms, breathing and relaxation exercises, and ways to challenge my thoughts.  And although there is no magic 'cure' to anxiety, I have seen big changes since I decided to do something about it and if just one person reads this and benefits then that’s great.

 

I hope you enjoy my blogs and take some handy tips away from my posts to help you deal with anxiety.

Much love, your anxiety suffering friend.