"It's all in your head" anxiety edition.

Today's segment focusses on anxiety and how some don't realise it is beyond mental discomfort such as worrying. It also manifests physically. I personally believe from my own experience that panic attacks don't always appear externally .For myself, it's racing thoughts, palpitations, a subtle tremor (or feeling like my whole body is jelly), as well as gastrointestinal upset. If I'm super lucky, I vomit. But thankfully that hasn't happened for a while.

A couple of nights ago, I had a panic attack at work. I'd tried to calm myself, rationalise with my crazy brain, but I could not settle or control it. Out of curiosity, I checked my pulse and it was beating well over 150 beats per minute (for a normal range you're aiming for pulse to be between 60&90bpm).
Sometimes my panic attacks aren't visible - they're not as they are televised. For myself it isn't all hyperventilating, crying or recieving a wealth of help and understanding for it (from professionals). Not all, just some. I think there is still a long way to go with mental health awareness and I'm hopeful that saying my piece here helps open people's minds to it. I have been put of therapy for well over a year, perhaps even two now. But still searching for appropriate medication. My skills from my former therapy still don't work for me and it's quite unsettling now that I'm having episodes at work but pushing through it nonetheless.

I have tried to find support beyond a community mental health team solely for my anxiety and learning how to cope with that again but unfortunately for whatever reason, having a diagnosis of personality disorders amongst other things excludes me from therapy or support from people beyond the CMHT. I appear to have gone off on a tangent, but it comes down to this, if someone is trying to open up and it doesn't present perhaps how you think it would, remain open minded, be mindful that we are all incredibly different and things appear differently in all of us, even with physical health issues. Be there to listen, try not to judge or feel helpless (as what you can do is understandably limited). Just be there, as it means the world.

Happy Wednesday folks! 2 shifts down, 1 to go!

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