NoPanic

Category: Articles by No Panic Volunteers

  • No Panic! Getting your head around anxiety

    Ruth Cooper-Dickson

    I am often asked what it is like to live with anxiety and panic attacks. Those who know me well know that I am self-aware, I know how to look after myself and I do the right things to take care of me. As much as I have learned to live with the fact that sometimes my anxiety will hit me no matter what is happening in my life, I do also believe that it is down to my brain chemistry at that particular time.

    I spent the whole of February this year in a funk. It was the first time in a very long time I had felt both severely anxious and depressed. I remember one Thursday I could not get out of bed and, at the time, I do not know how I did. Looking back, I realise it was through extreme sheer will that I managed to get out of bed, get dressed and out of the door.

    That is the major downside of running your own business; there is no-one to pick up the slack if you are unwell. I remember wanting it all to go away. I remember thinking “if I lie here and shut my eyes then nobody will find me or look for me”. I had pretty dark thoughts and felt lost.

    I couldn’t shake off the feelings of numbness combined with panic, like ants crawling all over me. Many people during this time would not have understood what was happening to me for I was still posting messages on social media for work. The well-trained eye of my close friend, Claire, prompted her to message me to say “something feels off, you aren’t OK are you?” Claire also lives with anxiety and can spot the early warning signs in me a mile off.

    I would have found this period hard had it not been for both of my sisters. For two weeks they checked in with me on most days – not in an “are you OK?” kind of way, but to let me know they were there for me. I know I must have been in a bad way because on the day of my RADA course, my Mum messaged to ask if I was in a good head space. The power of a network is an integral part of the recovery process and I am fortunate to have a supportive family who understand anxiety and depression. I appreciate not everyone does.

    For those of us living with anxiety, often one of the ways we deal with it is by cancelling our plans. We cannot cope with social situations. In February I cancelled a weekend date with a new love interest – it wasn’t going to happen given how I was feeling! I also cancelled a business dinner with my accountant and catch-ups with two friends. The list goes on. Even now, I still use the excuse that I am too busy or work is too stressful. I haven’t yet found a way yet to be comfortable telling everyone that it is because of my mental health. I am working on but it shows the stigma is still attached to mental health, even for someone who, like me, is very open.

    My old friend the panic attack returned for the first time in February this year. On the day it happened I was having major cognitive distortions such as obsessive thoughts about leaving the tap running and flooding the house. Ironically, the panic attack happened as I was on my way to Hyde Park take part in a Mental Health Mates walk – of all the things!

    Anxiety is common and is often left undiagnosed. In 2013 there were 8.2 million cases of anxiety in the UK. Mixed anxiety and depression is the most common mental disorder in Britain, with 7.8% of people meeting the criteria for diagnosis. Statistics show women experience anxiety more than men do and often this is because women can appear to be more comfortable talking through their issues and seeking support.

    Anxiety has affected my life and I have managed it at work for two decades. It is time for me to help and educate other people. I have only just begun to understand my experiences and have started to seek professional help in the last three years. Reflecting on the statistics, it is important to educate organisations how best they can support their employees living with anxiety. I also want to offer a “lightbulb moment” to anyone who has been living their life through avoidance and utilising unhelpful coping strategies. I want people to understand they do not have to feel this way on a daily basis and that professional help and support is out there for them to access.

    No Panic is a national anxiety charity that has been running for 25 years. We have partnered with No Panic to create a one-hour session for people to learn and understand more about anxiety and panic attacks. Anxiety and anxiety disorders are often seen by many as being at the ‘acceptable’ end of the spectrum of mental ill health conditions. Those of us living with these mental health conditions know they can be debilitating and life-changing.

    “We see this as a great opportunity [to] bring greater awareness to organisations. To help them spot the signs of anxiety within their teams. To know where they can go for help and resources. We are looking forward to facilitating the discussion on anxiety within the workplace”. Michelle D’Ambrosio, No Panic.

    The one-hour session is for all employees. When you book the session 20% of the revenue will go to No Panic as a charitable donation to support and sustain the charity and the amazing work they do helping the public. This includes a crisis helpline for both adults and young people.

    Are you ready to create further awareness and promote education about a common mental health condition? One which many of your employees will need support for?

    Download the outline of the session here and to book your workshop please email info@champsconsult.com.

  • Children’s Mental Health Week

    It’s Children’s Mental Health Week, so we want to highlight how some ways you can help your child’s mental health.Our booklet on Children's Phobias and Anxieties

    Check out our booklet on Children’s Phobias and Anxieties.

    What should you look out for? To start with a persistent avoidance of certain situations or people. Signs of sudden laboured or fast breathing in reaction to a situation or circumstance. Nervous shaking or dizziness. These are just some of the symptoms or reactions you can have from having an anxiety disorder or an anxious reaction to a situation. Now some anxiety is normal but frequent anxiety is not. But do keep in mind it is the anxiety that is and isn’t normal not the child. You can read more about anxiety symptoms anxiety symptoms here. If your child is showing anxiety symptoms talk to them about it and find out how they feel and think about them.

    So what can you do to get help if you see that your child needs it? First of all get advice, you can get advice from our youth helpline on 0330 606 1174. You can also get advice by emailing us on membership@nopanic.org.uk or by going to our Facebook Page and messaging us.

    The next things you can do is to work on basic coping strategies like a muscle relaxation technique and a breathing exercise. Then you may want to consider whether cognitive behavioural therapy would be necessary or wanted by your child and if it would work with them. We can help with that too.

    If you would like to know more about our youth services you can visit our youth section of the shop or you can phone our youth helpline on 0330 606 1174.

  • PIP & Mental Health Claimants

    I felt like my mental health was irrelevant. I was made to feel like I was being a burden to the system.

    Quote from A BBC News Article on PIP from a claimant called Vicky.

    This shocking statement is the current state of our disabled person’s benefits system. We’ve heard this echoed by others that are in contact with No Panic. The assessment and reassessment process is complicated and can be traumatizing for the claimants. Even more so now that a great deal of mental health claimants have to go to appeal and even tribunal to get the correct decision that they need to live a suitable life and any suitable care.

    Disabled People Treatment

    So the question rightly asked is: Is this how to treat disabled people?

    You’re disabled under the Equality Act 2010 if you have a physical or mental impairment that has a ‘substantial’ and ‘long-term’ negative effect on your ability to do normal daily activities.

    Serious Neuroses can be classified under the substantial and long term mental impairment. Therefore discriminating against you on grounds of your mental health is not legal. This was part of the basis for the high court case on PIP, which resulted in all 1.6 million PIP claims having to be reassessed. We hope the high court case and the new reassessments mean that people with mental ill health and neuroses will be more fairly treated and not have to utter statements like Vicky’s.

  • Caffeine and anxiety

    Caffeine is a psychoactive drug found in coffee, tea, chocolate, cola and energy drinks. The caffeine in these foods and drinks can have some positive effects. For example helping a person to stay awake or giving them a little energy boost so that they can continue on with their import work they are in the middle of doing. Even with good points it does have it’s bad; one of the most common is addiction but for anxiety sufferers it’s got more of a bad place than that.

    Caffeine can have negative effects on anxiety disorders. According to a 2011 literature review, caffeine use is positively associated with anxiety and panic disorders. At high doses, typically greater than 300 mg, caffeine can both cause and worsen anxiety. For some people, discontinuing caffeine use can significantly reduce anxiety.

    Quote from Wikipedia

    While we know and have seen studies on caffeine and its effects on anxiety disorders we often find that it can be a crutch for sufferers that just want to stay awake through the exhaustion effects of anxiety disorders and get on with their current lives. But conversely the same drug that helps with that could be making it worse. Caffeine is known to cause insomnia in some cases increasing the body’s need for sleep.

    So what is the solution?

    The solution for many is to moderate caffeine intake and in some cases trickle down the caffeine intake until it’s zero. In fact if you find that caffeine affects your anxiety then that is what No Panic recommends you to start doing.

  • Anxiety at Work

    Anxiety in the workplace can be frightening, distressing and horrific. It for most is one of the worst places you can suffer from any time of acute time of anxiety or panic. Breaking down in front of others for a lot of people is also very hard. Even more so if you struggle with any kind of social anxiety.

    This kind of thing is compounded when you have colleagues, a boss or underlings who don’t understand. In this situation you’re likely to get put down and made to feel even more anxious and depressed about the whole situation on top of what you were feeling anxious about beforehand. To counteract this you may feel like you have to be the best that a person can be at work. Take on as much as possible and deal with so much during a day that you feel at breaking point when you get home in the evening. You may also feel like quitting to try and find that dream environment where you don’t need to worry but that you will be fighting the anxiety about change.

    So what can you do about it?

    Promote an openness about mental health in your workplace. Convince management that they need to be aware and treat all people with respect and care especially when it comes to a person’s mental health. You could help arrange mental health awareness days and get information from leading organisations like No Panic for your human resources department. But for yourself it’s required that you keep to your limits, don’t make yourself ill to make others feel better about you. Make sure you look after yourself too.

  • Blue Monday

    Today, the third Monday in January, is supposed to be one of the most depressed days of the year, Blue Monday.

    Currently trending on Twitter among other places. So why doesn’t anxiety and depression respect this? Because they’re an illness and don’t discriminate based on the day of the year. So No Panic is sharing its top tips to have a good day.

    1. Relax – Being relaxed is the opposite of being anxious, if your relaxing then you won’t be getting more anxious.
    2. Breathe – Take a breath and take some time to focus on something so simple that you forget about it so often.
    3. Thought Control – Thinking too much on your anxiety and its symptoms can prolong and increase your anxiety.
    4. CBT Basics – Use the basics of CBT to alter how you react to situations and your own anxious thoughts.
    5. Ask for Help – Ask for help when you need it, call our helpline, message our Facebook page or email us.

    No Panic wishes you an anxiety free Blue Monday and hopes that you find some of these techniques helpful.

  • Children and Young People’s Mental Health

    Half of all mental health problems have been established by the age of 14, rising to 75 per cent by age 24. One in ten children aged 5–16 has a diagnosable problem.

    On Tuesday 12th December Open forum Events held their Children and Young People’s Mental Health Conference. The day was good, there were 10 speakers who spoke about topics ranging from mental health in education, to parenting and the recently released green paper on young people’s mental health.

    Young people spend, roughly, 40% of their waking time at school.

    That was one of the biggest messages that stood out to me from the talk by Headteacher Andy Howard from the Crossley Manor School which educates young people with social, emotional and/or mental health needs. School is vitally import to a young person it can either be a place of safety and stability or their worst nightmare.

    Transforming Children and Young People’s Mental Health Provision: a Green Paper

    During the day, there was a lot of talk about the green paper and the provisions that were going to be put in place hopefully as a result of this. The main points of the green paper are designated mental health leads in schools, mental health support teams in the local area supervised by CAMHS staff which deal with schools in a locality and the target waiting time of 4 weeks to access specialist services.

    There are concerns about this not going far enough especially from myself and a few of the speakers. Concerns were raised about the mental health teams not being in schools but around them as the current plan. I was concerned about the teachers having training to provide support in the here and now for anxiety and panic attacks. Concerns were also raised about having these problems dealt with before they entered the higher education system by one of the speakers and the hope that this means problems that occur during primary and secondary educations will be addressed.

    This was a very good day providing lots of information on the future of mental health in schools and the attendees like myself got a lot from the speakers. These attendees also got information about No Panic and how we can help. If you’d like to know more about how we can help schools and young people’s organisations please contact us.

  • Children and Young People’s Mental Health Green Paper

    The government has announced a new green paper that proposes to help young people in schools before they get worse. This comes at the same time they release the statistic that one in ten girls ages 16 or 17 were referred for specialist mental health services in england last year. Below are the main points of the green paper.

    The government’s new green paper proposes:

    • training for senior designated mental health leads in schools to improve prevention work
    • earlier access to services through the creation of new mental health support teams working in and directly with schools
    • a new four-week waiting time for NHS children and young people’s mental health services
    • every primary and secondary school in England to be offered mental health awareness training
    • all pupils to be taught about mental health and wellbeing as part of improved relationships education and PSHE [personal, social, health and economic] lessons

    If these proposals pass and are worked on this would be a great help to people that suffer. This would help not only the students but the knowledge that the teachers gain should help them to manage their own problems as well. This is what No Panic have been working towards with it’s school workshop programme as a part of our youth project. Teaching not only the students but the teachers as well about the ways to manage mental ill health and anxiety in particular. This kind of global effort in schools would make for happier, healthier and more adaptable people in society as a whole.

    If you are connected with a school or organisation that helps sufferers and you want to get a head start on all of this then please get into contact with our office on 01952 680460 or membership@nopanic.org.uk and our ambassador Mark will be happy to discuss your needs and requirements.

  • Trauma, Dissociation and Immobility

    The human race has evolved to deal with trauma and needs traumas to develop responses to dangerous situations. For example we know animals can be dangerous by dealing with the first trauma of seeing an animal attack a human and how that knowledge is passed down the generations.

    Sometimes however trauma can be overwhelming and not be dealt with in the normal way a human brain does. Normally if a trauma happens the Amygdala will take a snapshot of the cause and associate that with the trauma. The Hippocampus will take a more detailed version of the memory and should be able to recall that when the Amygdala notices one of these trauma warning signs thus stopping the trauma reactions from taking place.

    Trauma reactions often come in steps, the first step being fight or flight. The second is dissociation and the third is immobility. The Limbic system is the trigger for these; the Amygdala is part of the limbic system but the reactions to this is controlled by the brain stem or reptilian brain. These are meant to be tempered by the Hippocampus which should control your reactions to the warning sign from the Amygdala. In some cases the Hippocampus is suppressed by cortisol a brain chemical secreted during fight or flight and this can most often happen in cases of post traumatic stress disorders and associated disorders like non-epileptic attack disorder.

    When you do fall victim to the 3 steps, it can have various effects. Fight or flight reactions vary and can have many symptoms. You can find out more about fight or flight symptoms on our anxiety symptoms explained page. Dissociation is where a person can feel unreal, drift off into their own world or be consumed by something totally different that isn’t the task at hand. This can lead to people being unresponsive or clumsy among other things.

    Immobility is like the mouse playing dead when caught by the cat. It stops the predator from feeling the thrill of the case and may make them disinterested. This is the last resort defense mechanism used by the brain stem to protect ourselves. In humans, this can in disorders like non-epileptic attack disorder lead to collapsing, fainting and seizures. While very scary particularly in non-epileptic attack disorder it isn’t life threatening but can be dangerous depending on where the seizures happen.

    The trauma trigger can get very sensitive and the best way to decrease that is to learn how to feel your body again. This grounds you to the here and now and along with techniques such as rubbing ones hands together helps a person not to dissociate and not progress to the Immobility stage. This allows the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex more of a chance to take over and stop the trauma response and for the person to regain control.

  • Mental Health in the Workplace

    World Mental Health Day is upon us once more, and this year’s theme is all about the workplace.

    The financial cost of mental illnesses in the UK is massive, as you can see from the figures in the above infographic, costing an estimated £70 billion annually in lost productivity, benefits, and health care.

    Such figures highlight just how important addressing mental health conditions is to the welfare of the country. 1 in 4 people in the UK experience a mental health problem each year, yet many people with anxiety, depression, and other mental conditions still don’t have the confidence to be open about it, and seek the required professional help.

    How employers can help

    More companies are realising that it in their interest to support employees with mental health conditions, and create an environment where people feel comfortable talking about such issues. After all, ‘presenteeism,’ whereby people continue to work despite their illness, and are less productive as a result, is estimated to be 1.5 times costlier than absenteeism. Those who take time off to address their mental health are more beneficial to the company, yet it’s estimated that two-thirds of cases go untreated. Companies who take a holistic approach to mental illness, and actively encourage their employees to be open and honest about it, will have a happier and more productive workforce.

    Mind’s Workplace Wellbeing Index recognises companies who have taken such measures, with the Environment Agency coming out as the top performers in this year’s inaugural awards. Such initiatives, combined with World Mental Health Day focusing on the workplace, will hopefully encourage more companies to be proactive in improving their mental health practices.

    Help your colleagues

    If you work for even a modest-sized company, there’s a good chance at least one of your colleagues lives with a mental health condition. Many people keep quiet for fear of the stigma associated with such conditions, and that their colleagues may look at them differently once aware of their illness. By not shying away from the topic of mental health, you can do your small part in creating an environment in which those in need of help feel comfortable seeking it.

    In order to effectively tackle mental health conditions, those in need of medical help must have the confidence to access it. The UK has come a long way in changing the negative stigma, but there is clearly progress to be made. Once it is, the human and financial benefits are clear for all to see.

    This infographic was produced by MyTherapy (available for iOS and Android).