Tag: psychoeducation

By Craig, No Panic volunteer

This is the third in our series looking at the importance of psychoeducation in any anxiety recovery journey. We’ve already had a look at the benefits of understanding more about the anxiety state and the different sources available to help you do that. In this blog, we want to look at balancing a healthy drive to understand, against an anxiety triggered need to find cures and reassurance.

When it comes to psychoeducation, you may find two different schools of thought out there. Some people may tell you to stop pouring over all the details, let it be and move on. However, for most of us, trying to live with the daily symptoms and challenges without understanding what’s going on, can leave us even more perplexed and frightened. That’s why a growing body of professionals and individuals will recommend the value of understanding what is going on with your heightened anxiety state.

As I started to build my own understanding of anxiety disorder, I found real comfort in understanding that I wasn’t really losing my mind, or that I wasn’t in any related danger of suddenly dying. However, whenever my anxiety lasted for any period, I started to fall into the trap of assuming I must have failed to learn all I needed to and that was why the anxiety was still there. It’s so common for your anxious reaction to trigger a ‘need to fix it’ or to ‘need to find the magic answers’, but by now, I am pretty sure you’ll have been seeing that there is no magic solution out there – if there were, we’d all be using it.

The truth with anxiety is that it usually takes patience, courage, and perseverance. Psychoeducation’s role there is not to eliminate the anxiety, but to help with the patience and perseverance. In understanding how anxiety works, you can learn that there is a natural process going on and with the right perseverance using relaxation, exercise, diet, and other good lifestyle habits, you will see your anxiety drop over time, we’ve seen this so many times. 

But how do you know whether you are using psychoeducation as a useful tool to help you understand and be patient, or whether you are furiously seeking out that magic bullet? Well, in my experience I am afraid it is a fine line, but there are usually a couple of tell-tale signs, ask yourself:

• ‘Am I reading/listening to things I already know?’ Sometimes you will read variations of the same thing in hope that this time it will ‘go in’ or you’ll get it right. This is a classic sign of ‘reassurance’. Reassurance is when you have to be told something you already know because you don’t trust yourself..
• ‘Am I hoping that this article will tell me how to fix it?’ There is lots of good advice out there and lots of techniques and practices that are really good for you, but if you sense you are looking for a magic fix, stop.. think… ask yourself if you are really going to find that when 20% of the global population has an anxiety condition… wouldn’t they already be rolling that magic out?

Psychoeducation is such a powerful tool on your recovery path, but it is always important to check your motivations and challenge yourself if you notice you are becoming obsessed with reassurance seeking and magic fix finding.

Hopefully this short series on psychoeducation has given you something to think about and hopefully a few new resources to consider that you might try using. A reminder that the no panic website is a great source for learning more about Anxiety and ways to help improve your current situation… head to our Resources section for lots of pages on different specific anxiety conditions and topics.

By Craig, No Panic volunteer

In our recent blog on psychoeducation, we spoke about the value of understanding what is happening biologically when you are anxious. Doing so can help you understand that whilst symptoms are real and scary, they can also be easily explained and cannot truly harm you.

Once you’ve decided that you want to learn more, the challenge is where to go. In today’s blog I wanted to talk about some of the sources that I have found useful:

Books

It seems hard to believe, but back in the early 2000’s when I first experienced those bewildering feelings of anxiety, the internet wasn’t a big thing. When I wanted to understand more about anxiety, I turned to books! That first time, I picked up books at my local library, so self help doesn’t always cost.

Books may not feel like the immediate or magic cure you are seeking, but I have found a great deal of wisdom and help in books on anxiety disorder. Although it does take quite a bite of effort to get a book to the shop shelves, I still always recommend checking out authors and their titles to see how well respected they are.

A particular author I would like to bring to your attention is Dr Claire Weekes. Whilst she died back in 1990 at the ripe old age of 87, she had already led the field in recommending techniques that are common today and in doing so got herself books and TV slots. Her title ‘Self Help for your nerves’ explains some of the basics behind what’s going on when you become nervously unwell, she explains individual symptoms and their biological mechanics before she goes on to discuss ways to help yourself recover.

If you’ve got any books you’ve found really helpful, do add them to the comments for others to read.

Websites

As the 2000’s rolled on, you may have noticed that the internet took off. It’s fair to say it has left us with a rich array of websites specialising in anxiety disorders. There are different types of websites each coming from a slightly different angle:

• Official guidance from public health bodies, e.g. here’s the UK NHS page on Generalised Anxiety Disorder (https://www.nhs.uk/mental-health/conditions/generalised-anxiety-disorder/overview/)
• Supportive guidance from anxiety related health charities, e.g. our own NoPanic resource library (https://nopanic.org.uk/resources/)
• Independent websites from qualified medical professionals, e.g. The Anxiety Coach is a website run by Dr Dave Carbonell as us based clinical psychologist with some following as a therapist, author and teacher (https://www.anxietycoach.com/)
• Independent websites from interested individuals/groups, e.g. Anxiety No More is a website run by Paul David, a British blogger who suffered severe anxiety for over 10 years, who shares his experiences and also managed to get his story published (https://anxietynomore.co.uk/)
• Corporate websites from organisations looking to sell anxiety related services

A couple of challenges with internet sites are a) the fact that just about anybody can put a site out there and b) the sheer volume of choice. For this reason, I think it’s always important to be that bit more discerning. My general rule of thumb is that if a website is promising a quick fix for anxiety, it can generally be left well alone. Another red flag for me is if there is any kind of significant charge for their information. If you had information that would help people suffering from anxiety, would you restrict it to those paying? You’ll find plenty of websites where people are willing to share their information and provide paid service alongside for extra support, but are completely optional.

Although it can seem daunting or challenging, I do think it’s worthwhile as there are some powerful resources out there as I’ve listed above.

Podcasts

One of the more recent innovations has been every growing world of Podcasts. These are audio recordings of individuals or groups sharing discussion and information. They are accessible through a variety of platforms (e.g., Apple podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts). If your anxiety leaves you finding it difficult to focus on tasks like reading, these can be helpful alternatives.

As I recommend with websites, I also recommend a bit of digging on podcast authors. What can you find out about their podcasts, people’s views on them and the topics they are covering. Some platforms do enable podcasts to be rated, some allow comments to be left and then there are websites that will actively review podcasts to help you source one that works for you.

Then there is the fun side of this, with a podcast it’s always far more valuable if you find somebody that really resonates with you, be that the way they explain their stories, their voice or the format they share them in, so I really recommend exploring and finding something that’s right for you.

A couple of podcasts I have found great interest in are…

• The Panic Pod, by Joshua Fletcher (a Manchester, UK based psychotherapist and published author) https://schoolofanxiety.com/the-panic-pod/
• The Anxious Truth, by Drew Linsalata (a New York, US based past anxiety sufferer, published author and in training psychotherapist) https://theanxioustruth.com/subscribe-to-podcast/

There really is so much information out there that is of value. I know it can be overwhelming when there is so much choice, but think about how you usually prefer to learn, find a source you trust, then give it a go. In the next blog on psychoeducation, I’ll try and balance all the above and the volume of material available by considering if there is such a thing as too much??

(note: this article refers to sources that the author has found beneficial. It is important you make your own choices with the use of the information available to you)

By Craig, No Panic Volunteer

In 2005, I had my first experience of problematic anxiety. I remember that feeling of adrenalin rushing through my body, a flush of heat over my face with beads of sweat forming on my forehead as thoughts started to tell me that something was terribly wrong… I needed to get to safety. The only problem was I didn’t know what the danger was and I didn’t know what would make me feel safe. My mind could only reach one conclusion, something about me was fundamentally broken and I was surely on a path to ‘losing my mind’… whatever that means?

For most people who experience problematic anxiety, I am sure this will sound familiar. I am also sure I won’t be the first person having experienced this to tell you that here I am 18 years later and my mind was never ‘lost’… but in a way, that makes it all the more confusing… why all the drama if I am actually ok?  

Without access to the right information and understanding, or the right support, it’s no surprise that this confusion leads many to believe that their mind is truly about to break. It’s at this point that the process of psychoeducation is such an important and critical step along the road to recovery.

Initially, I didn’t know what the phrase ‘psychoeducation’ meant, but it’s become so important to myself and many on their anxiety journeys. Psychoeducation, literally, is the process of learning about a mental health condition, it’s causes, symptoms, prognosis and treatments.

As with most anxiety treatments, there is rarely a single magic bullet, but I and others have found psychoeducation to be crucial in removing a lot of the mystery and bewilderment from the anxious state. For anxiety specifically, I’ve found it useful to understand why the body triggers anxious reactions at all, why they can be not only beneficial but critical in our lives. I’ve also understood more about why our nervous systems can sometimes lead to this process going wrong, i.e. becoming persistent or acute out of context. Psychoeducation has also helped me understand why something which to me seemed like a nervous reaction in my mind, could lead to my hands feeling sweaty, or sweat coming across my brow.

Again, understanding these processes does not magically stop them happening, but they do help you understand the limitations of anxiety and why ultimately it is not a process that directly causes you any harm or leads to specific other mental illness. I know for myself, this left me feeling much more empowered to take the steps needed to help my nervous system recover, without the added pressure of trying to figure out what on earth was going on all the time.

Our own no panic website, we have a whole section under the ‘resources’ menu which can really help you understand what’s going on here. Hopefully you find some useful material there, if there is something not covered, that you’d like to understand more on, why not suggest another topic for us to add?