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Anxiety 101

 

What is anxiety? 

 

Anxiety is a challenging thing to experience –  it can be scary and isolating. Finding the right help can get complicated, so we've put together information and resources to help you find support with anxiety. 

 

Feeling afraid is uncomfortable, but experiencing a moment of fear that comes and goes quickly is part of life. Your body's natural stress response kicking in means everything is working as it should – but if you're living with ongoing worry and stress, you might identify with some of these symptoms: 

 

Anxiety can look like this:

 

  • Worrying often that something bad might happen 

  • Feeling uneasy, edgy or tense (and sometimes you might not be able to explain why) 

  • Avoiding people, places and activities because of anxiety 

  • Heavy, shallow or fast breathing 

  • Fast heart rate 

  • Sleeping and eating troubles 

 

There are also different types of anxiety:

 

 

If you're feeling this way, I want to acknowledge how tough it is to cope with symptoms on top of daily life. It can feel like an uphill battle, but we're here with hopeful news because there are many effective ways to deal with anxiety. 

 

The face-to-face and digital mental health resources below only cover professional support - all types of support have a part to play. Anxiety recovery has many facets, like feeling connected to others and having purposeful activities aligned with your interests and values.  

 

Face to face mental health support

Scroll to read about mental health care plans, different kinds of therapy and search engines for professionals.

Face to face support by Bre-RO

Digital mental health support 

Scroll to read about where to find digital mental health services.

Digital support by Bre-RO

 

Stay tuned for more

 

  • We'll regularly update this thread with new information

  • Our builders will lead discussions and share suggestions

  • Mental health professionals will share information with us about diagnosis, therapy and medication. 

 

 

Bre-RO
Bre-ROPosted 27-05-2022 02:39 PM

Comments

 
Bre-RO
Bre-ROPosted 14-06-2022 01:32 PM

Heya community 👋

 

I thought I'd let you all know that our guest psychologist, Rashida, will be answering questions about "coping with a diagnosis" this month.

 

The event thread is here, and if you'd like to be notified when the event is live, RSVP there 😇 If you'd like to shoot questions through to Rashida, use the google form below, and we'll pass it on to her. 

 

 

 

 

 
Bre-RO
Bre-ROPosted 31-05-2022 12:17 PM

In the spirit of starting cool sub-threads, let's see if we can get one going with recommendations for forum threads that could be helpful for someone with anxiety to check out. 

 

Here are some of my top forum thread suggestions: 

 

 

 
fishyie
fishyiePosted 29-05-2022 04:49 PM

hey everyone! i feel like anxiety can be such a difficult thing to put into words, so i'd like to start a little sub-thread where we can post some gifs that represent our anxiety. i'll start with this one, which is pretty accurate for how anxiety feels for me:

 

 
 
cloudgreen
cloudgreenPosted 31-05-2022 11:53 AM

I love this idea @fishyie

 

This is me on the outside

 

 

vs me on the inside 

 

 
 
Taylor-RO
Taylor-ROPosted 29-05-2022 10:16 PM

Hi @fishyie

 

Thanks so much for sharing. I really love the idea of using GIFs. Here is mine below! Technically not a GIF so I hope that is ok 💖

 

 

Continuous one line drawing of a woman with confused feelings worried about bad mental health. Problems, stress, sad and. Depression concept in doodle style royalty free illustration

 
 
 
Iona_RO
Iona_ROPosted 30-05-2022 11:16 AM

What an amazing idea @fishyie - absolutely love this! And so true, anxiety can be super difficult to put into words, especially when you're right in the midst of it. I get really bad social anxiety, and most of the time I can mask pretty well like this :

 

 

But inside is more like this : 

 
 
 
 
Bre-RO
Bre-ROPosted 31-05-2022 10:35 AM

 

this one is v relatable to me 

 
 
 
 
 
Philippa-RO
Philippa-ROPosted 31-05-2022 12:04 PM

These gifs are all so relatable ❤️ 

I resonate with this one:

 

 
 
 
 
 
Bre-RO
Bre-ROPosted 14-06-2022 03:15 PM

Not a gif but I wanted to share this stunning drawing and what the artist had to say about it

 

 

 

"Don't let your negative thoughts control you, instead let the positive ones flourish. I draw this by hand then I colored it in photoshop. It took a while actually to come up with something that expresses the way a lot of people experienced in such difficult times and give them hope and persistence to focus on their mental health until it blooms." - Hala Yehia, 22, Syria. 

 

 
Bre-RO
Bre-ROPosted 27-05-2022 03:54 PM

Introducing the amazing squad of builders who helped put this thread together 🔊

 

@cloudgreen@King04@hopeful_24@niawithluv@StormySeas17@fishyie@unicorn123

 

 

thank you so much for your help with this thread 🥳

 
 
 
Bre-RO
Bre-ROPosted 09-06-2022 04:12 PM

 

@King04 thank u 🙏

Bre-RO
Uber contributor

cloudgreen
Super frequent scribe

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