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Mental Health Awareness Week: Anxiety

Mental Health Week

Mental Health Awareness Week is from 15 to 21 May 2023. It’s a week designed to raise awareness of Mental health issues and is organised by the Mental Health Foundation. This year the theme is about anxiety.

We all have feelings of anxiety sometimes. This can be because of a medical test, a job interview or money worries. Anxiety is a normal emotion in us all, but sometimes it can get out of control and become a mental health problem.

A survey of 3,000 UK adults, conducted by Opinium in November 2022, found that 29% experienced stress, 34% experienced anxiety and 10% said they had feelings of hopelessness because of financial worries during the previous month.

Anxiety

So, what can you do to reduce anxiety? If you have specific problems, such as money worries then get professional help and advice. But if it more of a general feeling of unease, then the foundation of all good physical and mental health is self-care. So, eat right, get enough sleep, take some to exercise and spend time in nature.

One other good way to ease anxiety is to speak with friends and family about how you feel. Sometimes saying what’s worrying you out loud can take away its power and bring relief. As Sanam Saeed (Pakistani actress and singer) said, “We need to start identifying the triggers that aggravate mental health issues in our society – bullying, social media negativity and anxiety, gender based violence, substance abuse, stigma around issues such as maternal issues, etc., and we need to speak up about these more and get to the source of the problems”.

Finally

Thinking over and over about your problems can make your anxiety worse. If you find yourself doing this, then challenging that thinking can help. Crystallise your recurring thought and perhaps write it down. Then challenge it. How likely is it to happen? You are being realistic? Have you had thoughts like this before and everything was OK. This simple process can stop you being overwhelmed.

If you are struggling with anxiety and want help or advice then contact me

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