Lets make a difference!
Anxiety is something no one every really understands, even the people with anxiety will always struggle to explain how they really feel.
Anxiety is a chronic disorder characterised by excessive long lasting worry and anxiety about nothing in particular, it is an unpleasant yet normal part of each and every one of us, but hits some people harder than others.
Now i'm not talking from experience because i have never had anxiety before but i have someone very close to me that has it severely, so severely it effects his purpose of life at times. Most blog posts i have read have been from experience but i want to tell you all about how to help someone that suffers from anxiety because thats the closest experience i have had to anxiety.
I am no doctor when it comes to anxiety, if i'm honest i've never really understood it, anxiety is hard to calm, its always going to be apart of that person but by using some of my tips i can assure you things will improve, here are my main steps on how to help someone fell calm and more relaxed when having a panic/ anxiety attack or just feeling depressed.
Step number 1: Reassurance
Your first impulse will be to reassure, reassuring can help a lot, it will tell the person that there is people that care, making them feel as though if something were ever happen they always know your their and can help if need be but be careful and find the balance because too much reassurance can make them more stressed leading to more anxiety, let them know your are there for them but don't keep letting them know it may make things worse.
Step number 2: Listen
Listening is probably the most comforting thing for someone who suffers from anxiety, having someone there for them to express all their feelings without having to answer to any questions, encourage the sufferer to 'LET IT OUT' this will tell them you are not going to judge and your listening to what they have to say because you do actually care. This will help soo much!
Step number 3: Knowledge
Please please please do some research on anxiety, this helped me a lot, you may find the sufferer will not be up to telling you a lot this is mainly because they are scared to hear your opinion and because they think 'because you don't know, you wont understand' it gives them a reason to hide it all. By doing some research and sitting them down and explain some of the things you've found will put them at ease making them feel as though you do understand making them talk to you, this then gets all their worries and problems off their chest making them relaxed and calm and thats the main thing an anxiety sufferer can want. Anxiety can be new to a lot of people and it is not a nice experience to watch someone close go through it, so even if you find a little information on how anxiety happens it will help you to control and understand certain situations.
Step number 4: Leave them be
Once all the talking and understanding is done leave them to be alone were they feel comfortable and safe. Make sure they feel safe, safeness can usually trigger and anxiety attack to happen so by making sure they feel safe where they are will really help to calm down. Usually when having a panic attack the sufferer wants to be left alone, they don't want to sit and constantly talk about how they feel because this just reminds them of how depressed they are making them worse, by leaving them alone your are giving them control and doing something they want to do.
By using these 4 steps when dealing with an anxiety sufferer will really make a difference i promise you.
Anxiety story.
When i wake up i already know if its going to be a bad day by how i feel, i feel stressed on edge, if i were to get shouted at or criticised i can easily 'flip' as i call it, this then leads to me having a stress attack meaning a massive build up of frustration and anger that needs to be let out and because of this you get physical symptoms. Physical symptoms can be anything and once you set your mind on them they start to occur more frequently and more powerful and nothing else matters, you eventually get sucked into the 'vicious circle' as you check your symptoms more the more you start to believe they are actually happening which then causes the 'panic attack'. No matter how much you tell yourself nothing is wrong you physically cannot convince yourself. The idea of dying is extremely real, your heart beats extremely fast, you hyperventilate to try and keep up with your heart beat, you loose all feelings in your limbs, memory loss, hallucination then you deal with the stress of embarrassment in front of other people because your asking for help, people staring, judging, you then start to have the stress of the embarrassment of having a mental disorder.
Immediately after a panic attack you feel physically and emotionally drained and really short tempered, being terrified of things you would normally do (agoraphobia) followed by a few weeks of depression until the next panic attack happens.
This is a short anxiety blog post but i really wanted to tell you as much information as possible without boring you so I hope this anxiety blog helps you to understand a little bit about anxiety, how someone feels during a panic attack and how you can actually help! Please leave a comment letting me know if my blog post helped you in anyway.
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