im starting a anxitiy course on monday help

[heartmummy]

has anyone had any experiences ?

Is this a course to help you manage your anxiety heartmummy? I have not personal experience but am a mental health nurse btw.

I would guess that the course will look at various general issues relating to anxiety, causes/triggers etc and some tips for managing it.

Everyone else on the course will probably feel very anxious about attending.

My DH thinks I have an anxiety problem and if I sorted it out most of my problems would be solved and I would enjoy my life a lot more.

How serious does it have to get before they send you on a course? Do you know any good books to read?

they say i have post traumatic stress!!!! affects my everyday life. its really how to manage my stress levels also i have OCD dont like to use that word, i think many people say they have it as if it were a badge of honor,

ActingNormal depending on where you live it will probably be fairly easy to access a course. Sometimes you can book yourself on one at a local college or similar. You can ask your GP to refer you somewhere. Just explain to him/her what anxiety symptoms you have and how they are affecting you. If there are no groups in your area, ask GP for a referral to an NHS Counsellor. Generally you should be offered say 6 sessions or so and the counsellor can talk through issues with you and look at anxiety management techniques.

hth.

heartmummy hope all goes well.

Good luck heartmummy,

I think that, just as everyone has their own personal trigger for anxiety, so we each all have our own best way to overcome it. So I, for instance, find breathing exercises uttery and completely useless for panic attacks. But ice cubes on my skin - absolute lifesaver. And I find nothing worse than being told to "relax". But telling myself that I will "panic tomorrow" works great.

Somewhere out there is your own ideal strategy...good luck finding it. I hope the course helps.

you cannot physically have a panic attack if you are breathing deeply and regularly

Hello heartmummy I did an anxiety management course last year and found it very helpful.

We were basically taught relaxation, breathing exercises and generally ways of managing your anxieties. There was a really good exercise we did about writing down your anxieties, the emotions involved, the liklihood of the anxiety-inducing event actually happening, and then re-evaluating how you felt about that anxiety - helping you to see what makes you overly anxious and then you are able to kind of let go of it, because you have shown yourself that you don't need to be that anxious, iyswim? Sorry, I might be waffling a bit

We also did some stuff about the physical effects of anxiety which was very interesting.

I don't really know how any of this would related to PTSD as I've never suffered that, but I hope your course helps you

PoorOldEnid.

Wannabet?

yup

if it doesnt work you are not doing it properly

you can still feel frightened but you cannot hyperventilate/lose feeling in hands and feeet etc

Indeed. And a curious otherworldly feeling that it. But the "feeling frightened" bit can make the underlying anxiety worse.

I saw a psychologist who was wedded to breathing exercises. It made me much worse. The NHS mental health nurse I saw later just said "oh yes, people whose anxiety is connected to their breathing respond poorly to breathing exercises. Try something else".

So as I said, everyone has to find their own way.

If someone could make me believe that my fears of things that could happen to my children are very unlikely to happen then I would feel less anxious. I can't believe breathing alone would calm me down when eg I keep visualising my kids falling and smashing their teeth on a hard surface. ...but I'm not having panic attacks, I have the breathlessness sometimes and dizzyness but not panic attacks, it's just the constant worrying and tenseness and not enjoying anything because of it that I'm struggling with.