It's The Little Things - Matt and Tim

Anxiety Cure or Prevention

What makes a huge difference is Books; I can lose myself in the world of words, disappear into the life of fantasy and forget life for a while.  The mood boosters or mood busters as I call them provided in the local library; a program created by The Reading Agency; they helped me function and see a brighter side of life providing me rest, escapism and relaxation.



I don’t want to think that I have been sent this depression for nothing, so I am re-training myself as a Counsellor; currently in the final stages of Level 3 with the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, ready to embark onto Level IV in September.




I attended a Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) group via Therapy for You in October last year and found that at the end of six weeks very condensed CBT Program a lot of the attendees and people that needed help, yearned for more stability; the Friday meet became a rock of us.  Some of these attendees were very upset; they felt they had been given a lifeline of hope only for it to be pulled away.




I was one of the more vocal individuals on the course, so SEPT suggested I run a support group and yep… you guessed it, every Friday members meet at my house.  We eat freshly cooked cake, drink tea and coffee and we try to self resolve our issues by being open about our problems.  We don’t just sit and discuss problems, we talk about holidays, family, money, anything that anyone wants to talk about; nothing is taboo.




On our Friday meet we may check out a book which is relevant to the group, for example.  Our group has specifically been working of anxiety and how to overcome it.  The book called The Anxiety Cure, author, Robert L Dupont,  Elizabeth Dupont and Caroline Du Pont – wow that keeps it in the family!  On page 11 it states "...

Life a full normal life without restrictions because of anxiety disorders.  The realistic goal of treatment is not the elimination of the painful, anxious thoughts and feelings.  Getting well from an anxiety disorder means letting go of the wish not to have the uncomfortable feelings and panic.  Getting well means accepting that the symptoms can come back at any time.”

I agree with this statement, I have dealt with depression since the age of 16; it disappeared for some years and returned when I had a major illness in 2007; I am unable to shake the depression off – therefore it is managed by my lifestyle and medication.




It’s all about self awareness I believe, so ensure you know yourself, understand what triggers your anxiety and face it head on when you are ready; and if you are not ready – do not attempt it.
Remember not everyone’s solution is the same; the methods I use may be totally disastrous for you and vice versa.  It’s okay to get things wrong – that’s how we learn to manage in the future.




All Books on Prescription are available at the Library; they’re proving to be popular so you may have to wait for a copy – worth it though!  If you want to see state of the art - visit The Forum, Southend Library - not only do they have books, audio, magazines, papers, maps, pcs - they have an art gallery too!  The staff are lovely and always ready to help.



Love Bernie

Sleep Deprivation

Sunday evening in specific was extremely bad; it was exacerbated by the thought of going back into the stressful environment of work the next day.  I detested the company I worked for, although I was in a senior position, I was still the target of gossip and trip ups by staff!  I was a good boss too; if I had been an ass then perhaps I would understand. Anyway, long story short, my husband became unwell so our family priorities changed and I took up the position of home maker, mum and nurse. You probably know how it feels to suffer from a lack of sleep, particularly if you can’t get enough rest for an extended period. These periods of not sleeping can go on for days, and when you do eventually sleep, you do not feel regenerated, you feel like crap.

For those of us experiencing mental health problems, it can be much worse. Some symptoms (and some medication) can make it hard to get to sleep, and research shows that a chronic lack of sleep can be an important factor in exacerbating or triggering a mental health crisis.  I take a fair amount of medication and I shared the non sleeping problem with my doctor, we decided to move some tablets to a 2PM slot rather than an evening.  Now, whether it was psychological or not, it worked and still does now. I sleep like a baby!

Every year, people face crisis due to lack of sleep as well as other factors, but you will be amazed to know that sleep deprivation can set off a mental health episode.  The charity Rethink Mental Illness assist thousands of people experiencing mental health problems, providing a safe, calm, short-term and supportive environment which can be an effective alternative to hospital. Ask your doctor or call Rethink and self refer.  Last year Rethink assisted 60,000 of us – wow!

Rethink was initially created to challenge public attitudes to mental illness and make a better life possible for people suffering with this debilitating illness.  The Time to Change Pledge Wall is the place you can tell people what you pledge to do about discrimination against people with these problems.

Rethink work with lots of partners across the NHS and charity sectors; they are currently (among other things) ensuring that people affected by schizophrenia and psychosis, and their families, get the support they need which is where Rethink will assist in the transformation of ideas into meaningful actions.

In the UK attitude towards mental health illness have definitely tackled the stigma attached to illness, but it’s obvious that patients still aren’t getting the necessary treatment.  I know individuals that are secretive of how they feel and how the illness affects them; they keep it quiet as they are worried that if they display a good day, their benefits will be stopped and they wouldn’t know where to go from there! This is instead of maybe having the opportunity to be praised for having a good day; because it shows a positive step towards recovery or towards being steady and settled on their medication. Covering up a good day with a bad day is detrimental to their recovery; their mask can cause a good day to turn bad.

And that’s where you come in.

Rethink want to assist more people like us by supplying a fabulous and effective Sleep Pack.  What’s in it? Eye Mask, Lavender Oil, Lavender Bubble Bath, Hot malt drink, Ear Plugs and finally tips for getting off to sleep.  Can’t get one? Go to a 99p shop, you will be surprised what you can pick up and create your own pack.  Before you do anything talking to the doctor is an absolute must; some doctors may offer a sleeping pill to help you out temporarily but in my experience once you have sleeping pills it is extremely hard to stop taking them and therein starts the slippery slope of possible dependency.

Ask the doctor to assess you for depression as inability to sleep is a big indicator of this, you may be offered anti-depressants, their purpose is to boost levels of serotonin in the brain which will help lift our mood.  Also request the assistance of therapy, you may have the opportunity to attend a group cognitive behavioural therapy session and also one to one person centred therapy.

It is the right time to ask to be referred urgently to Rethink or a Sleep Clinic; If your sleep is sorted and you are well, you want to help others get that all important sleep.  You can donate £3.00 which buys one very important Sleep Pack and give someone the very best opportunity to their recovery.

The other piece of advice I have for you is to do a shake down, it’s great fun!  So hop out of bed when you cannot sleep, find a space and spread out like a tree then shake uncontrollably from head to toe, shout loudly, “aghhhh….” get all the tension out.  It works; someone called me at ridiculous o’clock and it interrupted my sense of calm and sleep – so up I jumped and did the shake down!  If you’re old enough, remember the shake n Vac advert from the 70’s, and if not, it’s old fashioned fun!  Well do that but far more rigorously and without a hoover!  Here you go and have fun:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8CTscW3dpI