All my adult life I have been considered by friends and family to be highly organised and reliable and this has also been an important aspect of my working life. In my mid 30’s, with two primary school aged children, working part-time at the university and being heavily involved in local community groups trying to increase and improve local facilities for children and families in the area, I went through a period of feeling depressed and overwhelmed with the amount of things I was juggling in life. As a result, I visited my GP and asked them about herbal alternatives to anti-depressants as I wasn’t ready to accept that I might need further help. My GP was supportive of my choices but said that should I need anything further they would be ready to help. Over a period of time, I drew back from some of my commitments and felt much better and back to my usual self.
However, in the months leading up to the first Covid lockdown I began to find that at times I was feeling a sense of constriction in my breathing for no apparent reason, and a feeling of underlying panic about coping with the various tasks I had to undertake in all aspects of my life. Over the Christmas period I felt ok, but my return to work after the break suddenly felt extremely stressful and I completely lost confidence in my ability to cope or multitask. Whilst I kept this to myself for a while, I eventually decided that I needed to speak to someone about it, and I rang the Employee Assistance Programme. That phone lasted for over an hour and the call handler requested that I made an urgent appointment to see my GP for help.
My GP appointment resulted in me taking some time off work and starting medication. I also underwent telephone counselling. I will talk about the coping mechanisms I was given, and found myself, and how being gentle and understanding with yourself is helpful if you have anxiety issues which arise if you overstretch yourself.
Keywords: Anxiety;