Anxiety During Lockdown - Here We Go Again

It’s fair to say a lot has happened in 2020, a lot of which has had a serious effect on people’s mental health. My friend Sophie at SophTalks has asked me to open up about my experiences with anxiety and what tips I can offer people. 

For those that don’t know, anxiety is the feeling of unease, such as worry or fear. This can range from mild to severe depending on the situation and someone’s mental health. Anxiety is a necessity in our life, it keeps us safe and out of danger. However, once we start experiencing unhealthy levels of it, things can turn nasty - something I know all too well.

I’ve had issues with anxiety since I was around 16 but more severely since adulthood. It’s a really strange one for me. I’m a very confident, loud and happy character but when I’m alone and during the night my character completely changes. I suffer from panic disorder which is an anxiety disorder where you have frequent panic attacks, usually for no reason. I also battle with insomnia/somniphobia which essentially is the fear of being alone and fear of sleep due to intrusive anxiety driven thoughts.  

My time over the years dealing with the above have been and still are hell. I’ve taken part in Mental Health fundraising and also studied and taken courses on the subject. I’ve really tried to build myself up as an advocate. All of which I’m incredibly proud of. But… where does the real help start?

Like many, my problems have been intensified by the shear amount of scaremongering and change in daily life caused by COVID-19. I don’t think I’ve ever had quite as severe anxiety as I had during lockdown. I was self-medicating with alcohol to the point I was being sick most nights and scaring my family. Some days, I thought we were in a simulation. I didn’t feel alive, sleep was non-existent, and my paranoia was through the roof. All of this introduced a vigorous onset of depression which was quite frankly the last thing I needed! I seriously felt like I had lost the plot and it wasn’t until we started socialising again that I managed to recover a level of sanity.

People’s situations are always going to differ, and due to this, remedies and treatments will affect individuals in different ways. Personally, I knew I wouldn’t be able to quit drinking and after bad experiences with beta blockers and other similar medications, I knew that was also off the cards. However, I still desperately wanted to help myself and learn to help others.

After realising I wouldn’t be able to afford private therapy or counselling during lockdown, I signed up to the NHS Healthy Minds. My GP recommended me to do in order to be treated with ‘Intense Cognitive Behavioral Therapy’ (CBT). I did some research on this and I heard really good things. But, believe it or not, it’s been 7 months and I’m still on the waiting list. But yanno, thanks for the funding Boris!

After a huge amount of research and experimenting, I built a list of tips which have been effective for me since we came out of lockdown. The list was originally for friends of mine who also suffer but I think now is a great time to share this list with the public! Some are easy, some are hard. It’s really a case of will power and routine.

Tips:

- Cut down on recreational drugs (including alcohol and smoking)

- Exercise! Join the gym or martial arts classes, I’ve fallen in love with both since gyms re-opened

- Yoga and meditation

- Herbal teas (anything with chamomile in is my recommendation)

- Cut caffeine from your diet COMPLETELY and eat lots of fruit and veg

- Supplements and herbal tablets (valerian root and Kalms are my favourite)

- CBD Oil

- Soothing pastilles/sweets (anything by Nelson’s Bach is amazing)

- Drink drops, they’re just flower extracts which you drop into any drink (again, Bach do amazing ones and it becomes a routine whenever getting a drink)

- Multi Vitamins

- COLD showers, practice keeping your breathing under control during a freezing shower (1 minute freezing. 30 seconds warm, rotate)

- Incense, try light one every evening and make it routine (you can get these anywhere online and again I recommend chamomile)

- Aromatherapy, this is the use of vaporisers with essential oils, turning them on in the evenings

- Candles (rotate evenings between candles, incense and vaporiser)

Anxiety and mental health issue can affect anyone. At any time. Which is why It’s so important that together we stop the stigma. The most important step is to accept the problems, be open and honest about them and to try and learn to deal with them in a healthy manner. My only hope is that this encourages others to do so and that my list of tips eases people’s suffering.

Together, we’ve got this!

My links:

www.facebook.com/georgethoburn

www.instagram.com/georgethoburn

Useful info:

www.hacw.nhs.uk/about-healthy-minds/

www.betterhelp.com/

www.counselling-directory.org.uk/counsellors/

Crisis Team - 01905 681915

Samaritans - 116 126