Mental health matters all year round, but Mental Health Awareness Week is an important opportunity to both raise awareness of the importance of good mental health and shine a light on some of the strategies and support that are available. We have been sharing a range of strategies this week with both staff and students, all focused on this year’s theme of anxiety.
Anxiety is a normal emotion in us all, but sometimes it can get out of control and become a mental health problem.
Lots of things can lead to feelings of anxiety, including exam pressures, relationships, starting a new job (or losing one) or other big life events. We can also get anxious when it comes to things to do with money and not being able to meet our basic needs, like heating our home or buying food. However, it is important to remember that anxiety can be made easier to manage.
Anxiety has a psychological effect as well as a physiological effect. Anxious thoughts are a common symptom of anxiety, which can become obsessive thoughts in anxiety disorders such as OCD. Here we are sharing just some of the techniques that you may find useful to help minimise anxiety:
Distraction
It is important to realise that distraction is different to avoidance. When we avoid a distressing situation we choose not to deal with it. When we distract ourselves from a distressing situation we are giving our minds a break from thinking about it by focusing on something else for a while. This can allow our emotions to calm down until we are in a better place to come back and deal with it.
Possible means of distraction include: listening to music; going for a walk, a run or a bike ride; gaming; walking the dog; doing a jigsaw; painting nails; writing a food plan; walking round the garden and noticing what is growing; taking photographs; writing in a journal; knitting; reading a book; baking; gardening etc.
Self-soothing
Some people become so used to harming themselves, or doing things that are not good for them, as a means of coping, that learning how to self-soothe can feel difficult at first, but it is an important part of managing emotions and looking after their mental health. A good starting point can be to think about your senses:
· Hearing – music, audio book, water, bird song, relaxation app
· Smell – baking, herbal tea, flowers, perfume, candle
· Taste – chewing gum, favourite sweets, eat something you enjoy slowly
· Touch – cuddle a soft cushion, hand cream, stroke a pet, squeeze putty, warm bath, wear your favourite clothes
· Sight – carry a photo of a loved person/pet/place, make a collage of pictures you like, draw/paint your own picture
Square breathing
Anxiety can trigger our Fight or Flight response and cause us to be in a state of hyper-arousal. When we are in hyper-arousal we need to slow down our heart rate. There are lots of breathing exercises that you can employ – square breathing is just one.
Square breathing is simply breathing in slowly for 4, hold our breath for 4, breathe out for 4, hold for 4.
If you find holding for 4 a challenge you can adapt it to 2 or 3 and practise rectangular breathing – see what works for you. Sometimes it helps to visualise a square. There are squares everywhere we go, so if you experience anxiety in a shopping centre, for example, you can pretend to be looking in a shop window but actually looking at the square frame while doing this exercise.
