Sunday, August 26, 2018

AND RELAX...

Hey everyone!

In the pressures and stresses of everyday life, whether that be at school, university, or work, it is easy to forget a little bit of self-love and care. After completing a demanding three years of university and getting sucked into a cycle of never-ending to-do lists and obligations, I neglected my mental and physical health, and as such ended up having waves of panic attacks and general unhappiness with how I was handling everything.  
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Sunday, August 5, 2018

A TRIP TO SPAIN: BARCELONA, AUGUST 2018

Hi all! 

This is another short blog post on something I have been up to recently!  Last week I got back from 6 days in Barcelona. It was an amazing few days sight-seeing, accompanied with trying the delicious food in Spain’s tropical temperatures with my family. Despite being a welcome change of scenery, it was a relatively stress/anxiety free trip. 

When I have gone on holidays in the past, they have been riddled with panic attacks and severe anxiety – this is also not helped by the fact that I have had a morbid fear of flying! The panic attacks tend to start in the airport before we have even taken off and continue to pester me almost every day we are on the holiday. Because of this, I haven’t really enjoyed holidays all that much in the past and have hidden my dread for them from everyone else. However, in the last 12 months, I have definitely overcome this!
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ONE-YEAR PANIC FREE

Hi everyone! 

Some of you may have seen posted on my Facebook that in February it had been one year since my last panic attack. Although it doesn’t sound like a ground-breaking accomplishment, to me, it is probably one of my greatest and proudest achievements to date! Here’s why. 

The definition of a panic attack is “the abrupt onset of intense fear or discomfort that reaches a peak within minutes and includes at least four of the following symptoms: palpitations, pounding heart, or accelerated heart rate, sweating, trembling or shaking.” In other words, they are nasty, and I wouldn’t wish a panic attack on anyone! Listed above are all the physical symptoms but I would say that the mental side effects of a panic attack were worse for me.
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TRYING SOMETHING NEW: WALES, JULY 2018

Hello again! 

Just a short blog post here on one of the ways I have reduced my anxiety. Over the years I have found that doing things out of my comfort zone and out of my normal routine have helped distract me from my day-to-day worries and anxieties. Because of this, when the opportunity arises to do something completely different and meet new people, I jump at it and end up loving it! 

Towards the end of last month, I took part in a 6-day BSAC Snorkelling Course in the south of Wales, Dale. As well as using this to complete my Gold Duke of Edinburgh Award, it was a great diversion from my annoying paranoia and anxiety. Despite being pretty horrific at snorkelling for the first couple of days, hyperventilating in the water several times and hurting myself everywhere, it gave me a great sense of achievement in completing it! I pushed myself physically and mentally and I loved it! Snorkelling with people I do not know is not something I would have gone anywhere near this time 18 months ago, and this is tantamount to the fact that my mental health is improving very quickly.
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Saturday, August 4, 2018

BACKGROUND ON MY MENTAL HEALTH

Hello all! 

As some of you may already know, I have had anxiety for almost 7 years now. Despite starting almost a decade ago, I can remember very vividly why and when my first panic attack was. On the 15th August 2011, my family and I moved to a new house. Moving house is stressful at the best of times, but the fact that my sisters and I could not help (because we were so young), made the move all the more difficult for our parents. 

The tense atmosphere adding onto the new and unfamiliar environment made me feel very uncomfortable, and as such resulted in a panic attack lasting about 7 hours. I had never experienced a panic attack before. I felt dizzy. I felt sick. I felt frightened. It was horrible, and they continued daily for the next month. Of course, as time went on I knew how to handle them, and they became less scary, but they have always been something I dread, and I am very lucky to not have had one in over a year and a half.
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INTRODUCTION TO MY BLOG!

Hi all, welcome to my blog! 

I posted a poll on my Instagram story a few months ago asking whether or not people would be interested in seeing a blog written by me about my mental health and I received an overwhelming response from so many people! I have been thinking about doing this for a while now and have been putting it off because I have been very nervous about publicly sharing my battle with anxiety, extreme paranoia and my panic attacks. However, I have found that the more I open up about my struggles with anxiety, the more I can help others and the more at ease I feel with my own mental health.
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