Mental Health Awareness Week 12-18 May 2014; Anxiety

As a GP I really like it when a student comes to see me about their anxiety. Not only because it means they are keen to get help and get better, but also because there are so many things we can offer to ease their symptoms. In the last few years, here at Students’ Health Service, we have tried really hard to provide a variety of treatment options for what is the commonest mental health problem that we see; anxiety.

Anxiety affects people differently (about 1 in 20 people will have it at some time), but in general it makes you feel afraid and tense. It can lead to physical symptoms, as your adrenaline rushes around more than usual. People complain of palpitations (fast heart beat), sweating, nausea (feeling sick), chest pains, and shaking. You can also get headaches, and feel out of breath. It can be normal to feel like this, eg before an exam, but when it starts to interfere with everyday life it can become very challenging. Some people get panic attacks, where the symptoms feel overwhelming, and it can feel like the world is closing in on you, or that you might die. Please ask for help if this is happening. Ideally, please see a GP before it gets this bad.

So what can we offer you?

A variety of psychological (talking based) therapies are available. Relaxation techniques and Mindfulness can be learnt, and the Student Counselling Service provides very regular groups. Just sign up on their website.

http://www.bristol.ac.uk/student-counselling/

Self Hypnosis has been shown to be effective, and a GP can refer you for this; a one off free session provided by Matt Edwards in a confidential environment. Here is a blog written by a student who saw Matt last year;

I tried self hypnosis for my anxiety! You could too… a student writes…

 

Online CBT (cognitive behavioural therapy) is available for those who would prefer this method; sign up via the SCS website.

Free NHS groups, and 1 to 1 therapy are accessed via the LIFT Psychology service; no GP referral required, just contact them on

http://lift.awp.nhs.uk/bristolandsglos/

However, if psychological approaches are not enough, or might take too long and your symptoms are too challenging to manage daily, then medication can be extremely helpful, and can work within a few days of starting it. Any of the GPs will be happy to discuss this option with you.

So remember, anxiety is normal and common, but sometimes it can become overwhelming or a daily stress, so get help and talk to us soon!

Dealing with Exam stress part 2

Hi, my name’s Rick and I work at Students’ Health two days a week, delivering cognitive-behavioural based talking therapies to students struggling with difficulties such as anxiety and depression.

 As the dreaded exams loom, the people I see often find that their problems become more difficult to cope with. This is because, frankly, there are various aspects of studying at a University that are psychologically downright unhealthy:

 The perfectionism, the isolated nature of the work, the unrealistic amounts of work expected, the competitive nature of the whole thing, the lack of instant reward for the hours and hours of hard slog put in, the uncertainty about what the future holds beyond University… etc etc etc

 I still vividly remember my own struggles with all this; and anyone who was in the vicinity of the Psychology department at Exeter University in 1989 will maybe recall my own less-than-ideal attempts to cope with it.

 The good news is that 23 years later, I’m full of good ideas about how to deal with the stress of University work, most of which I’ve learned fairly recently from working here with you.

 Here are 5 top tips for psychological wellbeing at this difficult time:

 

1.   Use a diary/ schedule to plan your work and your revision

     By planning work you can break it down into manageable chunks and hopefully find it less overwhelming. Try not to plan unrealistic amounts; 5-6 hours a day is realistic for most people. Plan breaks and relaxing/ fun activities as well and try to start as early as you can: If you’ve already done 3 hours work by lunchtime, you’re less likely to get stressed as the day wears on.

     Above all, see what works for you.

 2.  Try not to compare yourself with other people

 There are always going to be people who seem to get up at 6.00am and spend their whole day in the library, working for 14 hours without a break. Do not compare yourself with these people and on no account try to compete with them. Work at a pace that suits you, and try not to pick up on other people’s stress.

 3.   Try to avoid falling into spirals of negative thinking

     There are various unhelpful styles of thinking people can fall into when under pressure. These include predicting the future, catastrophising, and  black and white thinking, among others. There’s a link to 12 of these and what to do about them attached below.

 4.   When work stress and anxiety do start to get on top of you, take a look at what you do in response to this

      Do you dive under the duvet? Go to the pub? Switch on daytime TV? Phone a friend? Go for a brisk walk around the block? Surf the internet? Go to the gym? Jump up and down and scream?

      Try writing down what you do, and try to notice what’s helpful and what isn’t, in terms of keeping you calm and allowing you to complete what you need to complete.

 5.   Remember that the whole thing is time-limited: It will not last for ever and you can only do what you can do in the time you’ve got

Soon it will all be over…

 

If you are struggling with anxiety and/ or depression and would like help and support, you can contact Rightsteps Bristol on 0117 9431111 and self refer. It is a free service. Alternately you can e-mail me at

rick.cooper@turning-point.co.uk

 http://www.getselfhelp.co.uk/unhelpful.htm

 

Relaxation techniques for anxiety

So there I was contemplating a raisin…

We were sitting in a circle with our eyes closed, trying to clear our minds of the daily maelstrom of thoughts and tasks. In our hands we each held a small dried fruit, and we were being asked to focus on it, touch it, smell it, listen to it (!) and finally taste it. The only problem was that I couldn’t switch off and I couldn’t stop making lists in my head…

Mindfulness based relaxation is a lot trickier than you might think!

As GPs we like to take time out to review what we offer to our students and we recently had the opportunity to try mindfulness (a type of relaxation technique) for ourselves. It is recommended for stress and anxiety and it is also offered by the Student Counselling Service, so it’s no bad thing for us to try it out. It was revealing to find that I was absolutely hopeless at relaxing and switching off! There’s a real skill to be learnt and I can see how this would be a fantastic life long technique for dealing with future stress and challenging times.

So if you find yourself lying awake at night because of worries, if you’re anxious on a pretty regular basis, or panicky when in certain situations, this could be for you.

The raisin is just the beginning, but peace of mind and the ability to take back control over your emotions lie ahead if you are able to invest some time and patience in learning something new, just for you.

If you need to talk to someone about anxiety then please contact us at the Students’ Health Service on 0117 3302720, or you could contact the Student Counselling Service.

Other good sources of info: