Joined Today!

Hello everyone,

I joined this forum today because I'm really hoping to gain further insight. Basically, I'm at university studying Graphic Design and I'm in the middle of a project about anxiety. I chose to focus on this illness because I want to use my skill set to illustrate and discuss advice for people with anxiety (perhaps in the form of a booklet, zine, pocketbook - not sure which yet).

I want my work to contain advice FROM anxiety sufferers, TO anxiety sufferers. What works for you might work for someone else. I genuinely feel that not enough is being said for young people / young adults and that schools aren't speaking to people about mental illness. I intend to address people who have anxiety and to offer a sense of comfort in knowing that they're not alone and that there are things they can do.

I'm not here to publish anything without permission and I certainly don't want to take advantage of anyone else's problems. I would properly credit anyone (or keep you anon if you wished) who feels they want to contribute any advice and would also write a little background info about the contributor with their permission (age, how long you've had anxiety, how you feel today etc).

If you wish to contribute to my project, please feel free to comment below. I look forward to hearing your stories!

Thankyou :)
Leanne

We are all definitely anxiety sufferers!! (and every other thing you can think of too)...:)

Welcome Leanne!

E-Man..:D

Hi Leanne lovely to meet you and welcome.:)

Hi Leanne, Great to have you here. And it's a great thing you are doing for your project. My background, if of any use is as follows; I have suffered depression and loneliness pretty much my whole life (I'm 27). I was an only child and lived with my mum. I never knew I suffered from them until I was 24 when I started getting anxiety attacks after a break up with my girlfriend and my gran passing away. Was put on medication peroxatine which hugely affected me physically, and as a competitive athlete it caused me more distress not being able to train to my full potential. I weened myself off and came out on the brighter side...until last week where I had a relapse of sleepless nights and mild anxiety attacks mainly brought on by the worry of getting intimate and close to someone, who I have now separated from. It seems like my anxiety and depression comes a lot from my abandonment issues and loneliness,especially when I'm in an intimate relationship, it tends to make me feel worthless. I very much wear my heart on my sleeve, which is guarded heavily! With some attacks I can get extremely emotional and tearful which to a point is uncontrollable and embarrassing. Most my issues like everyone start and ends in my mind, over analysing, jumping to conclusions, maybe that in turn effects my relationships and thus triggering anxiety. Depression and anxiety is a hard thing to cope with, although as an athlete I can use it well in competition but when I'm on my lonesome....well that's a different story. I loose every time.

My advice for young people; nip it in the bud early, be honest with yourself, address the issue(s), don't let it take over your life. Be as open as you feel comfortable, know that if your mind is strong enough to make you feel like this it's strong enough to fight it, do feel good activities, surround yourself with positivity, and know that you are not alone.....there are other x-men out there ;) just call me Wolverine :p