Last week I wrote about my struggles with anxiety, I was so overwhelmed by the lovely messages that I received afterwards, so thank you to those who read it.
I know this is a craft blog and you are saying, Lowri, why don't you just show us some cards or how to make a pompom or something, and I will but I just wanted to write a quick follow up. I found it so interesting that many of the messages I received contained the same phrase ........
"It's so nice to know I am not alone".
Anxiety and Depression can feel so isolating. Be it from feeling overwhelmed, misunderstood, unconfident or just plain embarrassed. When you are on a downward spiral it is just easier to stay at home. Stay in bed. Stay away. But life needs to continue, right? Work, family, life obligations and the rest. If you weren't feeling shit before, having to doll yourself up, slap on a smile and go and talk to a client, manager or twatish mum at some god awful playgroup, will definatly make you want to reach for the gin before 10am.
All I want to do on those days is to stay in bed while someone else does my parenting/ working/ networking etc. and I just eat biscuits. Then probably get angry because there are biscuit crumbs in my bed. But get over my anger by eating more biscuits in bed......and the cycle continues.
I always think it is like asking someone with a broken leg to do a marathon. It is possible but it's fucking stupid! The marathon may get done but that person will be further injured. The same goes for someone with mental health problems. The job gets done but at what cost?
However, the difference between a broken leg and mental health is there is a clear treatment and recovery time. Generally, in 6 weeks you are fixed and you get the gross satisfaction of scratching off all the dead skin that was encased underneath your leg plaster. With mental health it isn't quite the same. It can take weeks, months, years or a lifetime. So, it is impractical to just take a bit of time, relax and watch reruns of Home under the Hammer (Is Martin slowly turning in to a werewolf by the way?) for the rest of your illness. Life keeps on running and we must keep up, broken or not.
This feeling can be overwhelming for everyone. It is for me every day and if you feel the same you are definitely not alone. According to AnxietyUK, 1 in 10 people in the UK have a debilitating anxiety disorder. So if the average cinema screen contains around 100 seats, 10 of those people spent the day leading up to seeing the film with a churning stomach, in tears or hyperventilating if they even got there at all. Let's face it, its more likely there will be 10 empty seats in that movie theatre.
I wish there was a magical way to fill those seats, just poof those worries away but sadly it doesn't work like that. All I have learnt over the years is to be honest. With yourself and with others. If you are having a shit day tell someone. If you seriously cannot do something, don't waste your time and energy doing it. Ask for help, ask for extra time, there is always a way around things. Sometimes it is worth pushing yourself but it doesn't have to be something big, it can be something as little as washing your hair, making a cup of tea or putting a wash on. When you are ill, those little things can feel like scaling everest, or getting through the end of Game of Thrones when it goes a bit rubbish for a while around series 5. Life is tough.
If there is one thing I can say to you lovely readers, is just be kind. Be kind to yourself when you feel you cannot cope. Ask for help. Let someone else help shoulder the burden be it a friend, spouse, manager or medical professional. People care, and you would help them if they asked wouldn't you?And be kind to those around you. The co worker who is always off sick or the friend who never turns up to the pub or the mother who drops off their kids in their PJ's. They may appear lazy, flakey or even annoying but as that famous phrase goes.....
"Bitch! you don't know they life!"
I think Plato or Homer may have written that, I'm not sure.
Anyways, as with most of my writing I don't know what the real point of that was, but I hope it was helpful. I love hearing what you have to say so please like, subscribe and all that jazz.
I will be blogging weekly on crafts and whats new with Approved Crafting so stay tuned.
Big Love
Lowri x
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