This week is Mental Health Awareness Week I thought it would be good to hear how everyone else copes with anxiety? I am currently waiting on a raft of appointments for new raised nodes over the next two weeks I have no less than six medical appointments. My levels of anxiety are higher than ever so it’s is very apt that this week is Mental Health Awareness Week!
How do you cope with anxiety?
#AsktheExperts
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I am not surprised @jules that you are anxious having 6 medical appointments in 2 weeks.
I was brought up to be the good little girl that was seen and not heard, and to have shown anxiety would be seen as a weakness and nobody would like me.
So I did have great anxieties, mainly of not being good enough and the crippling fears and anxieties around that, but could not put a name to a feeling.
Whizz on half a century and when I was diagnosed the fears and anxieties really hit me, life changing news.
I came straight home and wrote my will and funeral music.
I remember thinking that I would not see my son get married and I am still waiting, he is 49yrs old now
I have to say counselling helped me make sense of my emotions and things
I think my emotions have been on a high alert roller coaster ever since.
Then Covid struck and I was basically in isolation for 3 years.
When I first went outside the traffic was so noisy and went so fast I found it frightening. I had lost my confidence to drive and actually have not driven since.
I saw everyone and everything as a potential Covid threat.
I was diagnosed 19 yrs ago and still get fearful and anxious before and during all medical appointments, the ‘what if’s’ etc.
Every lump and bump or other symptom and the fear and anxieties set in.
I find that there is so much not knowing and waiting involved in the medical system and those times feel the worst.
Do I manage my fears and anxieties today, well at least I can recognise what is going on for me better, Sharing what is going on for me helps and the one place I can be really honest is on our forum and I am so, so grateful for it.
Thank you so much Blood Cancer UK for looking after us as always and this timely Join the Experts.
I do try and keep my thoughts in the day, but I really am work in progress.
What does help my mental wellbeing is Pilates and walking in the fresh air and really observing nature and I am lucky enough to walk by a river too, there is always something going on.
Thinking of you loads @Jules and I really look forward to hearing from others.
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Hi @Jules ,
Sorry to hear you are waiting for results. I try and stay in the moment as much as is possible. I do meditate and I teach others about mindfulness but I must admit that sometimes all good intensions go out of the window when I’m waiting for results. Anxiety is about threat and perceived threat…and nothing is more threatening than potential results hey? I’ve come to understand that my anxiety is more to do with the potential impact on others, as I can’t change what may be. Slow, deep breathing can help to bring the response down but I think a hug is the best medicine.
Keeping my fingers and toes crossed for you results Jules. Let us know how you get on.
Sending virtual hugs in the meantime 
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That’s great advice @AllyBally I am just back from my weekly yoga . Tonight was very active and not very meditative though - good fun though and equally as helpful. I mastered a headstand and the plough for the first time ever 
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Hello @Erica and @Jules. I identify with all that you have said. I had a similar upbringing where it was seen as weak to cry or express any negative emotions such as fear or anxiety. It has taken me years to accept it is okay not to be okay all the time. Finding the right therapist has been a lifeline. I started in person sessions before Covid and we have now switched to telephone sessions.
I also find writing poetry and keeping a journal of my thoughts, etc, very helpful. Being kind to myself and not putting myself under too much pressure to please others also helps but it’s not easy. Like you, @Erica, I think, one advantage of the lockdown was that I had the chance to rethink about some of my relationships and activities and make adjustments where necessary. Hope that helps and makes sense. Something I read recently has helped. It said ‘Life is too short to not stand tall.’ Think of the giraffe!! 
Warm wishes, Willow x
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Thank you @Erica
My husband has PTSD after a number of serious work related assaults he was medically retired from his job at 47. I used to be the one saying anxiety, it’s all in your head …. I found it difficult to relate to the fears he felt , I once even told him it was like getting back on your bike when you fall off - so even now when it’s my turn I like you find these feelings alien.
During my treatment I too wrote my funeral and letters in a journal. A new mobile phone deleted the app it was on ! However that has sparked me into writing a book which I find much more positive and it is about everything not just my cancer this really helps with my outlook, sometimes I am laughing when I type it. I don’t plan that anyone will read it now but I know that my children and their children will one day get to have some laughs finding out my silly secrets!!
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Hi all, did you catch our wonderful panel discussing coping with anxiety on Facebook last night? If not, feel free to catch up here - Redirecting...
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It was excellent, thank you to all the panel. Some useful tips but also nice just to have validation that some of the feelings we get are normal and shared by many of us.
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Wow, I have just watched this brilliant panel, jam packed with different types of personal stories and handy hints.
I love and remember stories and handy hints and Jonathan gave a brilliant anxiety analogy of an animal standing under a tree and the tree starts to fall on it and the difference between running where the whole tree is falling and standing aside and letting it fall.
It was stressed that anxiety is a natural feeling, it is how we deal with it is the important thing.
I find that my anxiety can mean I freeze (not fight or flight) and that can mean my anxiety literally stops me in my tracks and doing anything and the great big tree hits me and I find it so difficult then to come from under the tree
My anxiety in Covid times meant that the outside seemed a very scary place.
Although it is not for everyone, but counselling really helped me with my anxiety.
Thanks so much to Cecilia and Peter, I learnt so much from them, and Jonathan for his valuable professional input.
I have to say the session was seamlessly run by @LauranBloodCancerUK and @GemmaBloodCancerUK, a great big thank you.
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Ally Bally, I enjoyed your comment on the beneficial effect Deep Breathing has on you, I wish more people would research this subject. The science and medical research is there for all to see.
It has certainly made it easier for me to cope with my Chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) and other anxieties I encounter as I travel this exciting road to ‘Valhalla’ (I wish)
All the best
Ron
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Hi Jules, writing your Memoirs, Book, Memories, Auto Biography, or whatever you wish to call it, is very ‘Cathartic’, I found. (Even if it is left unread)
I would have loved my parents and grand parents to have jotted down some anecdotes covering their lives.
Everyone has a story to tell, and it is usually the better when told by Jane and Joe Bloggs, rather than the ‘Great and the Good’; of society. (A personal opinion)
I am sure your children will thank you for your own efforts Jules.
All the best
Ron.
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Hi Ron @Vindicatrix
Thankyou, yes it’s a fascinating subject and the more I learn the more I want to know. I’m sorry to hear you are dealing with Chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) at the moment, that can’t be easy? It sounds like you have been doing some research yourself or do you have prior knowledge of the effects of deep breathing. It’s such a simple thing and I’m still amazed at just how effective it can be, especially when I’m with clients who have deep anxieties and trauma. As you say, the science can back up the ancient theory now.
As @Erica and others have said above, it’s a natural (but sometimes unhelpful) response to threat but we need to find what works for us, as we all respond differently don’t we. I need to watch the panel mentioned above as well. I’m all for any suggestion that helps. Hope you’re doing ok at the moment? Keep posting, take care.
Alex x
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I read a really great tip the other that I shared with my children which is to create an email for your child and send them pictures, posts , memories etc and on their 18th birthday or 16th whatever you decide give them the password to the email.
Yes I am really finding it helpful writing - although I delete half as many chapters that I write ….
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Hi Ally Bally, yes, I have practiced 'Slow Deep Breathing exercises, since I was diagnosed in 2018. I can well understand why your client’s benefit from 'Breathing Exercises. It’s such a simple thing to do, and costs nothing.
Stay well
Ron
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Hi @Jules @AllyBally @Willow @CaroleCW @Vindicatrix I attach a link to the Blood Cancer UK Mind and emotions Blood cancer: mind and emotions | Blood Cancer UK
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Thanks Erica, all good stuff.
Regrds Ron
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Wanted to express my sincere gratitude to @BloodCancerUK support line who were there for me today as always thank you so much. I had not spoke to her before, but thank you so much for reassuring me and giving me options 
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