Black dog gang

Good morning all x

Been thinking about the programme last night, I didn’t find
it of help for many. A celebrity’s life is so different to ours,
example - I have agoraphobia, no counsellor is going to accompany me on a train journey, not that I want to go on one ?. I can’t have support to get to the end of my 7ft front path.

Nothing about specific anxiety problems, Heath anxiety, vomiting anxiety, medication anxiety. Fear of being alone,
fear for loved ones.

We know the thought kicks off the fear , the ‘what if’s’.

What are your opinions ?

Morning Annie, you read my mind that’s exactly how I felt. Will watch the next one see how they go.. it does not surprise me how many celebrity’s have mentle problems.
The difference is they can afford to get all the help they want.. do you think that ...

Annie I agree, I found the programme far too superficial. They obviously used a celeb to get the viewers and it was brave of Nadia but it would have been far more interesting if they'd used a number of people to focus on different issues. Still, it's good they're talking about mental health on mainstream TV.

Joce, feel free to PM me - we might be able to help eachother. How are you feeling today? Just talking to someone about my worries helps, but I feel so embarrassed about them. I'm in a real state this morning; the doctors have reassured me about one symptom so now I'm focusing on another one (which I've already been reassured about but I'm wondering if I heard the doctor right, you know how it is) and the what ifs are driving me crazy. The feeling is so intense that I can't breathe and have very little appetite. Going my my 88 year old mum's in a bit so that will distract me. I have a GP follow up appointment next week about my anxiety but not sure what I'm hoping to get out of it. I've tried all the usual - counselling, CBT and medication and here I am, bonkers as ever (I know we're not bonkers, it just makes it seem less serious).

Have a good day everyone, will check in later x

I think this is real life for people with mental health problems

Make an appointment to see a GP , not that easy !

Go to the surgery , doctor running late, sit in waiting room getting anxious over what to say calmly

Your turn, this is where luck comes in, is it a doctor who listen ? You try to explain in a couple of minutes how your anxiety / depression is affecting your life .

Oh for the days of family GP’s ,

Maggie I used to have terrible health anxiety when I was younger in fact since I was a teenager also OCD. I suffered badly but didn't even know what it was and why I used to feel like I did. Then after I had children the health anxiety was all about them and later on same with the grandchildren. When I finally mentioned it to the GP I was referred to counselling which I refused. Instead I found a daily drink helped to some extent till this habit was getting out of hand. Now luckily almost t total, health anxiety not so bad, comes and goes, but still looking for that magic pill to take when desperately anxious. Is there such a thing?

BlueSky OCD, rules your life doesn’t it. For me it’s ‘time’,
I live alone, can please myself , get up , go to bed when I choose, eat when I choose , but no, all done to time .

BlueSky, thank you for sharing. Yes, alcohol can be very tempting as it gets rid of the anxiety for a while but then it comes back and bites you on the bum! Glad things have improved for you, no magic pill though, the power to change things has to come from our own crazy minds.

Gosh Annie, I could have written those words. I live alone too and have loads of time and yet if I don't do something when I've planned to do it, I go into panic mode. I suppose that's a form of OCD too.

Maggie we who have these problems think we are alone, mental health problems have always been ignored, ridiculed , sufferers fear speaking out, they fear being mocked or told to ‘pull yourself together ‘.

It was said on the programme last night there are four million anxiety sufferers , I think the number is much higher , people who already have fears are to afraid to speak out.

How many times do we think ‘I know it’s silly but ! ‘

I had an uncle, a coal miner, life in danger every day, he was terrified of cotton wool , a genuine fear, what man working in the pit and has an injury , goes to a medical centre terrified a nurse is going to touch him with cotton wool and admits it.

I think a lot of Nadia’s problems in last nights programme was due to her being bullied so much as a child and being unwilling/unable to discuss this with her parents and so bottling it all up. She seemed to have a reason for her panic attacks. Many of us are just anxious and worried without specific cause just worried and anxious about the ‘what ifs’ or things that might happen to us or our families. I think she was brave to do the programme and I do believe she suffered but not sure it is the same sort of anxiety as those who worry about everything.
Hope you all have a more uplifting day today and have some

Doodle she was brave to speak out. So often anxiety in adults stems from childhood. For me I had a wonderful childhood surrounded by a large extended family, so many Aunts, Uncles and cousins living in the same area .

My therapist thinks my agoraphobia stems from being surrounded by such a large loving family and now no family near me. And witnessing the Aberfan disaster, the safest place in the world became the most unsafe place in the world in minutes . Makes me think of people suffering bombing.

I only saw the last 10/15 mins of the program but have read about it today, and feel she was very brave. Personally I would hate 'baring my soul' like that. I don't really feel it matters that she is not a member of the general public, it is important for people to feel able to talk about these things.

My DD had sever problems with OCD nearly 20 years ago, and she had no idea what was going on at all, and said last night it would be so much easier to come to terms with now that these things are out in the open.

Yes Humpty like your daughter I had OCD as a youngster, still got it now to a certain extent only now I know why I feel like I do but as a child it was horrific. I often wonder wether youngsters suffer from it and think they are going mad. I used to tell my kids first and grandkids after that if they had problems of any kind to tell somebody. I too got to do things in a certain order at a certain time Annie but it's more a habit now than a compulsion like when I was young, then I felt that if I didn't something nasty would happen.

I don't know if I am allowed to say this, but I have found a really good magazine called Happiful. It's full of good articles on mental health and not the usual rubbish of adverts and fashion etc. It's £40 a year, delivered to your door.

I definitely believe talking about these things is so important,Humpty which is why speak out , boring probably ?, but doesn’t matter , if one comment helps one person it’s worth it. Nadia was very brave.

Thinking of compulsion and habit, could be so with me
BlueSky I just go along with it,

Never heard of that magazine wot do you find it helps you ?

I hope so! It's very interesting, Annie. This latest issue has got a long interview with Nadia and her anxiety. My eye is getting worse by the hour now. Got an appointment on Tuesday.

I think maybe it is more difficult to speak about things if you are a celebrity. Yes they get to do the documentary and perhaps get help others would not but on the other side, because they are well known, others get to know things about them like us all finding out about Nadia being bullied. People like us would feel sorry for her but others may use that information for their own ends. It is good to talk to others but our thoughts are the most private thing about any of us. No one gets to know your thoughts unless you share them and sometimes we are embarrassed about our thought process. Worried that others would laugh at us or think we were crazy. So I think she had real courage to speak out.

wot sorry your eye is causing so much trouble. I hope you Tuesday brings you some help.

I am falling to bits!! Its AMD. if I can no longer drive I will be stuck as I am in a rural area with no friends or family here. Sob, sob.

Annie that’s made me wonder.. I had what I think was a very happy childhood, like you family around. It was when I first left home it was just me and my partner I had my first break down.. was it going from some one there every min of every day to being on my own.. my mother was not bothered about me.. but that was nothing new to me...

Maggie do you go to the doctor on your own? If you took someone with you it might help you to take everything in and then have someone to discuss it with afterwards. I go to the doc knowing exactly what I am going to say then walk in the door and my mind goes blank

I wasn't brave enough to watch that programme last night. I just couldn't bring myself to. Do you think it would be helpful for me to watch on catch up? Not going to put myself through it if not.

wot, have you always lived there?

No. Twenty years. It was my dads place. Thought I d give rural life a try.

wot first you keep the appointment, I assume you are going on your own ? Will contact you now, I know how much the house means to you .

pm on it’s way x

Doodle I watched the programme again today, I didn’t fully concentrate last night, younger granddaughter was on a 3 hour train journey home after exams st the university, she was messaging me.

Yes Nadia was very brave, being a celebrity she has left herself open to possibly unkind comments on the internet.