My Anxiety

Header Image owned by – https://www.blackdoginstitute.org.au/clinical-resources/anxiety/what-is-anxiety (if you would like this image removed please leave a comment and I will gladly oblige)

 

As we head into the end of the first quarter of the year, it occurred to me that I have been blogging for a bit over a year. In that time I have “virtually” met a good group of people. A lot of them have reached a far wider range of people than I have yet. I am hoping that I too will reach a larger audience, so I can hopefully help other families going through similar if not more difficult situations than what we are going through with our son.

Some of these people who I speak of are struggling with something just as serious, if not more serious than that of my family – that is mental health. My own is not nearly as complex as those I have spoken with, but it too needs addressing. If I can help at least one other person going through a similar experience, then I feel like my blog is doing what it is meant to do.

This section of my life took a couple of years to come to fruition, and in telling you a very brief version of events, I hope it lets you out there know it is okay to not be okay. My story begins a few years ago. I believed I was suffering through depression. I realise now that this is probably offensive to people actually struggling with depression.

Almost three years ago now I was in a very dark place. An area of my life was not going particularly well and I sought help from my GP. He asked me a series of questions and in looking over them felt that it was not depression that I was struggling with, it was anxiety. I had not really researched it too much, but found (in very short form) that depression is feeling and thinking nothing, and anxiety is overthinking everything. The latter is exactly how my brain acts.

I was given a choice to go speak to someone about these feelings, and was put on a waiting list. In the months that I was on the waiting list, I changed this area of my life. In the months that followed, my mental health subsided. I started to become less frantic and hectic in my day to day duties, and become more relaxed and calm. I had lost the sense of urgency that I used to run on – and I look back on it now, I put way to much focus on something that gave very little back.

I know now that what I was suffering from was not anywhere near what depression is. It is offensive to those who do actually have it to put it anywhere in the same ballpark.

Last year, I put the focus on my son, and late last year I took another step into this darkness that I once had. I went back to my GP, and this time I followed through on something that was offered to me initially.

I still have my days that I have this feeling of anxiousness, but I know that I am better off for taking those steps in seeking help. I am a better husband and father because of it.

It is okay to not be okay!

If you or one of your loved ones is suffering from mental health, please speak to someone. You might just save a life.

 

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