Instagram Diary | Number 2 <3

                       ♥ In Windsor.

             ♥ On The Way To Brighton

                     ♥ Brighton Pier 

           ♥  With Megan In Brighton

                  ♥  On The Beach

                  ♥  On The Beach

                   ♥  On The Beach

                   ♥  Under The Pier

            ♥ With Becky on the Beach

            ♥  With Megan On the Beach

               ♥ Us On the Beach

               ♥  My Puppy Sophie

          ♥  Being Bored in the Mirror

             ♥ With Daisy at the Park.

          ♥  With Becky at the Park

           ♥  With Becky at the Park.

              ♥  Feeling Summery.

            ♥  Random hair picture.

           ♥  New Dress Number 1.

          ♥  New Dress Number 2.

                 ♥  With The Girls.

              ♥  Random hair picture.

                     ♥  Smiling.

              ♥ Us Being Statues.

                         ♥ Skating.

                      ♥ With Becky.

                   ♥ With Becky.

                      ♥ With Daisy.

                    ♥  With Becky.

       ♥  Party Time (what a night.) 

      ♥  With Danielle at Summertime Ball.

     ♥  With Danielle at Summertime Ball.

                   ♥  Outfit picture.

       ♥  Our Golden Circle Wristbands.

      ♥ With Danielle at Summertime Ball.

              ♥ We found PSY!

                     ♥ On The Tube.

                ♥  Outside Wembley.

Dealing With Anxiety

Hello everyone today I'm going to blog about and discuss with you quite a personal subject but I know many of you will or could be going through a similar thing and I'd love to share my thoughts and feelings and try and help some of you going through the same or a similar thing, I'm not a profesional obviously but I just want to let you know my views and of course everyones different so bear with me and if you're reading this as a panic attack or anxiety suffer or as someone who knows someone with anxiety I hope I can share my experience being a sufferer with you and help how I can as the topic today is quite complicated and that topic is:

ANXIETY

Anxiety can be a quite scary feeling of emotions and all of us have it inside of us whether we can feel it or not and it can trigger for different things for different people and everyone has different levels of anxiety. Unfortunately it's something you cannot prevent but you can learn to handle it in some way although its not always easy. Some people are more sensitive to it than others and it all depends on the person.

When some people suffer with extreme levels of anxiety it can cause general anxiety and panic attacks.

I've suffered with panic attacks and anxiety for 1 and a half years, and although it doesnt seem like a lot of time I understand how it feels and have tried of lot of different ways to get rid of it and it can be hard so i'm writing this blog post for those of you who struggle to understand, feel alone, need advice or need someone else to understand.

It's understandable that not many know what a panic attack is. I d think more people should be educated about them due to the increasing levels of anxiety in people nowadays but hopefully people more people will begin to edcuate themselves. The thing is with panic attacks is even after hours of explaining some people still dont truly understand how they can effect you, your life and other aspects and never understand unless they've experienced them themselves and even some people I know and close to me didn't know anything about it at first and trying to tell them how I felt was hard but I really thank them for trying so hardand supoort me and I love them to bits. It is also very hard to put into words the feeling of them and anxiety in general. So:

What is a panic attack?

A sudden feeling of urge to push your way out of any situation you are in the whole room closing in on you and that you feeling all the air is being sucked away from you. You feel smothered and it all happens in a split second, without you knowing it's going to happen. This adrenaline is released as your body is going  into something which the phyciatrist told me called   "flight or fight". Something that we also do in a life or death situation. You need adrenaline to face the fear and you need it  for flight, in order to run away and avoid it. Adrenaline is realsed insituations like: when we are on a rollercoaster, before an exam or performance, in a fight, in an accident and more situations like that but for us panic attack people it is like an warning alarm thats more extreme to us than others.

Going to use an example from Zoella's blog here as I really admire her and how she deals with her anxiety and she is a big inspiration to me in order to kick mine. 

"You are like the car in the street, who's alarm goes off with the smallest gust of wind, whereas all the other cars, take a good beating before their alarms go off"

What happens during a panic attack?

Adrenaline is released, thus causing your heart to beast faster, and your muscles to tense. Your breathing gets harder and you breath quicker struggling for air which can cause you to feel lightheaded. Your digestive system shuts down and thats what causes the sickness and nauseaus feeling. Your senses are heightened and run in overdrive and are often alot stronger and more sensitive than other peoples senses so things my be louder, you can see alot more of whats going on around you, everything becomes louder and more overwhelming. When adrenalin floods your body, it can cause a number physical symptoms which may include:

• Fast breahing or feeling of not being able to breathing causing dizzyness.
• Very fast heartbeat and palpatations.
• Chest pains.
• Sweating and shivering and getting clammy hands.
• Ringing in your ears.
• Hot and cold shivers on and off.
• Feeling sick.
• Wanting to go to the toilet. 
• Shaking.
• Numbness in hands and feet.
•  Feeling of fear and being smothered.
• Feeling claustrophobic.
• Feeling extemely emotional and crying.
• Feeling like you are not normal and this is a massive issue for a lot of people who have anxiety.

They say panic attacks last between 5 and 25 minutes and thats the longest someone can panic for but that isnt always the case. It often feels like the panic attacks lasts a lot longer than that or several hours and that is what I get quite alot which is small bursts of panic all around the clock in bursts between 5 - 25 minutes and I find that so much worse than just one panic attack. Panic attack come on so quickly you dont often have time to stop them from happening which is incredibly annoying.

I'm personally not sure what triggered my panic attacks all I remember is that I would be laying in bed and maybe once every couple of weeks for a few months I would have a really bad panic attack and then a year and a half ago they began to get more frequent and were soon happening eveyday and it is still a big ball of confusion as to why they first started but I think you'll agree if you suffer with them is that many people dont nknow what originally started them.

Another thing about panic attacks is that when you have a panic attack in one situation your brain stores that place and that situation away as a dangerous situation and next time you are there it tried to warm you and therefore gives you that anxious alarm giving you another panic attack and it happens most times you are in the same situation. I will describe it with another quote from Zoella:

"Imagine that your brain is filled with hundreds of filing cabinets full of different information. You have memories, things you've learnt..etc. Well, there is this one filing cabinet that stores every panic attack you have. Where you had it, what happened, who you were with, what you were doing, what you were eating, what you were drinking, everything. When you re-enter the same place, with the same people, or do the same thing, that cabinet unlocks, and releases the same adrenaline, and the same emotion. My brain thinks it's protecting me, by making me "Fight or flight" in the same situation"

 

 Although with practice and help after a period of time it can be undone.

]Something people don't seem to realise, is that people who suffer from anxiety their self esteem is often very low and I always have times when I have attacks and I cry infront of people and think that all the people judgeing me or what I'm weird or a freak or that I'm lieing or using it as an excuse to get out of things or that I'm boring and rude and you start to worry about what other people think about your anxiety than thinking about a postite like getting better.

 

It also effects you in the way that it takes over your life and you start t be scared to live life the way that you want. You don't want to go, see people, meet new people, and you isolate yourself and just end up feeling more miserable. Any sufferes reading this have you felt this way? Join the club I went through a time of this, I didn't even have the strength to make it out the door to school. I would always feel down and sometimes I still do and I think 'Why do I have this?' and 'Why did this have to happen so that  I cant do things like everyone else?' You think, I can't go I'm to scared... Why cant I be normal? 

 

People don't realise that panic attacks can happen anywhere and not just in places that scare you. It can be anywhere, for me places such as:

 

• In bed at night.
• At the supermarket.
• At school.
• In a resteraunt.
• On public transport.
• At a friends house.
• At a family members house.
• At school.
• Out and about generally.
• Concerts. 
• and for some people they can happen at work.

One thing people don't understand, is people who suffer panic attack don't want to go out and think "I really hope I get to the other end without panicking", we don't want to change the way we live because of something we can't control that leaves us feeling mentally and physically drained for days/weeks/months on end. We want to be normal. After a panic attack, I feel so upset, but it's mostly anger. Angry at myself because I don't know how to make it stop. Then I feel angry because I feel like nobody understands how I feel.

How to help?

There are many different things you can do to help try and prevent anxiety and tame it such. I didnt go to the doctors for a few months as I thought I could control it but I did find that doctors such as GP's arent that much help because they just state the obvious and say come back if it gets worse and don't do too much to help you which leaves you feeling even lower because you wonder why a docto cant fix you. They can however give you a referal to a physciatrist (not 100% sure on the spelling I apologise) who you can talk to and they are trained to deal wuth anxiety and depression and other things like that. You can also try hypnotherapy, councilling, CBT (cognitive behavioural therapy) and even medication for the phyciatrists. I know that sounds scary but I promise you it does help and so many people are infact on it or have been on it in some point in their lives. You can also take herbal things you can buy in boots such as Rescue Remedy and other things like that.

There are other things you can do other than long term teatment such as little things you can do everyday and with your friends to keep anxiety at bay such as:

• LIstening to music you like.
• Keeping yourself active.
• Never set yourself time limits.
• Take things slow.
• Take it easy.
• Try not to absorb others problems.

I now want to put in a few times at the end of this blog post for someone whos reading this who knows someone with anxiety who wants to know how to help or for someone who has anxiety to show a friend of family member to let them know what to do.

1. Remain calm. Don't panic when they are as it may make them panic more.

2. Do not be forceful. Be patient and wait for them to tell you their ready.

3. Let them do things at their own pace and their own time never rush them.

4. Ask they them what they want to do and dont be random with it. If they only want to go halfway like the park rather than the shopping centre to make an effort for you please go with it.

6. Remember that they don't choose to be this way. Do not show any anger or annoyance or stress towards them.

7. In a panic attack, DON'T say:
Calm down, dont panic, dont be silly, dont be a coward, come on lets go, dont do this, oh no again?, just get on with it, how long will this last?
Instead say things like:

You can do this, I promise you are strong, everything will be okay, none of this can hurt you in any way, I am here for you, What can I do to help you?

8.Distract them but not in a stupid way, make them do somehng thats useful or make them laugh or talk to them about something nice.

9. Be supportive & reassuring.

There is one last thing I want to say to you:You are not alone. They can't kill you or hurt you in anyway and things will get better o matter how much you think they wont I promise you they will.  Dont let them change you or take your self confidence you can prevent it withthe right treatment and never force yourself to do anything you dont want to do because you dont have to, your view and what you want to do is more important. Force your friends to read this if you suffer or if you know someone who suffers and I promise you, you are not alone, there are so many people in the same situation and remember when you feel that nothings going to work, it will there will always be a light at the end of a tunnel.

Thats my blog complete. I hope this helped at least one person and let me know in the comments what you thought and whether it helped you I would love to hear your thoughts and stories. Or email me on niamhlouisecleland@gmail.com for any advice or just letting me know your stories and what you thought of this.

Thank you so much, love you all <3

You can do it.