Anxiety & stress Articles
by Andrea Blundell Your friend is so worked up over something, you worry they are about to have a panic attack. How can you help a friend with anxiety? How to recognise anxiety Stress is a logical response to overwhelm. Your friend or loved one will have a reason for their stress. Their boss has...
Does your child stop talking entirely in certain environments? Have teachers mentioned there might be an issue? Or do you yourself struggle to speak in some situations and suffer because of it? It might be selective mutism. What is selective mutism? Selective mutism means that in certain environments, or around certain people, you experience a...
We joke “I’m pulling my hair out” when we’re stressed. But hair pulling is actually a real and even dangerous habit for some people, referred to as ‘trichotillomania’. What is trichotillomania? Trichotillomania, or “trich”, for short, is a long-term mental health disorder where you can’t stop yourself from pulling out your hair. Also referred to...
by Andrea Blundell Everyone else is happily popping out to the shops without a mask, has long forgotten about social distancing, is ignoring government advice, and is fine with life post lockdown. But you, on the other hand, can’t just return to normal. You are frustrated. Even angry. What is wrong with everyone? Haven’t they...
Spend hours thinking about situations in great detail? Or about a certain person or thing? Rumination is an unhelpful thinking pattern we can get stuck in. The meaning of rumination Rumination in a sentence, to go by the Cambridge English dictionary, is “the act of thinking carefully and for a long period about something”. But...
by Andrea Blundell Had grand plans for all you’d get done during lockdown? Only to find yourself underachieving and acting far from your typical self? Social isolation is at work on your mental health and the way your brain functions. Social isolation and your brain There actually isn’t a body of research on the sort...
Troubled times call for new and effective tools to help us get through our days. In a world of coronavirus, lockdown, and social isolation, what can lead to feeling balanced again? 5 Therapy Tools for Troubled Times Therapists have tools that can help, tried and tested by research and client work. Here are a few...
by Andrea Blundell Why are we all terrified about Covid-19? Yes, we are losing our lifestyles, and we don’t know what lies ahead. But for many, beneath this lies a fear of death. Either our own death, or of the death of those we love. Why are we all so afraid of dying? As humans...
By Andrea Blundell You love your family. But you might now be spending more time with them, without breaks, than you ever have. How to survive lockdown with family? 12 Tips for Surviving Lockdown with Loved Ones 1. Stop calling it lockdown. This might seem small, but the word ‘lockdown’ itself causes stress and anxiety,...
by Andrea Blundell Are you a highly sensitive person, or “HSP”? That is finding what is going on in the world hard to take? HSP in the face of Covid-19? Most people are managing with a level of stress and anxiety at the moment, worried about their health, losing their jobs, and their families. But...
