Mental Health Awareness Week 2014 | Anxiety

As you probably already know, this week is Mental Health Awareness Week (although I'll admit that I didn't have any idea that this even existed until people started tweeting about it on Monday), and the focus for this year is on anxiety. And since I've already shared my own experiences of living with anxiety (part of my series of posts during OCD Awareness Week last October), I thought that I'd share some of my coping strategies and tips instead. These may not work for everyone, but these are the things that I've found to be the most helpful in my recovery so far:

Strategy no. 1: Read.

Some people hate reading, but for me it's a chance to escape from reality for a while, while also learning new things and developing my own writing skills (an opinion that I know is shared by my cousin!). It's always a good way to relax, and if necessary can give you an excuse to escape from some social situations (for example, going to your school's library at break times instead of the canteen). Books that I've enjoyed recently include: Handle With Care by Jodi Picoult*, My Secret Sister by Helen Edwards*, Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi* and The Way I See It by Melissa Sue Anderson.

* Possible triggers.

Strategy no. 2: Art and Crafts.

I've never been very good at drawing or painting, but I recently took up crochet, which I have found very enjoyable so far (although I only actually started it to see if it was as hard as a couple of girls made it look on TV - it wasn't). It's a fun way to relieve stress and be creative, and you can make a lot of fun and wacky things that you wouldn't be able to find in shops, such as this cat hat, which I found on WikiHow the other day.

Strategy no. 3: Puzzles.

Puzzles are a good way of occupying your full attention, which can be great for helping anxious thoughts to subside. I particularly like logic puzzles, but there are plenty of different types to choose from.

Strategy no. 4: Hobbies.

By far the best way I've found of relieving anxiety (and helping to keep it under control) is to find something that you love and stick at it. For me, this would be music. And you don't just have to have it as a thing on the side like most people do, I went a bit crazy with mine! I now play five different instruments (although I'm only really any good at one or two of them) and am in two different orchestras, so if you find something that you really enjoy, you can totally go to town with it. Have fun!

I hope that my little summary will be helpful to some people, but even if it's not, thanks for reading!

Search Results For...

I couldn't resist sharing my latest Pinterest search criteria, which I typed in for fun while researching Wales for a graphics product:

It literally translates as "St. Mary's Church in the hollow of the white hazel next to the rapid worlpool of St. Tysilio of the red cave." (according to Wikipedia) and is definitely the longest word I know how to spell (and pronounce, for that matter)!

Minds Like Ours and the 24 Hour Sponsored Talk

I'm sure I've posted before Minds Like Ours - a non-profit organisation dedicated to ending the stigma that surrounds mental health disorders (that I also do volunteer stuff for). Well, in order to really get people talking about mental health, they have decided to do just that, for a whole 24 hours! The talk starts tomorrow at 6pm and is the first event of its kind in the world. There's still time to donate to the sponsorship fund and check out the schedule for the event to find the bits you want to listen to, both of which can be done by clicking here. And don't worry, Doctor Who fans, the talk finishes at 6pm on Saturday, leaving plenty of time to watch The Day of the Doctor if you so desire.

OCD Awareness Week Day 6 - Sources of Support

There are loads of places online and beyond that people with OCD can go to for support. I've listed a few here - just click on the pictures to visit their websites.

Minds Like Ours is a non profit organisation that supports those with mental health problems and raises awareness of mental health in general. I talk about them a lot, mainly because of their awesome forum.

OCD Action and OCD-UK are the UK's two charities that support people with OCD. They both do some really awesome work. OCD Action also has a website specifically for young people (if you look hard enough, you can find the article that I wrote for them recently), which you can find via their main website.

The Samaritans and Childline are both charities set up to help people in times of crisis or emotional distress. The only real difference is that ChildLine is specifically for people under the age of 18 (hence the name).

Mind is arguably the UK's biggest and most well known mental health charity. Their website has some great information about different mental health disorders, and I'm pretty sure they have a helpline as well.

Do you like my special "Click Here" buttons? I discovered picture effects presets on Microsoft PowerPoint today and it felt like Christmas.

Janet Devlin

I went to see Janet Devlin's tour gig in Camden on Wednesday and it was amazing!! The support acts were awesome, Janet herself was even more awesome and I got to meet her afterwards!!! It was an amazing end to a not so great day, and I also took loads of photos (although a lot of them didn't turn out so well because of the lighting):

Tom Dibb.

Wayward Daughter.

Janet Devlin!

Janet and Newton Faulkner.

A bald guy's head got in the way of my shot.

Highlight of the day!!!