“I’ve struggled with severe anxiety and depression. At first I didn’t know what was wrong with me. I began to feel like I would always be that way. I felt shy, lacked confidence and often felt worried or upset. I had accepted that was just who I was.
The day came where I had an awful experience in a supermarket. After being left alone in an aisle I began to feel sick, shaky, light headed and my heart was racing. I had no idea what was going on and how to stop feeling like that. I sat in my car unable to drive and made the phone call to the doctors surgery. I had no idea what to say so I just cried down the phone.
Later that week I saw a counsellor who diagnosed me with severe anxiety and depression and explained that I had been having panic attacks. I began to feel better knowing there was a reason behind how I was feeling and I was hopeful that there was a way out with help from the counsellor.
From there I had counselling every week, uncovering my fears and anxiety triggers and working on managing them. My counsellor also recommended a book on Mindfulness, which I bought but never read because it was so big and overwhelming to me at the time. That was when I was introduced to the world of self-help and began to do my own research to find out as much as I could to help myself.
I decided to create a morning routine as my anxiety was always high when I first woke up. I spend my mornings doing habits like meditation, exercise, journaling and affirmations. Over time the amount of habits I enjoyed grew and I added as many as I could into my day, even starting an evening routine of relaxing habits.
Now I feel I have control over my anxiety. I understand it, I know my triggers and symptoms and I know how best to manage it. I have a toolkit of strategies and techniques that I do when my anxiety or a panic attack is triggered so I can quickly calm it and go back to feeling in control.
After my experience with anxiety I wanted to put all my knowledge to good use and help others. Now it feels like I went through all those struggles for that reason. You can find more support on the Succeed Now website, the Female Anxiety Support Facebook group and in my book Stand Up To Anxiety on Amazon (publishing June 2020)”
You can follow Lucy on her website and her facebook.
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