Stress and the Future: Stress Awareness Day

Katie shares her own experience of Stress in support of National Stress Awareness Day!

- Katie

Sometimes it’s easy to feel overcome with fear of what the future might hold. The unknown is scary to everyone, but those of us who deal with Anxiety, OCD and other mental difficulties, are likely to stress even more. Here’s how I deal with the stress of moving forward:

I’m currently in my second year at University which is usually the time in a person’s academic life when people are told to be considering their future, future careers in particular. I’ve been bombarded with emails regarding career fairs, talks, and opportunities and sometimes it can all feel a little bit overwhelming. I’m 19 years old, I don’t know exactly where I will be in the next ten years, and this often causes me a lot of stress.

The unknown is terrifying, isn’t it? But it doesn’t have to be. I deal with OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) in my everyday life and this means that I like order, and the future is something I cannot control. There is no set path through life that everyone goes down, life varies so much for each person but this isn’t a bad thing.

It’s okay that we can’t have everything planned out. Life is so much more exciting because it is unpredictable. Will I live in England forever? Or will a future job or relationship mean I move abroad? How many children will I have? What will my home look like? These are all questions I cannot answer. Of course I can have a basic life plan, but no one knows exactly how life will turn out.

When you tell someone you suffer from anxiety, often you hear this response ‘just don’t think about things that worry you’, which is an impossible feat for anyone to achieve. I have my own ways to deal with anxiety and stress; useful tips I want to share with you. Therefore, when the thought of your future gets you down, you can find a way to calm yourselves, relax and know that no one’s future is set. You can turn that anxiety into excitement for what your life might bring.

Firstly, a good night’s sleep is always a good way to combat stress. I use an app called Sleepcycle to track how well I am sleeping. I also use it to notice any patterns in my eating and drinking habits, and other activities which could be impacting my sleep. Food and drink are very important as caffeinated products are going to intensify stress and anxiety. For me the effects of caffeine particularly on my heart rate is what led me to restrict my intake of things like coffee.

Secondly, reading is my safe haven. Whenever life seems to get a bit too much I bury my head in a good book. I am currently reading ‘The Little Book of Hygge’, which is a particularly relaxing book as it’s all about the ways in which Danish people live their lives, as Denmark is known as the happiest country in the world.

Finally, little things like lighting candles, and taking long hot baths, listening to your favourite album whilst taking a long walk on a crisp sunny morning can all help to destress your soul. The app Headspace is a favourite of mine. I listen to a guided meditation each night before sleeping as it allows you to clear your mind of the days worries and helps you get the best night’s sleep you can.

Stress is a part of everyone’s lives but I hope that some of you can use my tips to relax. Remember it’s okay to feel worried sometimes, you just need to be able to let go of that worry at the end of the day. Don’t let it drag you down, trust me I’ve been there, but you can power through. You’re not alone. I hope you all have the most exciting lives you could ever want.

 

Hello, I’m Katie, a history student in her second year at Queen Mary University of London. Going to university while living with diagnoses of GAD (Generalised Anxiety Disorder) and OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) can be difficult; I am writing for Student Minds to share my experiences.

‘I’m so OCD’

People like to use the term 'OCD' as a character trait, but what does it really mean?

- Krishna

As someone who suffers from OCD, I don’t think that the phrase 'I'm so OCD' will ever stop making me feel like I’ve been slapped across the face. It doesn’t even make sense, I mean think about it.

But that phrase, along with so many others, even along with products that showcase OCD as a form of organization, have made my life so much more difficult.

I first understood that I had contamination OCD when I was at university. For a long time before I knew that I had OCD, my behaviours' were just a quirk. I remember being called ‘infection control’ and always being relied on for having hand sanitizer in my bag. With time, what started as a quirk grew into something much more consuming. By the second year of university this simple overuse of soap was an illness that had the ability to trap me in my own home.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is cycle. It starts with an obsession (an intrusive, recurrent thought) which causes anxiety and severe discomfort. This is followed by an action which stops the anxiety. The issue is that the relief is short lived and the cycle starts all over again. For me this would focus on washing and cleanliness. I remember once having three showers straight after each other because of being near ‘contaminated things’ in my own home. It was exhausting.

At my worst it was a struggle to leave my home, I was unable to cook food and use a public bathroom? Forget about it! But there were also other things. Things that were more subtle. I would lie a lot to avoid certain social situations; I used food and alcohol as coping mechanisms (which when you are at university doesn’t always ring alarm bells) and my self esteem was basically non-existent. All of these things were interlinked. It wasn’t that I had OCD and I washed my hands a lot. It was that I had a debilitating illness that affected basically every aspect of my life.

But I think I was lucky. I had heard of OCD at some point in my life, which meant that I started to seek support when I realised that I couldn’t fix what was happening by myself. I also started campaigning and decided to use my experiences to try and raise awareness. I wanted to put the difficulty that I was going through to some good use. If I could help one person to understand what OCD really felt like or give someone the confidence to seek support themselves, then it felt like maybe all the pain was worthwhile. That it had a purpose.

Recovery was a long process. When something is so integrated into your life it takes a lot of work and time to change it. I often say ‘recovery’ because I view mental health on a spectrum. There isn’t ‘well’ and ‘unwell’ in my opinion. My recovery was about understanding and recognizing the harmful thoughts and behaviours’ that I had developed and challenging them. Forcing myself to face them until they no longer caused me pain or anxiety.

Imagine that - think of the one thing that you are the most terrified of in this world, then imagine having to face it every single day for prolonged periods of time until you are no longer scared of it. No it wasn’t easy, but it was perhaps the most beneficial and life-changing thing that I have ever done.

We should all be looking after our own mental health just as we would our physical health, because it isn’t an abnormality to experience a mental health difficulty and recovery isn't about never feeling down or unwell. I have experienced recovery but I still go through periods of difficulty. Times where I can feel the intrusive thoughts creeping back, manifesting themselves in different ways. When I notice that I am going through bottles of soap much quicker and using avoidance techniques again. The difference now is that I can notice it. I can see the signs and I know what I need to do to ensure that it doesn’t get worse.

I will forever feel frustrated when I hear phrases like ‘I’m so OCD’ because it trivialises something that impacted my life in such a consuming, challenging way. It isn’t a joke; it's very real for a lot of people. This OCD Awareness Week I want to continue to share that understanding.

The next time you hear someone joke about OCD, question it, ask them what it means. Then tell them what OCD actually is.

You could be helping someone like me who just needed to know that she had an illness, that it wasn’t her fault and that it could get better. And it did.

Want tips on understanding OCD or want to seek support? Visit OCD Action or Mind.

Hi I’m Krishna, the Design and Office Manager at Student Minds. I setup my first OCD awareness campaign back in 2013 which led me to the Student Minds group at Sheffield Hallam University. I then joined the Student Minds staff team in early 2016. As a graphic designer I am passionate about using design to raise understanding of mental health difficulties, inspire conversations around mental health and help to show people that they are not alone.

Never Giving Up

Living away from home isn't always easy, especially for those of us who suffer from mental health difficulties. But there are other ways to complete your degree whilst living at home...

- Katie

Hi, I’ll start this off by introducing myself: I’m Katie, a history student at Queen Mary University of London. Oh, and I suffer from GAD (Generalised Anxiety Disorder). As fate would have it, my mental health started deteriorating just before I started my first year at university (I know. Great planning, brain). Let’s just say first year wasn’t exactly a walk in the park for me, but I got help and I got better at dealing with my difficulties.

Of course, mental health issues don’t just disappear: instead, you learn what makes you feel better and what makes you feel worse. By the end of first year, I had realised that what really made me happy was my family. We have always been an extremely close family. Throughout my first year I was coming home every single weekend. Home is where I felt safe.

When first year was finally over and I spent my long summer at home, I found myself dreading the idea of having to start second year and being away from home again. So many of my friends love being at University, having their independence and being able to go out when they want, to eat what they want, and to do what they want – but that’s not me. I even thought about dropping out, but I love my degree. I didn’t want my mental health to dictate my life for me.

So I decided that, for my second year, I would have the best of both worlds (don’t start singing the Hannah Montana theme tune). I would live at home, and complete my history degree, and begin commuting. I live in Norfolk, and it’s a four hour round-trip to and from university, which is one hell of a commute, but I knew that this was the right decision for me. Of course the thought of all that travelling and having to rely on public transport was scary, but as soon as I made that decision, it was like a huge weight had been lifted.

I’m not going to lie: it is a long journey. But I can read, or listen to music or do coursework whilst I travel, and I know that at the end of each day, I’m going back to my home, to my family (and my adorable puppy), and the commute is a small price to pay for all of this.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that mental health issues suck. No one wants them and they have a tendency to flare up at the worst of times, but we can’t let these issues dictate how we live our lives. University is a big deal and so many people experience it differently. Just because I live at home and don’t go out partying every night doesn’t mean I’m not a ‘proper student’. No matter how bad things get, it will always get better and there will always be a way for everyone to do what they want to do. I wanted to complete my degree but I wanted to live at home, and I got used to the commute. For anyone thinking about commuting: just give it a go. You might just find that it is the solution to your university dilemmas, like it was for me. Good luck to anyone who might be reading this, and however you’re feeling right now – anxious, apprehensive, excited – I hope that you keep fighting and never give up.

Hello, I’m Katie, a history student in her second year at Queen Mary University of London. Going to university while living with diagnoses of GAD (Generalised Anxiety Disorder) and OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) can be difficult; I am writing for Student Minds to share my experiences.