o My Group One Material Response o

Good Afternoon Everyone! Mitiana, here. WooHoo! It's my birthday month!

Today we will be talking about group one's topic of anxiety/ depression in the world. 

First, I want to talk  about the movie we watched in class on Tuesday, Nadiya: Anxiety And Me. In this film, we explored Nadiya Hussain's panic disorder and severe anxiety. She searched within the UK to explore her options when it comes to treatment for her experiences. 

I really relate to what Nadiya was exploring in the film because I as well suffer with moderate anxiety and anxiety attacks. While it is not as extreme as Nadiya's condition, I can relate to her struggle when finding a treatment plan. I have tried to talk to people, not professionals. for my anxiety and was not met with understanding. This caused my anxiety and depression to continue in a downward spiral. Seeing Nadiya going to the schools to talk about anxiety within school hit very close to home for me because at my first high school, Highland Park High School, we had what was called the 'drop-in'. 

The purpose of the 'drop-in' was to go there to decompress and talk to counselors when applicable. I loved it in there and used it when I really needed help with my emotions. In my life, I have been told to simply deal with my emotions and don't make it anyone else's problem. This caused me to really have a problem expressing myself as an adult and it has created very difficult problems in my adult life. 

Moving on to the texts and readings, they mostly surrounded anxiety under the umbrella of COVID-19. I really struggled reading these texts and had multiple meltdowns reading them because a large source of my anxiety at the moment is the uncertainty that I feel about my future. In my senior year of high school, in the peak of the pandemic, I read an article about the predictions of how the pandemic would affect the mental health of the incoming group of young adults. If I can find the article or something similar, I will link it, so you all could read it as well if you feel inclined to do so. 

I do agree though that in light of the pandemic and many people's mental health deteriorated. I have definitely seen a huge increase of awareness of mental health and the importance of acknowledging and recognizing signs of various mental health disorder, issues, etc. I think that this recognition is the first step towards a more aware generation of adults and therefore parents. 

In my experience, I have seen many of my friends also growing up under a emotionally closed off family, a 'keep it to yourself' family. This still haunts me as an adult as I am working towards being emotionally open and connected person. I do believe therapy is a great way to help with these problems if one needs them and can afford the service. Even if you can't afford the service, there are many online websites with therapists who are available all the time.

In my experience, I don't respond well when speaking to someone because of problems already mentioned. What I have responded well to is keeping a journal, whether that's a journal app or physical one. I also have reeled in my anxiety by checking in when I can start to feel it coming on, similar to how Nadiya was doing with her Cognitive Behavioral Technician Therapist. I will feel my chest to feel uneasy and the sense of uneasiness and I will stop and try to recognize what I am stressing about and journal about what I am feeling. Everyone is different, but maybe this will work for you. Here's a link to some good apps that you could use to journal if that is interesting to anyone. 

https://kristihines.com/best-journal-apps-for-therapy/

What are some ways that you've coped with uneasiness? 

Anyways, See You Next Time.

MW