The Mental Health Team in Cwm Taf Morgannwg have designed this page to give basic advice and guidance around Depression and Anxiety.
• What is Depression and how can I help myself
• What is Anxiety and how can I help myself
• Tolerating Uncertainty
• Did you know…… Food affects our Mood
• Did you know…… Sleep affects our Mood!!!
• Online Resources
• Apps for Mobile Devices/Tablet - See a list of apps and online resources on the Mental Health dropdown
What is Depression?
Depression is a low mood that lasts for a long time, and affects your everyday life. In its mildest form, depression can mean just being in low spirits. It doesn’t stop you leading your normal life but makes everything harder to do and seem less worthwhile. At its most severe, depression can be life-threatening because it can make you feel suicidal.
Common symptoms of depression
Here are some common signs of depression you may experience:
How you might feel:
• Down, upset or tearful
• Restless, agitated or irritable
• Worthless and down on yourself
• Empty and numb
• Finding no pleasure in life or things you usually enjoy
• No self-confidence or self-esteem
• Hopeless and suicidal.
How you might behave
• Avoiding social events and activities
• Self-harming or suicidal behaviour
• Losing interest in sex
• Difficulty remembering or concentrating on things
• Using more tobacco, alcohol or other drugs than usual
• Changes in sleep pattern and feeling tired all the time
• Changes in appetite
• Physical aches and pains with no obvious physical cause
How can I help myself
Experiencing depression can be very difficult, but there are steps you can take that might help.
• Talk to someone you trust
• Try peer support
• Try things like mindfulness/relaxation
• Look after your physical health
• Try to keep active
• Keep a mood diary
• Spend time in nature
• Practise self-care.
What is Anxiety?
Anxiety is what we feel when we are worried, tense or afraid – particularly about things that are about to happen, or which we think could happen in the future. Anxiety is a natural human response when we perceive that we are under threat. It can be experienced through our thoughts, feelings and physical sensations.
Symptoms of anxiety
People often experience physical, psychological and behavioural symptoms when they feel anxious or stressed.
Some of the most common physical symptoms of anxiety are:
• Increased heart rate
• Hyperventilation (over breathing)
• Difficulty in breathing
• Feeling sick
• Tight band across the chest area
• Tension headaches
• Hot flushes
• Shaking
• Palpitations
How I can help myself.
Living with anxiety can be very difficult, but there are steps you can take that might help:
• Talk to someone you trust
• Try to manage your worries
• Look after your physical health
• Try breathing exercises
• Keep a diary
• Try peer support
• Complementary and alternative therapies
Tolerating Uncertainty
When we are anxious, we tend to over-estimate the danger, and the odds, of bad things happening, and we under-estimate our ability to cope if or when those bad things happen.
Even if the odds are really small that a bad thing will happen, that tiny chance is enough to really upset us. We call it “intolerance of uncertainty”. We might think things like “I just can’t cope with not knowing”, “I have to be 100% certain”, “uncertain events are almost always bad”, so “I must prepare for each uncertain event”.
The thoughts make us feel anxious, so we try to reduce the uncertainty by worrying about it - by planning and preparing for the possible negative future event. However, although we think worry helps us feel better and helps us feel more in control, it doesn’t reduce the risk of the possible negative event happening. Sometimes we even think it would be better if the bad thing happened right now, because that would be better than living with the uncertainty.
We might try to increase certainty by planning and preparing for each worst case scenario, by seeking reassurance from others, by checking and looking things up on the internet, by avoiding certain things, putting things off or making excuses, or we might try to keep busy so that we don’t think about the uncertain future.
However, worrying doesn’t affect the future outcome, we cannot prevent all bad things from happening and life remains uncertain. By worrying about what MIGHT happen, how does that affect us right now? Worrying seems like the best thing to do, but it only makes us feel worse and makes us less able to cope with real life.
We can deal with uncertainty in two main ways. We can challenge our need for certainty by looking at the advantages and disadvantages of needing to be certain and how it affects us. We can explore other areas of our lives in which we do tolerate uncertainty, or look at how other people deal with uncertainty, such as friends or characters in television programmes.
The other way is to learn to tolerate uncertainty – to reduce our need for certainty.
And we can do this, using the acronym: APPLE
Did you Know...…… Food affects our mood
A for AWARE – Notice the need for certainty as it comes up in your mind
P for PAUSE – Don’t react as you normally do. Don’t react at all. Just pause, and breathe
P for PULL BACK – Tell yourself this is just the worry talking, and this apparent need for uncertainty is not helpful and not necessary
L for LET GO – let go of the thought or feeling about needing certainty. Tell yourself it is only a thought or feeling. Don’t believe everything you think! Thoughts are not statements of fact. They will pass. You don’t have to respond to them. You might imagine them floating away in a bubble or cloud.
E for EXPLORE – you can explore the present moment, because right now, in this moment, we are ok. Notice your breathing, and the sensations of breathing. Notice the ground beneath you, look around you and notice what you see, what you hear, what you can touch, what you can smell. Right now. Then shift your focus of attention to something else – maybe carry on what you were doing before you noticed the worrying thought, or do something else – mindfully, with your full attention.
Knowing what foods we should and shouldn’t be eating can be really confusing, especially when it feels like the advice changes regularly. However, evidence suggests that as well as affecting our physical health, what we eat may also affect the way we feel.
Improving your diet may help to:
• Improve your mood
• Give you more energy
• Help you think more clearly.
Eating regularly
If your blood sugar drops you might feel tired, irritable and depressed. Eating regularly and choosing foods that release energy slowly will help to keep your sugar levels steady. Slow-release energy foods include: pasta, rice, oats, wholegrain bread and cereals, nuts and seeds.
Tips to give you a helping hand
• Try eating smaller meals spread throughout the day
• Keep hydrated, approximately 6-8 glasses of water a day (Tea, coffee, juices and smoothies all count)
• If you drink tea, coffee or cola, try switching to decaffeinated versions
• Get your 5 a day (Fresh, frozen, tinned, dried and juiced (one glass) fruits and vegetables all count towards your 5 a day.
• Meal Plan for the week ahead
Did you know…… Sleep affects our Mood!!!
Insomnia and poor sleep can make Anxiety and Depression worst. There are many reasons for this, many linked back to anxiety and depression; including stress, change in shift work, age, pain and a bad bedtime routine. There are 5 main types of sleep problem:
Quick tips to give you a helping hand
• Try to build a routine around bed time
• Do something calming – such as listening to relaxing music, or having a bath
• Breathing exercises
• Muscle relaxation
• Visualisation
• Meditation
• Keep a sleep diary
• Avoid alcohol, caffeine or high sugar drinks close to bed time
• Exercise