This year’s Mental Health Awareness Week is focusing on the theme anxiety, a topic many of us will be able to identify with. Whether we have felt it before an exam, in preparing for an interview, or a speech, when awaiting a medical appointment or when standing in front of a room full of people. Feeling anxious can be perfectly normal, but how can we manage it and how can we recognise the symptoms when it is tipping out of a controlled context?  

Anxiety: what is it and what are the symptoms? And how can I support myself or others experiencing it?

Anxiety is often described as a feeling of fear or unease and a small amount of it can help us to focus or take extra care when needed, but if it becomes a frequent occurrence, it can affect our ability to cope with daily life.

The charity Mind reported that 1 in 6 workers are dealing with mental health problems such as anxiety, depression, or stress. Left unrecognised these conditions can affect people’s ability to perform in a ‘normal’ way, impact relationships and hinder ability to perform work functions. Being able to spot the signs of anxiety is a first step to taking back control.

Symptoms of anxiety

Anxiety can have both psychological and physical symptoms.

Psychological symptoms can include:

• feeling worried or uneasy a lot of the time
• having difficulty sleeping, which makes you feel tired
• not being able to concentrate
• being irritable
• being extra alert
• feeling on edge or not being able to relax
• needing frequent reassurance from other people
• feeling tearful

When you’re feeling anxious or stressed, your body releases stress hormones, such as adrenaline and cortisol. These cause the physical symptoms of anxiety:

Physical symptoms can include:

• a pounding heartbeat
• breathing faster
• palpitations (an irregular heartbeat)
• feeling sick
• chest pains
• headaches
• sweating
• loss of appetite
• feeling faint
• needing the toilet more frequently
• “butterflies” in your tummy

Experienced at a low level these are all perfectly normal but if these start to last a long time, your fears or worries are out of proportion to the situation, you are avoiding situations, you are experiencing panic attacks and or your feelings are very distressing or hard to control you may need to think about accessing further help. 

The Mind website has some videos showing how anxiety can feel for different people.

I thought this quote was quite powerful:

“You know that feeling when you’re rocking on the back legs of your chair and suddenly for a split second you think you’re about to fall; that feeling in your chest? Imagine that split second feeling being frozen in time and lodged in your chest for hours/days and imagine with it that sense of dread sticking around too, but sometimes you don’t even know why.”

It’s also very common to experience anxiety alongside other mental health problems, such as depression or suicidal feelings so keeping a check on your symptoms and talking with others can help manage any escalation. Talking therapies such as cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) are often used to treat anxiety.

Further Resources and Support

A little anxiety from time to time as discussed is perfectly normal, but long-term anxiety can cause more serious health problems, so talking to your GP if you are concerned would be a good first step. CCCU also offers all staff access to trained counsellors through CIC who can give support with anxiety and we have an Occupational Health provider Cordell who can assess any work related support which may be needed to support sever anxiety conditions. You may like to watch a short 3 minute video by CIC showing one of their counsellors Clair talking about her diagnosis with Generalised Anxiety Disorder and her recommendations for coping.  The CIC online portal also has guides on Stress and Anxiety, Anxiety and coping with Panic Attacks.

If you would like to access further resources you could access the mental health self-help guides on NHS Inform and use the anxiety self-help guide to assess your own symptoms.  

The Mental Health Foundation pages also have some great links to resources about anxiety.  You can find some useful breathing techniques and links to mindfulness.

I would also recommend spending some time on the Every Mind Matters NHS web pages, which have short bites of helpful information. You can visit their page on managing anxiety for tips, videos and relaxation help guides. The site also has help guides and short 3 min videos on topics such as tackling your worries, mindful breathing, reframing unhelpful thoughts and you can sign up to get a free personalised mental health action plan

If the Cost of Living crisis is causing financial anxiety The Mental Health Foundation has a page dedicated to advice as does our own CIC pages. CCCU have also run several E-learning and training events on managing finances so do look out for these.

Further support at CCCU

You can find out more about the support and resources available for Staff at CCCU on our Staff Wellbeing pages and you can access guides for supporting students with mental health on our Supporting our staff to support our students pages.

If you would like to build you knowledge and awareness around mental health and wellbeing then we have e-learning on:

• Managing your own self-care and wellbeing
• Mental Wellbeing and Resilience

Plus workshops including:

• Mindfulness meditation
• Personal resilience and resourcefulness
• Understanding and supporting student mental health
• Wellbeing and mental health for managers

There is also support for staff through Thrive, a free six-week programme that aims to help university staff develop a more active lifestyle and enhance their overall wellbeing through nutrition and exercise.

The Chaplaincy service is also available for staff and students and offers a safe confidential space to talk.

One of the first, things you can do to start improving mental health at work is simply to start a conversation, whether this be for yourself or as a colleague or manager reaching out to those in your team who might be struggling. Sometimes asking for help is hard, so it’s important for us all to look out for one another.

If you would like to talk further about your own or your teams support needs do reach out and start that conversation with me.

Hazel Solly, Staff Wellbeing Manager