Sleep and mental health
Improving your sleep can also improve your mental health. Learn about common sleep problems, tips for creating healthy sleep habits, and strategies for falling asleep.
15 minutes
read
Support Toolkit
Anxiety
Understand what anxiety is, how it can be experienced, and what you can do to feel better.
Understanding anxiety
While feeling anxious is a normal response to stressful situations, anxiety is when anxious feelings such as worry, dread, and fear stick around or show up unexpectedly, and make it difficult for you to go about everyday life.
Typically, anxiety is experienced over something that might happen in the near or distant future. However, if you don't know why you're experiencing anxiety, it could be due to something in your past.
Experiencing anxiety from time to time is a normal and healthy response to stress. However, anxiety can be classed as a mental health condition if the symptoms you experience prevent you from doing things like daily tasks, going to work, socialising, having healthy relationships, and making time for self-care.
Why do we feel anxious?
Even though they might feel uncomfortable, stress and anxiety are important ways we keep ourselves safe.
When we're in situations that feel threatening or dangerous, our brain automatically triggers our body's 'fight, flight or freeze' response, which releases hormones like cortisol and adrenaline.
This response can:
- Make us more alert
- Increase oxygen flow to our muscles so we can respond more quickly
- Reduce our perception of pain, allowing us to focus on the moment.
It's normal to experience anxiety before, during, and after stressful situations. However, there are a few common causes that may make you experience anxiety more frequently and intensely.
If you are experiencing anxiety, you are not alone.
Anxiety is the most common mental health condition in Australia, with 1 in 4 people (1 in 3 women, and 1 in 5 men) experiencing anxiety at some stage in their life.
With the right support, recovery is possible for everyone.
When is anxiety a concern?
You may want to speak to a health professional if:
- Your feelings of anxiety are very strong or last a long time
- Your fears or worries are bigger than the stressor itself
- You avoid situations that might cause you to feel anxious
- Your worries feel distressing or are hard to control
- Your anxiety continues after the stressor has passed
- You find it hard to live your life to the fullest or do things you enjoy.
No matter how overwhelming your symptoms might feel, all types of anxiety are treatable.
I can't always explain why I feel anxious. Sometimes, my body just seems to react to something before I get a chance to tell it everything is okay.
If you'd like more information on anxiety, you can:
- Read about the feelings and effects of anxiety
- Learn short and long-term strategies proven to help minimise anxious thoughts and feelings
- Download our anxiety fact sheet
- Watch the video below.
What does anxiety feel like and how can it affect me?
Because there are different levels and types of anxiety, the feelings and effects can look and feel different for everyone.
For example, anxiety can look like:
- Feeling dizzy, light-headed, and nauseated before public speaking
- Becoming frozen when asked to go to dinner with people you've never met
- Being unable to focus at work or sit still
- Lying in bed unable to sleep because of distressing and repetitive thoughts.
Scroll down to learn more about the common thoughts, feelings, and physical sensations of anxiety.
Thoughts and feelings
When you experience anxiety, it tends to be about things that are out of your control.
As a result, you may have thoughts and feelings about all the possible outcomes (both good and bad) that could occur.
When you're experiencing anxiety, you might feel:
- Worried about something bad happening
- A general sense of dread or doom
- Self-conscious about other people looking at or talking about you
- Overwhelmed with negative thoughts
- Like you’re experiencing repetitive or excessive thoughts
- Worried about the feeling of anxiety itself.
I was like a duck on a pond – the surface looked still and serene, but underwater my legs were paddling furiously trying to stay afloat.
Physical effects
Because anxiety is part of your body's stress response, it's common to feel physical sensations.
When you're experiencing anxiety, you might also notice:
- A racing or pounding heart or an irregular heartbeat
- Sudden or excessive sweating
- Rapid, shallow breathing
- Muscle aches or other pain
- Stomach discomfort (nausea or diarrhoea)
- Feeling light-headed
- Shakiness
- Fatigue
- The urge to fidget, pace or bite your nails
- Panic attacks.
In some instances, anxiety can lead to:
- Difficulty sleeping
- Loss of appetite
- Skin irritation and hair loss
- Irritability
- Loss of libido
- Isolation and loneliness.
To learn more about what it's like to live with anxiety, you can:
- Visit our types of anxiety page
- Read about the causes of anxiety
- Click here to save or print our anxiety fact sheet
- Click here to save or print 13YARN's anxiety fact sheet for mob
- Watch the video below.
What are the different types of anxiety?
While everyday life stressors can cause anxiety, there are a few biological and environmental factors that may lead you to experience anxiety as a mental health condition.
Keep in mind that everyone responds to stress differently. What may cause one person to experience anxiety may not impact you at all.
Scroll down to learn more.
You may experience anxiety if your childhood wasn’t stable, nurturing or emotionally supportive.
In an unstable environment, our brains try to keep us safe by looking out for threats, which is helpful in the short term but can also lead to a constant feeling of being on edge or at risk, even when you’re not.
Equally, if you grew up with an anxious parent or family member, you may have learned anxious thinking patterns and behaviours from them, just as we learn so many other things from those around us when we’re young.
Childhood experiences that could lead to feelings of anxiety include:
- Unpredictable reactions or emotions from loved ones
- Constant criticism
- Instability, like moving schools or houses
- Bullying or feeling left out or excluded
- Trauma caused by things like accidents, natural disasters or domestic and family violence.
- A negative experience, for example being bitten by a dog may cause a phobia of dogs.
Our level of satisfaction with our home lives, our jobs, and our relationships can be common causes for feelings of anxiety.
This is particularly true if we feel uncertain or unhappy with big questions like whether we can see a hopeful future for ourselves, are happy with our relationships, and feel financially secure.
These are all understandable and natural reasons for feeling anxious, but when that anxiety causes significant distress, or impacts your daily life, it is a good idea to look for ways to manage your anxious feelings.
Anxiety can be caused or exacerbated by life stressors like:
- Financial concerns
- Relationship problems
- School or employment stress, including unemployment
- Health worries or a medical diagnosis such as cancer
- Significant life changes such as relationship breakdowns, moving, or children leaving home
- Struggles with sleep.
I began to experience anxiety as a result of being diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer.
Specific events, situations, objects or experiences can cause feelings of intense anxiety.
These can include (but are not limited to):
- Closed-in, crowded or open spaces
- Social situations
- Heights
- Planes
- Reminders of traumatic events
- The fear of having a panic attack.
Our thoughts and behaviour patterns can both contribute to and be a symptom of our anxiety.
Our thoughts can:
- Directly contribute to feelings of anxiety (by obsessively thinking about perceived risks or dangers, even when they’re not present)
- Cause us to withdraw or avoid certain behaviours which can negatively affect us in the long term (such as going outside, or seeing friends)
- Cause us to disproportionately focus on risk and danger
- Unhelpfully add to existing feelings of anxiety, by worrying about being anxious in the first place.
We don’t completely understand the link between anxiety and genetics just yet, but we do know that our genes can affect our likelihood of experiencing anxiety.
Research involving identical twins raised in different homes has strengthened the evidence that there is a genetic link. Studies show that twins have a higher than average rate of developing similar phobias – even when they are raised completely separately.
Even if genetics play a role in our experience of anxiety, there are still things we can do to feel better in the moment as well as long-term strategies that work to reduce our anxiety.
With the right support, any type of anxiety is treatable. To learn more about the support options available, you can:
- Read about short and long-term strategies
- Discover tools and apps that can help
- Find support services that are right for you
- Click here to save or print our anxiety fact sheet
- Click here to save or print 13YARN's anxiety fact sheet for mob
What can cause anxiety?
While most people experience anxiety from time to time, some people find specific situations and stressors to be particularly triggering.
Depending on how much anxiety impacts your daily life and emotional wellbeing, it may be diagnosed as one of the following types of mental health conditions.
Generalised anxiety disorder (GAD)
Anxiety is diagnosed as generalised anxiety disorder when you have excessive and uncontrollable worries about aspects of everyday life rather than a specific stressful event you can attribute your anxiety to.
For example, you might feel physically and emotionally overwhelmed:
- Going to school or work
- Trying to make plans with friends
- Attending a doctor's appointment
- Paying bills or signing up for services
- Sharing your opinions and ideas.
Social anxiety
Social anxiety is when you're constantly afraid of being judged, observed, or performing in front of others.
For example, you might feel physically and emotionally overwhelmed:
- Having conversations or meeting new people
- Eating or drinking in front of others
- Speaking in a meeting, in class, or when giving a presentation.
Social anxiety can lead to avoidance of social situations. As a result, you may experience isolation and loneliness.
Phobias
Phobias are out-of-proportion and long-lasting fears of specific objects, activities or situations.
Some of the most common phobias include extreme fear of:
- Animals such as dogs, spiders, snakes, mice, and rats
- Heights
- Flying
- Small spaces
- Leaving the house.
Panic attacks
A panic attack is a sudden rush of intense anxiety or fear combined with a surge of frightening thoughts and physical sensations.
Panic attacks can happen to anyone, as well as those with:
- Generalised anxiety disorder (GAD)
- Social anxiety
- Phobias.
What else might be considered anxiety?
PTSD was previously considered an anxiety disorder, however, it is now classified as a trauma and stress-related disorder.
While the feelings and effects of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are similar to those of generalised anxiety disorder (GAD), the main differences are that PTSD is specifically caused by a traumatic experience and the symptoms can be intrusive.
For example, someone experiencing PTSD may experience anxiety as well as:
- Flashbacks
- Nightmares
- Recurrent memories.
Click here to learn more about the feelings and effects of trauma.
Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is now classified separately from anxiety disorders but is often associated with immense anxiety or fear.
OCD typically consists of uncontrollable and overpowering desires to do something such as:
- Excessively double-checking locks or appliances
- Tapping or counting
- Cleaning things.
However, OCD may also include intrusive thoughts or urges that trigger distressing feelings. As a result, OCD can cause behaviours to deal with those thoughts.
For example, excessively checking in with loved ones because you fear that they’re hurt.
To learn more about why you might be experiencing anxiety and things you can do to feel better, you can:
- Read about the common causes of anxiety
- Discover short and long-term strategies for managing symptoms
- Explore tools and apps that can help
- Click here to save or print our anxiety fact sheet
- Click here to save or print 13YARN's anxiety fact sheet for mob.
Short-term strategies for managing feelings of anxiety
Anxiety can look and feel different for everyone, which means different strategies will work for different people.
Finding the ones that are right for you may take a bit of trial and error and that's okay. The most important thing is that you're showing yourself kindness and compassion.
Remember:
- Anxiety is a natural human emotion we’ve developed to keep us safe from danger
- Criticising yourself for experiencing anxious thoughts or feelings can make you feel worse. We’re often far more critical of ourselves than we would be of a friend in the same situation. What would you tell someone else if they were in your situation?
- It’s okay to cut yourself some slack. If you’re feeling particularly anxious, try reducing the expectations you’ve set for yourself.
Scroll down to learn more practical and evidence-supported techniques that can help reduce feelings of anxiety right now and in the long term.
Practical strategies for managing anxiety
If you’re feeling overwhelmed right now, Lifeline is here to support you. You can reach us 24 hours a day, 7 days a week via phone, text, and chat. If your life is in danger, please call 000.
Sleep and mental health are closely connected, which is why it's common to struggle with your sleep if you're experiencing mental health challenges and struggle with your mental health if you're experiencing sleep problems.
If you have a mental health condition like anxiety, poor sleep can make it harder to manage symptoms. You can learn tips for improving your sleep in our sleep and mental health article.
When you're having anxious thoughts about something potentially happening in the future, try asking yourself questions such as:
- Am I safe right now?
- How have I handled fears like this in the past?
- What new information could ease my fear?
- What's the best possible outcome?
- What would I say to a friend in this situation?
If you’re feeling anxious or like a panic attack coming on, it can be helpful to engage in a grounding technique like deep breathing.
Breathing can help by distracting your mind, calming your nervous system, and decreasing your overall stress.
There are a number of different helpful grounding techniques to try but a great one to start with is box breathing. Watch the video below to try it now.
Sometimes even just saying our fears out loud can make them feel less overwhelming.
Opening up about your anxiety can be challenging but talking to someone you trust can:
- Make the fear feel smaller
- Remind you that it's normal to feel anxiety
- Allow you to feel connected and supported
- Give you ideas for managing your worries.
Creating a designated worry time once a day can help you interrupt the repetitive thinking cycle and take control of your worries and thoughts.
As worries arise throughout the day, jot them down and tell yourself that you'll acknowledge them during your worry time.
When your worry time comes around, use it to review the worries you’ve added and ditch the thoughts that no longer matter to you.
Ideally, choose a time and space that's comfortable and not too close to your bedtime.
Sometimes when we feel anxious, it can be challenging to stop the endless stream of thoughts in our head.
Journaling can be a helpful tool in making sense of things. If you can name it, you can tame it - simply naming our emotions has been shown to reduce their power over us.
You might like to write your thoughts down on a piece of paper, record a voice memo, or even draw a picture – whatever works for you is perfect.
You might like to get started with any of these questions that feel right for you:
- What emotion are you mostly feeling right now?
- What do you think is causing these feelings?
- What makes you feel good? What are you excited for?
- Write about your experience with resilience. When have you shown it?
- What are five things you’re grateful for?
- Which elements of your life are within your control? Which aren’t?
- How would you help a friend if they felt the same way you did?
It’s important to accept how you feel, but sometimes in a particularly anxious moment, taking your mind off your emotions can be helpful in the short term.
You might like to try:
- Watching a TV show or reading a book
- Playing a game
- Listening to a podcast
- Phoning a friend
- Going for a walk or doing some exercise.
Instead of having to deal with my anxiety alone, it takes an immense amount of pressure off myself when I let someone else in.
To learn more about what it's like to experience anxiety and ways to manage it, you can:
- Read about the feelings and effects of anxiety
- Discover long-term strategies and support services
- Click here to save or print our anxiety fact sheet
- Click here to save or print 13YARN's anxiety fact sheet for mob
- Watch the video below.
Long-term strategies for managing feelings of anxiety
On top of the things you can do in the moment to manage feelings of anxiety, there are several long-term actions you can take to minimise stressors in your life.
Anxiety feeds off uncertainty, which is why understanding what triggers it for you can be helpful. By making connections between certain situations and your emotions, you can reach for self-care strategies or learn to avoid triggers when possible.
Over the next few days and weeks, try to think about:
- What happened before you started feeling anxious
- How you feel when you’re anxious
- What you do to feel better that works
- Where and when your anxiety feels more under control.
You can keep your answers in a journal, in your phone's notes app or in a wellbeing app like Calm.
Scroll down to learn more strategies you can try.
Tips for managing anxiety in the long term
Identifying and minimising the stressors in your life can be an effective way of reducing symptoms of anxiety.
While you might not be able to resolve everything straight away, you can begin to take the steps needed to reduce the impact that these stressors have on you.
Common stressors include:
By being aware of your stressors, you can:
- Use self-care strategies to help manage your emotions
- Reach out for support. For example, if you're experiencing financial stress due to debt, you may want to contact the National Debt Helpline.
While avoiding what makes you feel anxious can provide relief and make you feel good in the short term, it can also create a snowball effect where the anxiety gets bigger the longer you avoid the stressor.
One way we can reduce feelings of anxiety is by acknowledging that what we fear isn't likely to happen but if it does, we can cope with it.
This technique is known as ‘exposure therapy’ and has been shown to be effective for different types of anxiety.
For example, if you're in anxious in social environments, one small step might be to try and make eye contact and smile at someone at work. Or, if you have a fear of dogs, you could try letting a friend’s dog you know is gentle and safe sniff your hand.
It’s important you only try what feels safe in small steps and that there are mental health professionals who can help you use this technique effectively.
Self-care strategies are how we take care of ourselves so that we can stay physically, mentally, and emotionally well.
Self-care will look different for everyone, but common practices include:
- Getting enough sleep
- Working out or going for walks
- Catching up with friends
- Spending time in nature
- Practising yoga
- Practising mindfulness and meditation.
It can feel challenging to engage in self-care when you are feeling anxious but research shows these strategies can reduce anxiety by helping you manage stress, adapt to changes, and recover from setbacks more easily.
Click here to learn more about what self-care might look like for you.
Techniques & Guides
10 minutes
read
Self-care for mental health and wellbeing
Self-care is a key way we protect our mental health and improve our wellbeing. In this article, we explain what exactly self-care is and why it's so beneficial during challenging times. You'll also find easy self-care ideas you can try right now or down the track.
10 minutes
read
Helps with
Stress
Depression
When I was willing to let go and not focus on “success” I found peace and my joy back.
Our mental and physical health are deeply affected by one another. One of the best ways to look after how we feel emotionally is to look after our body physically.
Research shows that what we eat and drink can impact how we feel.
If you're anxious, it can be helpful to:
- Eat complex carbohydrates – these are digested more slowly which creates a calmer feeling. Complex carbs are things like fruit and vegetables, wholemeal bread and pasta, and beans.
- Stay hydrated
- Limit or avoid alcohol – while a drink might calm your nerves in the moment, alcohol can interfere with your mood and sleep as your body processes it
- Limit or avoid caffeine and high-sugar foods – these can make you feel irritable, jittery or nervous
- Eat foods with omega-3 – including avocado, tuna, salmon and olive oil.
Studies show that exercise can work wonders for decreasing anxiety levels. Exercise can take your mind off anxious thoughts and worries, and has been shown to improve our mood by releasing endorphins - our body’s natural pain relievers.
If you’re feeling anxious, it can often be helpful to avoid substances. Substances can significantly alter our physical state, emotions and thinking patterns, which can have big effects on our feelings of anxiety.
You might find it helpful to reduce or avoid the following substances in particular:
- Caffeine (coffee, tea, chocolate, soft drinks, etc)
- Alcohol
- Illicit drugs.
Sleeping well is one of the most effective ways to manage anxious thoughts, but anxiety itself can make having a good night’s rest challenging. Developing good sleep habits can help you get better sleep.
These can include:
- Switch off your screens before bed
- Avoid alcohol and caffeine before bed
- If you can’t sleep, get up and do something calming until you feel sleepy
- Try and avoid napping during the day
- Keep the bedroom for sleep.
You might find that engaging in regular exercise, eating a balanced diet and the regular use of self-care tools like meditation can make sleeping easier. Learn more in our sleep and mental health article.
Getting help from others
Anxiety isn't something you have to deal with on your own.
Remember, 1 in 4 people experience it. Having the courage to ask for help can be hard but is one of the best things you can do for yourself.
Talking to someone you trust or others who experience anxiety can help you feel less alone.
It can also help you learn new coping strategies and give you a greater understanding of your triggers and experiences.
You might like to try talking in a peer support group, or even on an online forum.
Therapy is one of the most effective treatments for feelings of anxiety available. Different therapists specialise in using different techniques, including cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), and others.
Talking to an expert who has experience with treating anxiety can help you:
- Understand why you are feeling anxious
- Feel less alone and be able to share with someone who cares
- Find better ways to cope or manage that work for you
- Create a plan for better long-term mental health
- Develop strategies and confidence to manage future challenges
- Use specific strategies to change unhelpful thoughts and behaviours.
One of the steps you can take is to book an appointment with a GP to discuss what you're going through.
If you feel comfortable, you can ask about getting a Mental Health Treatment Plan through Medicare.
A Mental Health Treatment Plan allows you to access free or subsidised sessions from particular mental health professionals such as registered or clinical psychologists, eligible social workers, and occupational therapists.
Techniques & Guides
5 minutes
read
What is a Mental Health Treatment Plan?
Getting a Mental Health Treatment Plan is a great first step to making a lasting difference to how you’re feeling. It can be tricky or intimidating to navigate at first, so here we have broken it down to its simplest form.
5 minutes
read
Helps with
Treatment
Understanding
To learn more ways to manage feelings of anxiety, you can:
- Discover tools and apps that can give you practical techniques and strategies
- Contact an anxiety support service for further resources
- Click here to save or print our anxiety fact sheet
- Click here to save or print 13YARN's anxiety fact sheet for mob
Techniques & Guides
9 minutes
read
Reaching out to Lifeline: What to expect and how to feel more prepared
Learn practical tips for speaking with a crisis supporter, explore calming strategies, and find reassurance that whatever you’re going through is valid and you’re not alone.
9 minutes
read
Helps with
Finding Support
Tools and apps for managing feelings of anxiety
Below, you'll find tools and apps that can help you understand anxiety and learn practical techniques to help manage symptoms.
Support services that can help with managing anxiety
Below are a number of support services you can connect with to get help with managing feelings of anxiety.
Support Service
SANE
SANE is a national mental health organisation for people with complex mental health issues and for families and friends that support them. They provide a range of free telehealth and digital services. Dial 1800 187 263 to access their phone counselling.
Helps with
Counselling
Mental Health
Search for more services
Use the Lifeline Service Finder to search for more local and national services available to help support you.
Supporting someone experiencing anxiety
When someone you care about is experiencing anxiety, it's common to feel stuck between wanting to help and not knowing where to begin.
The good news is - simply being there for someone can play an important role in helping them cope and feel better.
On this page, you'll find information on:
- Recognising if someone is experiencing anxiety
- How to offer support to someone experiencing anxiety
- The importance of looking after your own mental health and wellbeing
- Tips for helping someone who's having a panic attack.
Scroll down to learn more.
How can you recognise if someone is experiencing anxiety?
Anxiety is a normal part of our body's stress response and one of the key ways we keep ourselves safe. However, certain types of anxiety can become a mental health condition if they begin to impact a person's daily life.
Recognising if someone is experiencing anxiety isn’t always easy because everyone can show different signs and symptoms.
Common signs of anxiety
Someone experiencing anxiety may express or notice that they're:
- Constantly worried about things that might happen
- Overwhelmed with constant and repetitive thoughts
- Excessively self-conscious or self-doubtful
- Avoiding certain situations or people
- On edge, restless or feeling irritable for no particular reason
- Hyperventilating or feeling short of breath
- Having difficulty sleeping
- Struggling to concentrate or remember things
- Experiencing headaches, stomach pain, or muscle tension
- Getting frequent skin irritations or hair loss
- Having panic attacks.
If you are unsure if someone you know is experiencing anxiety, we have more information about what anxiety can look like on our feelings and effects page.
How can you offer support to someone experiencing anxiety?
It can be tempting to jump in with solutions right at the start, however, it's best not to go straight into problem-solving when offering support.
While some people might be ready for help, others may need more time or would prefer to just have someone listen.
Often, one of the most powerful things you can do for a friend or family member is to simply stay connected. This could be through weekly walks, catching up for coffee, chatting on the phone or sending a text.
Below are a few more ways you can offer support.
If possible, have a private and face-to-face conversation with the person you care about.
- Let them know how much they mean to you and that you want to hear how they're feeling
- Ask open-ended questions such as:
- 'How have you been feeling lately?'
- 'What's been going on for you at the moment?'
- 'What are your biggest stressors?'
- Listen without judgement and be curious about their experience
- Sometimes, it can help to open up about your own experiences. In a way, it can give someone 'permission' to also share. Being vulnerable can be hard, but it’s easier if you’re both in the same boat.
- Rather than jumping to solutions, ask what they need from you in that moment. You might ask something like:
- ‘Would you like me to just listen right now or would you like help thinking about what you might do from here?'
It can be really hard for people to open up, especially the first time, so don’t be disheartened or hurt if your friend or family member doesn’t want to talk about their anxiety.
Just gently let them know that you'll always be there if they change their mind or if there’s something you can do in the future.
Feelings of anxiety can make it hard to carry out everyday tasks and meet commitments.
Offering practical support is often a good way to give the person you care about the breathing room to focus on their mental health without extra pressure.
Practical support might involve:
- Household chores like cooking, cleaning, walking the dog or mowing the lawn
- Taking the kids to school or sport, doing the shopping or helping with other errands or tasks
- Helping them get to and from health appointments, therapy or other support services.
Reaching out for any type of help can be daunting. Knowing where to turn, who to speak with, and what help is available can be confusing too.
Having the help of a family member or friend can mean the difference between someone seeking help and not.
You could offer to help by:
- Researching different support services that can help with anxiety
- Finding a tool or app they can use to manage anxiety symptoms
- Arranging an appt with a GP who can assist with getting a Mental Health Treatment Plan
- Connecting them with a therapist
- Helping them attend appointments or debrief after appointments if they would like to.
When listening to the person you care about, try to resist the urge to paint a silver lining or minimise their concerns.
Instead, it can be helpful to validate their experience by saying things that allow them to know that you see and understand them.
For example, you could say: ‘It sounds like you are going through a really tough time right now’ or ‘That must be so difficult to have to carry'.
In the video below, Dr. Brené Brown explains how empathy can be more powerful than sympathy in our toughest moments.
Caring for someone struggling with their mental health can be challenging, tiring, and sometimes frustrating.
It’s really important to remember that we can’t always help or ‘fix’ someone else. You might try your best and do everything you can without them improving and that’s not your fault.
The importance of looking after your own mental health and wellbeing
When supporting someone who's experiencing mental health challenges like anxiety, it can take a big toll on our mental and physical health.
Depending on the level of care they need or the type of support they're open to, you might feel:
- Stretched thin
- Upset by things they're sharing with you
- Frustrated that they're not making progress.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed, you are not alone. Being part of someone's support system is a big job. It's okay to take breaks and it's okay to ask for help. Nobody is expected to pour from an empty cup.
Below, we've outlined a few things you can do to look after your own mental health and wellbeing when acting as a carer.
Boundaries are an important way we can protect our mental and physical health. By knowing and communicating what our limits are, we can ensure that we're not putting ourselves in situations that compromise our wellbeing.
Healthy boundaries as a carer might include setting limits on:
- The practical things you have time and energy to help with
- When and where you’re able to help, chat, or support
- What level of detail you're open to hearing when discussing distressing topics.
It can be easier to support others if you’re not doing it alone.
If possible, see if there are other people who can support your friend or family member.
Remember, it’s always ok to ask for help.
Having someone you can talk to about your experience as a carer can help you feel more supported and lighten the load you’re carrying. It can also help to feel more connected to others, and you might even pick up some skills or tips from other people in similar situations.
Keep in mind that you're keeping the focus on how the relationship is impacting you and that you're only sharing what's appropriate about the person you’re supporting.
Support Service
Carer Gateway
Carer Gateway aims to make your life easier by providing emotional, practical and financial support for carers. Provides free counselling, information, peer support, emergency respite care, and financial help to carers via phone, online, and in-person services.
Helps with
Overwhelm
Self-care
What do you do when someone is having a panic attack?
A panic attack is a sudden rush of intense anxiety or fear together with a surge of frightening physical sensations and thoughts.
While not everyone who experiences anxiety will have panic attacks, they can happen, which is why it's helpful to know the signs.
Signs of a panic attack can include:
- A pounding or rapid heartbeat
- Feeling light-headed or dizzy
- Sweating, trembling or shaking
- Pain in the chest or abdomen
- Struggling to breathe or feeling like you're choking
- Feeling like you’re going to faint or are having a heart attack.
Panic attacks can be frightening, especially if it seems as if they have come out of the blue.
If someone you care about is experiencing a panic attack, there are things you can do to help.
Most people who experience panic attacks may already have their go-to coping methods.
If they seem open to support, here are some steps you can take to help.
- Try your best to stay calm and non-judgemental
- Gently let them know that you’re there to support them and they will get through this
- Encourage them to take slow, deep breaths as much as possible
- If you’re in an overwhelming environment, ask them if they’d like to move somewhere quieter if they are able to
- Help them refocus their attention on something that grounds them in the moment.
- You can suggest they focus on their breathing
- Guide them through a body scan
- Help them use the 5 senses technique.
To learn more about anxiety and ways you can support someone you care about, you can:
- Learn about the feelings and effects of anxiety
- Understand the different types of anxiety
- Discover tools and apps and support services that can help
- Click here to save or print our anxiety fact sheet
- Click here to save or print 13YARN's anxiety fact sheet for mob.