A Booklet called Swirl – which helps with the worrying thoughts and anxieties that go through your mind.

Hii 🙂

Worry and anxiety is something we all experience. We all feel it at point or another, sadly 😦  Events trigger it. Situations trigger it. Some people even have a predisposition to it. And some people have full blown anxiety disorders, like Generalized Anxiety Disorder, or obsessive compulsive disorder, or anything else involving feelings of unease or worry..

Sometimes, such conditions require medical treatments, like medication and therapy. For less severe cases, like in the case of people who experience anxiety, but not strong enough such that it interferes with their daily life, adjustments in lifestyle are sufficient to treat it. Actions like learning to be mindful, eating as healthy as possible, getting enough sleep, and talking to loved ones about your stress and anxiety can be enough to treat it well, I think.

There also exist resources that talk about and provide help on the problem of anxiety. There are books – like self help, memoir – that talk about anxiety, and how to combat it (or how the writer personally combats it, in the case of memoir/personal narratives about anxiety/mental health….). There are websites that provide info on and help with tackling anxiety. I like https://tinybuddha.com. While it’s not specifically for anxiety, it provides a lot of soothing essays and articles about how to live peacefully with problems, and negative things in life. 

There is one really cool resource on anxiety that I know of – that I own. It’s a booklet on anxiety, called Swirl. ⤵️

A page from Swirl ⤴️

Swirl talks about how to deal with anxiety – giving true, practical, empathetic advice on how to manage it. 

This booklet was created by Andy Walton, a long-time sufferer of anxiety, and a psychiatric nurse and mental health advocate. He’s based in north east England.

Andy’s booklet has helped me deal with my own anxiety. I’m actually currently diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder, with anxiety as a comorbid condition. I was taking Zoloft for my anxiety, which really helped. Now I’m on Wellbutrin, which I’m feeling is not as effective, actually.. But my doctor switched me to it because he said it doesn’t affect weight as much as Zoloft does/it doesn’t cause any weight gain. I’m already like 90 – 100 pounds overweight 😛  I actually used to be a normal weight before all my psychiatric meds began 😢 Oh, well – that’s a pretty typical story, at least. A lot of folks have been through this. (Paxil especially – paroxetine – was a nightmare for me – I gained like 60 pounds on it, I think 😛 ).

Back to my anxiety, and how Swirl booklet helped me:

This booklet has been the best reminder – a physical, visual reminder – to breathe, and to be mindful. And focusing on the breath and  being mindful really does put things in perspective. Even a few seconds focused on breathing and being present in the moment helps make your worries shrink in size and importance, if/when you do go back to them. There’s a lot of truth in the concept that sometimes, worrying will always be there. So in that case, it becomes not about how to get rid of it, but about how to be at ease, even with it. Being at peace with worrying is an underrated virtue in society, actually – everyone seems to be focused on not worrying, on not having anxiety. But what you resist persists, after all – as I’ve heard. Struggling against worrying often leads to more worrying – let alone eliminating it. The better technique is not blocking thoughts and feelings – but letting them be there, and finding peace, regardless. Through time, the peace will outweigh the negative thoughts and emotions. 

This is what I’ve really learned through reading Swirl. 🙂 

# anxiety resources # guide/booklet on how to manage anxiety, worry, and negative thoughts.

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Andy Walton’s website: https://medium.com/@andy.walton

Swirlzine.com: https://www.swirlzine.com

Find Andy and his booklet/project on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/swirlzine/?hl=en

And Twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/swirlzine

Swirl was featured in The Guardian, along with an interview with Andy – see it here; https://www.theguardian.com/healthcare-network/2018/may/15/mental-health-self-help-guide-swirl-zine

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😚 Thank you for reading this.

Final page of Swirl booklet, after all the tips and words of support/advice: 

And, here are a few pics I found from Pinterest: 

 

 

 

 

😘🧡

bye, thank u.

-e.h.

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