Group one film and readings - anxiety

This week was the beginning of groups introducing their readings and the film that we will watch as a class, leading to great discussions.  On Tuesday, we began with group one readings and a film that consisted of the topic of anxiety. The film we watched was a documentary by Nadiya Hussain titled "Anxiety and Me" which follows Nadiya throughout her day-to-day life and how she struggles with high functioning anxiety that disrupts most parts of her life. Nadiya's anxiety would be so bad that she would have multiple anxieties and panic attacks with the innate ability to know how to treat them due to their consistency. To not have to deal with her racing mind anymore and be able to make sure that her children don't go through what she does she finds her way to a psychologist. I personally have struggled with anxiety my entire life, but only recently have I felt the urge to consider possibly getting help. I rarely experienced anxiety and panic attacks at the rate that Nadiya did, but I am able to label them if I feel one coming on. Even when seeking help it's best to remember that there is no true cure for the disorder, but there are self-help tips one can use to only tame it but to feel more relaxed in your own mind. In the documentary, Nadiya's psychologist states the same information in which there is no cure, but you can make positive changes when ready to start. The documentary finishes up fairly quickly with the ending of Nadiya being at a cooking show and putting on her glasses as she previously would not wear them so as to not have to process there is an audience in front of her. The film itself was great and gave huge insight into the realization that anxiety is more common than you think as it's naturally there to help determine risks and what to stay away from, but it's a different story when it gets in the way of living a healthy and happy life. Along with the film, the group uploaded a few readings. I took a strong interest in the article "COVID-19 and pandemic and mental health" by Anghela Z. Paredes as all of the readings given were under the same topic of mental health in correspondence to anxiety, but I found this one to be the most interesting as it brings in not only psychologists into the new world of mental health, but also surgeons. I was interested in how surgeons would have anything to do with mental health but I guess in recent times of the pandemic with most healthcare being closed the return of them can and has been overwhelming to some. As a result, everyone who works in healthcare has been encouraged to ask questions along the lines of "how are you, really?" so that patients can vocalize possible angst and worry so that physicians can continue to help the patient not only physically, but mentally. I really enjoyed the first week's film and readings and can't wait to see what follows. 

Also, a little tip that I have learned through my 19 years of having high-functioning anxiety is to remember that nothing is as powerful and scary as your mind ever makes it out to be. Ever. I'm still trying to remember this myself but it is very true. Likewise, if having or feeling an attack growing try to count 5 different colors around you as it makes your nervous system focus on something else. I hope this information is found as useful to someone and is able to continue to pass on such information as it could possibly be life-saving one day.