What is… anxiety?

Anxiety is a feeling of unease that could feel like worry or fear. Symptoms of anxiety include feeling restless, unable to sleep or having an increased heart rate. Other symptoms are feeling nauseous, sweating or heavy breathing. Anxiety can be something that someone lives with, or triggered by certain situations.

Living with a disability can take a mental toll as life can change very quickly, and you need to adapt to a lot of changes in your surroundings. There could be a sense of feeling vulnerable or isolated, which could feed into anxieties surrounding friendships, independence or even tasks like crossing the road.

The pandemic has increased anxiety in everyone; you may have found yourself getting upset or frustrated with changes such as maskwearing, one-way systems and social distancing, and these are all tasks which may make life more difficult with deafblindness. Support may have become inaccessible, such as support groups and doctor’s appointments.

While it is normal to experience anxiety in some situations, such as the ones we’ve explored already, anxiety is usually fleeting and may lessen when you are removed from the anxiety-inducing situation. However, if you feel that anxious feelings are constant, or that they are impacting day-to-day life, it may be time to seek some help.

It can be difficult to take action to help with mental health, but if you had a broken arm, you’d go to the doctor – it’s important to treat your mental wellbeing with the same care.

How we help

Deafblind UK offers emotional support for members and their support networks. This includes the six-week emotional support service that enables you to have a contact within the organisation to talk through any thoughts or feelings with a trained advisor, and our counselling service which gives you access to trained and qualified counsellors.

If you feel you would benefit from this service then please contact us.