Anxiety in university/college-part 1

I hope this post will help anyone who stumbles upon it 🙂

It’s been a while since I have been diagnosed with GAD and panic disorder,as a side effect of a physical illness.

When I finished high school and entered university (or college,as we call it in my country) I was under a lot of stress. Moving out of my family home (even if it was just for 5 days of the week,as my uni is not that far away,so I can go home on the weekends), not knowing anyone in a new city and the mountain of uni work left me very confused. On the top of that, my illness was acting out and I felt estranged from my uni colleagues.

The first time I had experienced a panic attack,I thought it was just exam stress finally getting to me. Even though the attacks started to happen more and more often,I have always attributed them to exam period,until I’ve realised that I was subconsciously  avoiding certain situations and places. I felt more and more afraid of being alone. Then,I decided to get some help. The terms ” general anxiety disorder” and “panic disorder” appeared on my medical chart. I was offered counseling and medications. The counseling was fine, but nothing really changed. But the medications left me really sleepy and made it impossible for me to concentrate on uni work. I realised it was up to me to figure this whole mess out. So,I am sharing here what I’ve learned from my experience in hope that someone out there will find this helpful 🙂

HOW TO DEAL WITH ANXIETY DISORDER IN UNI: 

0.Get diagnosed

This is a real no-brainer, but it needs to be said. If you are experiencing some of the symptoms,get yourself checked with your doctor. Also, the medications did not work for me,but it doesn’t mean that they will not help you. So, first things first: go to a doctor.

1. Plenty of sleep

As one of the symptoms of GAD is insomnia and other sleep disorders,this one could be a bit more difficult (I know it was for me). Make going to sleep a ritual; never eat/watch/study in your bed.  Before bedtime, open your windows and let fresh air in. An hour or two before going to sleep, eat some light and healthy dinner,light a nice relaxing candle (lavender for example), take a hot shower/bath and do something that relaxes you (avoid electric devices such as TV,laptop,phone,tablets…).

2. Plan ahead

Get a planner,a notebook or whatever works best for you and plan your week. Now,it is important that it is a quite “loose” plan; start with some of the things that you really have to do (for example: “finish chapter 15 by friday “). Then,every evening before going to sleep make a schedule for the next day. Write down all of your classes,assignments and make a detailed study plan. That will calm you down,because you know what you will do when you wake up,so there are no surprises.

3. Exercise

Healthy body= healthy mind. Exercise is a really important thing because you will be able to shake away the stress and worry , get your body tired (you will fall asleep better) and forget about uni for a while. I prefer running,but you do whatever makes you feel best ; yoga,boxing, cycling… There are many options.

4.Start revising early

I know this is an advice that works for every student,but it especially important for someone suffering anxiety and panic disorder. If you would generally need 3 weeks to revise for your exam, take 4 and a half just so you avoid the pre-exam stress and suffer from a panic attack on the day of your exam (happened to me,loads of times).

5.Meditate

A panic attack can happen even though you have been following all of the tips above. If it happens,it is important to have a back up plan. If you can’t meditate on your own and you feel difficult to concentrate, get a meditation app. There’s lots of choice in relaxation apps so find one that suits you the best.

This is all from me for now, I hope you will find this useful 🙂

*photo credit : Toby Allen 

 

Bits

Hello all 🙂

Here are some snippets I’ve taken recently that I want to share with you.

Currently,I am trying to prepare myself for 10k,15k run and eventually for a half marathon. I am not sure how much you are interested in running,but I may try to keep an update on this blog.

I’ve been a runner for 8 years now (but I’ve become a serious runner in the last 3-4 years) and I usually run every day. I run because it helps me with stress and anxiety and I just love it! But recently,lots of people are inviting me to do all kinds of races. A friend of my family is organising a race in my hometown and he specifically invited me to attend. Therefore, I began with race preparations.

Now,I’ve never fussed about timing or how many kilometres I make, I always ran how much I liked (one day it could be 2km, the other 12). So this preparations are quite new to me. I have to adapt my diet(even though I mostly eat healthily and my family insists on eco,no gmo food) and my exercise. I have to admit,apart from running or biking, I hate to work out haha. I dislike the gym, the slow exercises and anything with weights. But, in order to get faster without any injuries, you have to follow a workout plan. Yikes. I will keep you updated,as I am just getting started. If you want to know how I will get in better running shape, let me know and I will post about it 🙂

Summer camomile field

Delicious “Oreo ice” pancakes. Nutella + oreo cookies + walnuts + ice cream! YUM

Gorgeous boletus mushrooms

Marija Bistrica hill 

Homemade sour cherry and vanilla pudding strudels. 

❤

Love

Hello everyone 🙂
I am currently sitting in my chair, in our house gallery in the dusk.

Last week was,again (I really sound depressing,but I am actually a very positive person,I promise)  a bit rough on me.

My dog Bea (beautiful white samoyed) of 12 years got ill. It was very serious and very sudden. I was afraid that she is in pain,and as she was 12 years old,the surgery was very risky and could have brought her even more pain. So,my family and I decided to put her to sleep. It was a very emotional moment for me and that whole week I felt like I was in a trance. I’ve had her since I was very little and this came as a shock to the whole family. We buried her on the hill,on the entrance to the forest. I will forever miss her,but I know that she is in a better place now,without any pain.

I am feeling better this week. I still call her ,out of habit before realising my mistake. And sometimes, my eye catches a glimpse of white fur in our yard like she is playing hide and seek with me. I have realised that I was spiraling down and that my health could get shaken again,so I made an effort to stay positive and to have only good memories of her.

I hope my next post will be filled with photos again and I hope I didn’t make you feel depressed while reading my posts. I really want this blog to be a place where people can feel happy and inspired instead of sad. But I also want to share some personal things that I cannot avoid.

So,from now on let’s focus on happy thoughts 🙂

Love you all

Snaps

Still resting 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

Hope you are all doing well 🙂

I am back :)

I guess some of you are wondering why was I away for so long and maybe you even assumed that I was done with blogging. The truth is,I was dealing with some personal problems so I didn’t really want to blog.  My family rented a gorgeous flat in a villa for few days so that we could rest a bit and recharge our batteries.

The place we visited is called Opatija and it is located in the western Croatia (three hour drive from where we live). It is a small coastal town that was founded before the 15th century and first mention in 1453 as a settlement of around 30 homes and a church (The Benedictine Abbey of St. Jacob). The town and the surrounding area was built in its etirety under the Austro-Hungarian empire. They built villas, hotels and most importantly a beautiful 12 km promenade called Lungomare. Not to bother you with  any more history haha, I will show you some of the photos I took during our stay there.

This is the garden in front of the villa. We had a private exit to the promenade and the beach (it was amazing!) :

The view from the balcony:

Just a small part of the Lungomare promenade and the sea:

Some of the stone “doorway” on Lungomare:

I hope you enjoyed these photos and I hope that you don’t take it against me that I haven’t really read your blogs because I plan to compensate for it by reading them all at once 😀

Stay happy 🙂

Leafy home

Our town has 9 lakes and a huge forest that surrounds them. There is a pathway across the forest which leads you to the viewpoint from which you can see the whole town and even the border of the neighbouring country. Along the way, you can see lots of wooden signs with historical stories and legends which are really really interesting to read! My brother and I went for a walk and we actually planned to go all the way up to the viewpoint,but the weather got progressively worse ( as you will see in the photos haha) so we hurried back home not finishing our route. But I promise you, once the weather here gets better, I will post far more photos 🙂

    

Sun kissed meadows

Camomile field

Just a little post to let you all know I am still alive haha 😀 These were taken on a rather nice saturday near my house. 🙂

Wild flowers

To see a World in a Grain of Sand

And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,

Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand

And Eternity in an hour.

W.B.

Hello 🙂 I am sorry for not posting in such a long time (and thus completely failing with my 2016 goals) but my inspiration is at all time low. I do post photos from time to time on my Instagram account (check me out: rorypaw) but I haven’t managed to write a single word of my story yet. So for those few of you who do read it,I am sorry. But there are some things in store for my blog for which I am very excited about. It takes time to arrange everything but I hope you will like it 🙂

Spring and blossoms

The weather here is ever-changing; it can go from spring in the morning to bitter winter in the night.

The sight of blossoming trees and colorful meadows,however, stays unchanged.

In my free time, I am (re)reading A Dance with Dragons to prepare myself for Winds of Winter (which I hope will be released rather sooner than later) 😀

Also, I have been accepted into the university choir which is a big deal for me because of my stage fright (you can imagine how scared I was to sing in front of everyone at the audition). We have rehearsals in the evenings,which I quite like.

Last week has been mentally and physically exhausting (I barely slept 3 hours per night) due to some unpredictable events. So I am grateful to be alive this weekend 😀

I hope you are all doing well and enjoying this early spring 🙂

Bees and violets

Happy international Women’s Day 🙂

This is the day on which we should all remind ourselves of the fair treatment of women in our society. People say that the western society has grown and that feminism in first world countries is not necessary anymore. True,there are countries where women are treated legally inferior to men and they need harsher feminist policy but inequality happens everywhere on a daily basis. Women are much less paid than their male colleagues, there are far too few women on leading possitions and if you take a look at some very banal things such as tv commercials you will see that inequality is still present with us.  And the only way to stop this is through education. If we teach young girls and boys that your gender,your race, your nationality,even your parents, don’t define who you are and what you can do, the world will change.

I am proud that my country is making progress ; we have a female president, we had a female prime minister, deans and principals of our universities, colleges and schools are equally represented by men and women.

On this day, we should remember our mothers and grandmothers and how hard they’ve worked for us,but not ignoring our fathers and grandfathers. We need to work on our society as a whole where every little individual counts,towards our future. When the society is healthy, the nature around us will be too.