Wellbeing Mental Health

John FRANKLIN
John FRANKLIN • 19 February 2021
in community Air Operations
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Mental health covers a range of topics associated to managing stress and coping with anxiety. Stress is what happens to our bodies when situational demands exceed our perceived ability to cope. Anxiety is a typical response when normal concerns or uncertainty cause us without real evidence to worry excessively about things that might happen. Managing both stress and anxiety to an acceptable level is an essential element of your personal wellbeing.

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Rating and Self-Assessment 

Wellbeing Rating

If you ranked your coping as GOOD then this section should help you maintain that. If you rated it as FAIR or POOR then this section should help you improve the situation.

Impacts

There is no typical acceptable level of stress or anxiety for an adult. They are an individual response: what you find stressful someone else might not.

Failing to manage your anxiety and stress levels can potentially have negative impacts on you in the short term.

Mental Health

 

If you, or one of the people you are close to, notice any of these signs you may be suffering from stress or unhelpful anxiety.

What You Can Do

There are simple actions you can take that typically, if used regularly, can help improve your stress response.

  • Learn and use controlled breathing techniques when feeling stressed or anxious. Breathe into your abdomen for 3 seconds through your nose, hold for two seconds, breathe out from your mouth for 2 seconds: repeat 3 to 5 times as you feel able. Concentrate on your breath going in and out as you breathe. 

  • Maintain good social networks and focus on positive topics. 

  • Engage in a personally relaxing activity that you enjoy on a regular basis. Yoga, Meditation and Mindfulness are very helpful in mitigating stress and can be studied online. (See Section on Physical Activity for suggestions of suitable actions.) 

  • Ensure you get some physical activity during the day. 

  • Write down what is stressing you, and the evidence for it, to evaluate its validity. 

  • Identify typical situations where you notice being stressed and try to see them another way.

  • Challenge unhelpful thoughts by looking for the evidence for them. Unhelpful thoughts typically are absolutes (should, must, totally useless), mind-reading (I got no tea – I must be in trouble), or assuming the worst outcome (what if XX becomes a definite problem not a possible?). When faced with this kind of unhelpful thinking you should ask yourself ‘is that necessarily true or is there an alternative explanation?’

Additional Information

You might also find this additional information helpful. 

  • Write down a short list of some things that make you feel anxious and that you are aware you avoid. Rank them in order of their difficulty and then score them from 1 to 10 in terms of the challenge they pose you. Starting with the one you give your lowest score to try to face that situation and deal with it. Repeat until you are more comfortable with it and then move on to the next lowest item.  Remember that the signs of anxiety are only true if you give in to them. If the anxiety does not reduce, initially try talking with a partner or trusted friend.

Here are some additional resources for you as an individual:

Here are some additional resources for organisations:

 

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