BREATHE
COURSE INFORMATION
This is a four-week course via Zoom, the framework is designed to give you practical information and support if experiencing anxiety or helping others who experience anxiety.
With the view of building confidence to carry out self-help through; identifying traits, self-talk and exposure therapy. Interactive question and answer times within this safe space will be included in every session.
COURSE TOPICS
Week One: The Road to Recovery - Part One
"The process of recovery is a marathon, not a sprint."
Week Two: The Road to Recovery - Part Two
"Changing perspectives and self-talk takes time and persistence."
Stop worry in its tracks before it turns into anxiety.
Week Three: Exposure Therapy
Avoidance behaviour is a natural protection mechanism.
Week Four: Recovery Maintenance and Practical Self-Care
If you focus on reframing anxious thoughts, you will worry less about relapse.
*Danielle Dixon is not a medical consultant, but she has many years of lived experience and recovery. She has helped hundreds of people to better manage anxiety.
MY MENTAL HEALTH JOURNEY
I have experienced and was diagnosed with Panic Attacks, Social Anxiety, OCD, Panic Disorder and Agoraphobia.
My struggle with mental health begins like most people as a child. I had experienced a few very traumatic situations during childhood, which would later come to the surface.
However, at the time, being young and invincible, I carried on and was able to suppress those feelings and emotions for many years. Yet, at the age of twenty- six, there was no more hiding and my anxiety was becoming more prominent in my life. After a restless night overthinking a personal relationship, I had my first intense panic attack the following day. Still, I was unaware of what was happening to my body and mind. Hyperventilating, heart palpitations, tight throat and disorientation are only a few of the symptoms that occurred during that panic attack, so I was confident I needed to go to the hospital; something unexplainable happened to me. At the hospital, they told me that I have a mental health disorder, and they quickly booked me to see a psychiatrist. I was in disbelief and bewildered by the news. Was I crazy?
I had always been an independent, strong and driven woman, but the news of my ‘newfound’ condition quickly made me housebound with agoraphobia. Within a few weeks, I had resigned from my middle management position and stayed indoors for almost two years, unable to shop, drive a car, answer the door or phone, get the mail, hang out the clothes etc. At, this time I was experiencing panic attacks more frequently. It felt like I had entered a horror movie, and there was no way to escape. I permanently lived in a state of panic.
It was a long road and took me many years to break my old thinking patterns and routines as resources and help were limited back then. Connecting back to my faith was also a significant factor in me finding inner peace.
This course intends to give you practical ways of managing your anxiety. I have devoted the last twenty years of my life to helping others who suffered mental and emotional trauma because if I can do it, anyone can do it!