NADIYA: ANXIETY AND ME
I WAS WALKING DOWN the road when I had my first panic attack, and I had no idea what was happening. It was beyond an anxious fear: a life or death, out- of-body experience. I didn’t know how to talk about it, so I just didn’t.
Through launching the Talking Mental podcast in early 2019, I started talking publicly about my own mental health. I’ve spoken with nutritionists, psychologists and sleep therapists.
For me, Nadiya: Anxiety and Me highlighted a real-world issue: it’s the people you don’t think have any issues that normally do. Presenter Nadiya Hussain isn’t just talking about her own issues. She’s encouraging other people to come out as well. Your path to recovery will be different, and I think people need to see that.
You may tell someone you’re seeking mental health treatment, but nobody ever sees it. That’s always behind closed doors – so I was surprised to watch Nadiya go through treatment. It made me quite anxious, especially seeing the expression on her face as she was going through treatment for PTSD. I was relating it to my own issues, but also found that her experience was different, and it was interesting to learn about another form of mental health that’s difficult for other people.
The more educated I became, the more I realised that in my own lifestyle I wasn’t helping myself. At the moment, everything we’re seeing and reading surrounds these big reveals about mental health. We don’t do that with physical health. That’s one thing I would like to see change – people releasing a pressure valve rather than letting it build up.
If I could rewind time, I would have dealt with my mental health differently. I’m happy to see programmes like this because it shows you that you don’t have to wait.
第一次驚恐症發作時，我正在街上走著，無由而來的驚惶感令我手足無措。那種感覺比焦慮恐懼還要強烈，恍如生死攸關、靈魂出竅。我不知道如何向人描述這種體驗，所以我沒有告訴任何人。
透過在 2019 年初成立 Talking Mental播客頻道，我開始向公眾講述自己的精神健康問題。我曾就著自身問題跟營養學家、心理學家和睡眠治療師交談。
至於《Nadiya: Anxiety and Me》這個節目令我留意到現實世界的情況：一些看起來完全正常的人，其實通常隱藏著某些問題。主持人 Nadiya Hussain 不只談她自己的問題，也鼓勵其他人勇於表達。我認為其他人需要知道一點— —你將會以不一樣的方式去走你的復康之路。
你可能會告訴人你正在尋求心理健康治療，但沒人見到你採取行動，大家總是對這種事守口如瓶，所以看到 Nadiya 接受治療的畫面令我很驚訝。收看節目時我感到非常焦慮，尤其當我看到她接受創傷後壓力症候群治療時的臉部表情。我曾把她的遭遇投射到自己身上，卻發現她的經歷其實和我不同。了解其他人面對的另一種精神健康問題，原來頗為有趣。
學問愈深，我愈明白自己的生活方式對我的生命毫無裨益。目前，我們有看、有讀有關心理健康的重大發現，但總未付諸實行。我期望將來有所轉變，看到人們都懂得釋放壓力，而不是任由壓力愈積愈多。
如果我能讓時間倒流，那麼我會以不同的方式面對我的精神健康問題。我很高興看到這一類節目，因為它讓人知道立即行動的急切性。