Self-acceptance

Recently, someone close to me had been admitted to a psychiatric ward. He had been suffering from anxiety, which was becoming progressively worse—and which was exacerbated over the last couple of years, no doubt in part owing to the stress and strain placed on individuals by the COVID-19 pandemic.

His anxiety became so severe that it was resulting in panic attacks where he would experience episodes of feeling ‘frozen’ for 30-minute periods at a time. This hindered his ability to attend work, which only worsened his feelings of anxiety as he is the primary provider for his family. Once admitted and placed on some stabilising medication for his anxiety and panic attacks, he soon thought he was ready to return home after a couple of days and planned to return to work.

However, before he could follow through with his return-to-work plan, he began experiencing severe panic attacks again. These could be brought on by thoughts about past events in his life or any aspect of his current life that leads to anxious thoughts about whether he will say or do the wrong thing in any given moment and the consequences that may follow if he does.