Anxiety
Anxiety means feeling nervous and worried. Feeling anxious can be caused by many things including:
- A situation you might be in or be thinking about
- An experience you’re having or thinking about
- Anxiety Disorders – see Headspace for more info
Symptoms
If you’ve been sexually assaulted or abused, you might feel some symptoms of anxiety if you are reminded about the assault by a smell, sound or something happening. These are called triggers.
Sexual assault
Generally speaking, sexual assault is any type of unwanted sexual behaviour that makes someone feel uncomfortable, intimidated or afraid.
What is child abuse?
Child abuse is when children or young people are harmed, not protected or not taken care of. Child abuse can happen in many ways, for example: Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Sexual abuse, Neglect.
A ‘symptom’ is a sign or an experience that ‘fits’ a pattern within a particular illness, like a blocked nose is a symptom of a cold.
You might feel nervous or you might have an anxiety attack – also called a panic attack. Symptoms can include:
- Short, shallow breaths
- An increase in your heart rate
- Feeling light-headed
- Having trouble hearing
- Wanting to be sick
- Just wanting to get away.
Dealing with anxiety
When you are anxious you can feel out of control. Worrying about it only makes it worse. One of the best ways to treat anxiety is to try to reduce the symptoms as soon as you start feeling them. It’s harder to stop a full anxiety attack than to deal with it at the first signs.
One of the simplest and best things to do is to slow down your body’s responses. Breathing exercises will slow down your heart rate and help you take deeper breaths. You will feel less light-headed and more in control.
Links
For more informationFor more information about this or to contact the South Eastern Centre Against Sexual Assault go to the SECASA website. |
