This is probably going to be quite a controversial post.

I try and stay off social media these days but I like going on Twitter or X as it’s known now after watching the football to see all the fan reaction. I find it pretty entertaining but earlier today when I went on, my timeline was full of quite a controversial post about Anxiety with a lot of people sharing their very opinionated opinions. I must of seen about 30-40 retweets of people sharing their opinion on the topic.

The post in question was about a lady who spoke on Question time and mentioned her anxiety as a reason she struggled when searching for work and the need to be on benefits.

The general consensus from people commenting and one of the panelists was that she had to “man up” and get a job and stop taking the tax payers money. That anxiety is just an emotion and we’ve all become soft and everyone has good and bad days and that’s just life. Get on with it.

To a degree, I agree with some of these comments and probably came from the same school of thought before I became ill myself.

I still do think, even after suffering myself, there is a lot of people that use mental health as a “get out of work” free card and blag their way with it. It actually upsets me because there are people who genuinely are ill and sick with it and can’t get the help they need.

I had an 11 month wait with the NHS to get treatment with talk therapies and I genuinely believe that wait was because people who aren’t really ill are using it as an excuse and those who need help don’t get it. They are the ones who commit suicide.

I’m lucky in that I had a very supportive family who helped me find ways to recover and I had my own personal drive in wanting to get better. Others are not so lucky.

I don’t know the lady in question or about her personal circumstances but I can speak from my own personal experience.

I ran my own business for over 20 years and am definetly not a blagger but when I was at my worst there is no way I could work, I couldn’t leave the house or even speak to people 1:1. If I took a phone call I would be shaking so badly I had to put the phone down, I couldn’t read an email or go to the shops or if I did, it would take me hours to recover afterwards, I also know at that time I wouldn’t have been able to go on live tv and join a national debate.

The first time I went out into a public setting and sat in audience again, I literally sat there shaking and crying and holding my sister’s arm the whole time. (Link fox talk) In the car on the way home we had to pull over so I could calm down. It took me 2 days to recover.

But I also know in my recovery I have pushed myself to do things that currently scare the shit out of me because of my condition and how it effects my body and how I feel. I know to recover, I have to push myself and go through all the awful feelings and sensations, experincing dizziness, brain fog, heart palpatations, blurry vision when doing something as simple as walking to the grocery store. Things that were once easy are now hard. I know how hard that is to do and I know how hard that is to recover from when you do it and push yourself. And I know there are still limits to what I can and can’t do.

As I said I don’t know the lady in question but if she is suffering badly from anxiety or even in recovery she may have been pushing herself in trying to over come it. She may be spending the next couple of days recovering. If she really does have anxiety and sees all the comments people have made it may take her even longer to recover!

So I guess what I’m saying is I can see both points of view. There are people who claim to be mentally ill that aren’t really but that doesn’t mean that other people aren’t genuinely suffering and even though she may have been able to go on live TV and talk in the moment, the come down afterwards when you do suffer from anxiety can wipe you out for days and that’s what she may be going through today.

Not everyone knows this but I used to co host a radio show in Antigua talking about the weekends football action and sport. I would also go on live TV to talk about things I was doing with my business on a regular basis. At the moment I couldn’t do that, but I know that I would love to push myself to do that again one day and even go on live TV.

So don’t be too quick to judge people. Yes there are people who blag the system but don’t tar everyone with that brush. You don’t know what’s going on behind closed doors or what people are genuinely suffering from.

You can’t see mental health. I know I’ve been stood next to people and I've been having a panic attack they are none the wiser unless I tell them. I tend to fall into complete silence and twitch, unless you are close to me you couldn’t tell. Inside I’m dazed and confused and it sounds like a fire alarm going off in my head.

In my opinion, I hope she doesn’t have anxiety or panic disorder because it’s shit and I wouldn’t wish it on anyone and if she’s blagging the system shame on her because it effects people who genuinely need help. But if she does have severe anxiety, well done on her in getting out there and facing the fear.

The only way out is through!