AN anxiety sufferer is doing his bit to help people keep calm and carry on through the coronavirus crisis.
Samuel May was already planning to start a new group to help people who suffer with issues like panic attacks.
And when the pandemic arrived, bringing with it all sorts of fears, he decided it was the right moment to launch - but with an online group instead.
He said: “I thought this was the perfect time to get it set up. I’ve had an incredible response.
“People are panic buying, they’re worried about their family. I just wanted to help share people’s best practices with each other and help calm everyone down.”
“Things in the past have impacted my mental health but I find some days it’s really hard to get up and feel motivated.
“In some instances and some scenarios I can feel really sick. I’ve experienced panic attacks through my life and there was one that really worried me. I was asleep and I just woke up in absolute panic and dripping with sweat.
“I just feel like the community needs to come together and help each other out, especially at this time.”
The group is set to private to help protect people’s privacy and it now has more than 150 members.
Samuel, of Colbourne Street explained: “Doctors can offer you counselling and I didn’t find that at all useful as a suffer of anxiety myself and others might not find it useful either.
“So I decided to set up a community group for people in the area suffering with the same thing.
“The idea is to get together and just talk about it and get ideas off each other on how to cope with it.”
His original plan was to get people to meet up. But now the government has urged people to self-isolate as much as they can to slow the spread of covid-19. It means gatherings of people, even family parties, are out of the question.
So for now Samuel is making the Swindon Anxiety Support Group online only, although when the crisis has blown over the plan is for members to meet in person.
The group can be found on Facebook and a request is needed to join.
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