Mental and Emotional Wellbeing

Living with an illness like GBS, CIDP, or MMN, or another Inflammatory Neuropathy can be incredibly challenging, not just physically, but emotionally too. It’s important to care for your mental and emotional health, even though it’s easy to overlook when you’re focused on physical symptoms.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed, anxious, depressed, worried, or scared about what’s happening to you or a loved one, remember that you’re not alone – help is available. We are always happy to support where we can at GAIN, or help you to find the right support. You can contact us via 01529 469910 or office@gaincharity.org.uk

If you want to find support directly, then have a look at the options below.

Reaching out to a counsellor through your local mental health services is never something to feel embarrassed or awkward about, in fact it’s a really brave step.

Give your GP a quick call and they can get you started with a referral. There are also likely to be independent mental health services and charities that you can turn to for support.

If you’re in crisis though, please don’t hesitate to seek a bit of help:

  • Call 111 to access NHS services.
  • Call 116 123 to talk to Samaritans or email them at jo@samaritans.org for a reply within 24 hours.
  • Text “SHOUT” to 85258 to contact the Shout Crisis Text Line, or text “YM” if you’re under 19.
  • If you’re under 19, you can also call 0800 1111 to talk to Childline (the call won’t appear on your phone bill).
  • In a life-threatening emergency, please call 999. Remember, a mental health emergency is just as important as a physical one, and you will not be wasting anyone’s time.

If you’re not in immediate crisis, but are feeling anxious or worried, taking a moment to focus on your breathing or taking a second to practice grounding exercises can help bring some calmness and clarity.

Here are a few exercises to get you started:

Square Breathing

This is a simple technique that you can do anywhere if you feel anxiety creeping up.

Picture a simple square in your head, or focus on our graphic – see all four sides the square.

Go to the top left corner of that square.

Got it?

Now inhale for 4 seconds or beats while picturing a light moving along the square until it’s at the top right.

Now, hold that breath as you travel down to the bottom right of the square.

Exhale as your light travels along the foot of the square until it hits the bottom left corner.

And now, hold your breath again as you travel back up to the start in the top left corner.

Repeat this a few times until you feel your heart rate slow or you feel able to control your breathing.

If you can’t hold it for 4 seconds or beats, don’t worry. Start with 2 seconds, just try not to rush yourself.

The 5-4-3-2-1 Technique

Grounding exercises are particularly effective when we’re feeling anxious, they help calm our breathing, heart rate and racing thoughts.

Try the 5-4-3-2-1 Technique.

Before you begin, try to take control or focus on your breathing. So start by taking slow, deep breaths, or try one of the breathing exercises we’ve shared. Once you have a comfortable, smooth rhythm, we can begin.

 

  • 5: Start by recognising just FIVE things you can see around you in the room. It can be anything, your phone, a chair, the curtains, a book for example.
  • 4: Now lets find FOUR things you can touch. Feel your body against the chair or bed, feel your feet on the floor. Can you feel the texture of the duvet or table top, if you’re holding your phone, can you feel the grooves of the volume button and charging port?
  • 3: Next lets find THREE things you hear. Is there traffic outside or birds tweeting, the faint hum of an electrical appliance in the room, can you tap out a soft rhythm?
  • 2: Can you smell just TWO things in the space around you? Has your pillow been recently washed and you can smell the washing powder? Is there food or drink nearby?
  • 1: If there is food or drink, that’ll help on the final step where we want you to find ONE thing you can taste. If you don’t have food or drink, can you taste the toothpaste from cleaning your teeth, or perhaps you can nibble the end of a pencil – we all do it from time to time!
Body Scan

 

Body scan meditations are often beneficial and help ground yourself when your thoughts and feelings start running away.

It’s useful to use a guide video for these so you can follow along with your eyes shut, so here is a great example below:

If you can’t listen though, here’s what to do.

Sit or lie comfortably, and take a deep breath in through your nose, and back out through your mouth. Do this a few times to get control of your breathing.

When you’re comfortable, recognise how your whole body feels in that second – then pick either your head, or your toes as a starting point.

From there, we want to travel through the body, recognising each section. How does it feel? Is it comfortable or uncomfortable in this position? Can you feel clothes against it? How does it feel against your chair or bed? What exact points are touching a surface?

Do this slowly, moving at your own pace up or down. You’re not trying to change anything along the way, you’re just being aware and present of these feelings and sensations.

 

Take Control of Your Breathing

Via Mind

Category Game

Pick two or three subjects that are entirely different – they can be anything that you have a rough knowledge of. For example, lets say musical instruments. Now take a minute for each category and list as many items of that topic as possible.

This is intended to get your brain to shift gear and focus briefly on another subject. So if we’re working from musical instruments, you might think, “guitar, drums, bass, violin, piano..” etc.

If you’re a fan of a particular band, try listing all their albums and challenge yourself for release dates. Fan of football? How many times and what years did your team win the league?