Anxiety

Wellytrack

Member
Working in farming can be a very lonely profession as you are isolated from people for long periods of time. The right group of work mates can make all the difference, I can tell you. Working in a very stressful environment with flair ups and shouting matches and actual violence can be very challenging but what makes all this manageable is the team I work with when I do it.

Actual violence? You were a Self propelled harvester driver then.
 

bitwrx

Member
Meditate. Trains your brain to be better at controlling the thoughts running round making you anxious, which has the happy side effects of just making you more effective generally. Headspace is an app I use on my phone. Holly Beckett from Focussed Farmers got me into it. She'd be a good person to speak to. You feel a bit of a twerp sitting down in silence listening to some American tell you what to (not) think, but it really does work.

Also counselling. I'm spending a few hundred quid a month at the mo with a counsellor. It's really helping, but I expect the bang per buck to reduce over the coming months, so there will be a time when it's not worth it.

There are lots of non-chemical ways of improving things. Try them as well. It really helps.
 

Macsky

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Highland
Plenty exercise and a good diet play a major role in your mental health, the gut-brain connection is very real. I had to stop eating gluten late last year after a good period suffering pretty disruptive gut issues, a major bonus upside for me was a huge lift in mood and reduction in anxiety that I didn’t really realise I was suffering with until I was feeling a lot better.
 

Two Tone

Member
Mixed Farmer
I think Joe Public often thinks we Farmers, Farmer Managers and Farm Workers all live a wonderful life without any anxiety.
They have absolutely no idea how stressful it often is and how we are constantly on a knife-edge balance of being relatively happy and content one minute, then absolutely stressed to hell the next.
For example, a phone call from the RT inspector to make an appointment. Or an awkward conversation with the Bank manager. Or a boss or Farm owner who is so obviously being unreasonable causing unnecessary stress which is mental cruelty and totally unacceptable!
We flip from one side of the knife-edge to the next instantly.
Those of us that do this are not alone by any circumstances.

I usually sleep like a log. But when stressed, I can tell you about every all night TV program off by heart.
However, I do find TFF a tremendous help and a calming down mechanism.
Just take a look at what time some TFF posts are posted!

We are all human. Some can be awkward bar stewards and others give the benefit of the doubt too much.
Being proud of what you do and the way you do it is IMO the best medicine there is (apart from having the most wonderful and understanding wife!)
 

JeepJeep

Member
Trade
Its People I can't deal with. E, mail maybe a phone call I need XYZ no worries... this is how you pay thank you gone. Randomer in a shop in the street etc I can hold my own and I'm not backward in coming forwards... say as you see say what you think sometimes is a motto and it can be a problem... either praise or shot down. Quick to praise and if it;s wrong it's wrong.

Never used to be like that... Bold as Brass... Dealt with many not rights each day and water off a ducks back.
Humor them, f**k them off Remember and stitch them. Only one winner.

It's the thought of it all I think... meeting someone new , something different... I guess out of the comfort zone.. I know I'm switched on I've seen all sorts, but I think a lot is overthinking it. sh!t happens this minute... I can deal with it and bat it back.. Knowing sh!t's happening next Friday... end of the world.
 

JeepJeep

Member
Trade
Plenty exercise and a good diet play a major role in your mental health, the gut-brain connection is very real. I had to stop eating gluten late last year after a good period suffering pretty disruptive gut issues, a major bonus upside for me was a huge lift in mood and reduction in anxiety that I didn’t really realise I was suffering with until I was feeling a lot better.

Could I be rude and ask what the gut issues were?... I've got gut issues which is pissing me off... Getting old has started to hit.. Having a stop eating this stop eating that time to try and pinpoint.
 

Chae1

Member
Location
Aberdeenshire
Its People I can't deal with. E, mail maybe a phone call I need XYZ no worries... this is how you pay thank you gone. Randomer in a shop in the street etc I can hold my own and I'm not backward in coming forwards... say as you see say what you think sometimes is a motto and it can be a problem... either praise or shot down. Quick to praise and if it;s wrong it's wrong.

Never used to be like that... Bold as Brass... Dealt with many not rights each day and water off a ducks back.
Humor them, fudge them off Remember and stitch them. Only one winner.

It's the thought of it all I think... meeting someone new , something different... I guess out of the comfort zone.. I know I'm switched on I've seen all sorts, but I think a lot is overthinking it. sh!t happens this minute... I can deal with it and bat it back.. Knowing sh!t's happening next Friday... end of the world.
That's strange. I'm exactly the same. Throw something at me in spur of moment and I handle it fine.

It's when your fear and what you've been worrying about become a reality its difficult.
 

Macsky

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Highland
Could I be rude and ask what the gut issues were?... I've got gut issues which is pissing me off... Getting old has started to hit.. Having a stop eating this stop eating that time to try and pinpoint.
I don’t mind saying if you don’t mind hearing!😂
I would be on the pan usually 2 or 3 times before being able to leave the house in the morning, all rather loose shall we say, and a constant sick/indigestion feeling where my food pipe comes through where my collarbones meet. Constant niggling aches and pains, especially in knees that I was just puting down to getting older and a fair bit of manual graft, and could tick off the majority of coeliac symptoms, so much so that i went to the doc, which I hate doing, and was tested for it, but bloods were normal and negative for coeliac. Tested for Lyme disease at the same time as I’m rather tick acclimatised and had the bullseye rash years ago but didn’t do anything about it, but negative for that too tho.

All of these problems disappear on the exclusion of gluten from my diet, which is a bit of a pain to begin with but well worth it for me, it’s also easier to keep the weight off this way too.

I don’t think that wheat is a fundamentally healthy thing for anyone to be eating to be honest, but it’s cheap, versatile and very convenient, too convenient really, you can easily be eating it in different forms for breakfast, lunch and dinner in a day.

I’m quite convinced that the majority of the nations chronic, non-communicable diseases these days are down to bad diets. Too much cereal, refined sugar, and vegetable oils. Whole foods - meat, fish, dairy, eggs, fruits, nuts and veg - real natural food provides real nutrition, what we were designed to run on, and our guts were designed to digest.
 

JeepJeep

Member
Trade
I don’t mind saying if you don’t mind hearing!😂
I would be on the pan usually 2 or 3 times before being able to leave the house in the morning, all rather loose shall we say, and a constant sick/indigestion feeling where my food pipe comes through where my collarbones meet. Constant niggling aches and pains, especially in knees that I was just puting down to getting older and a fair bit of manual graft, and could tick off the majority of coeliac symptoms, so much so that i went to the doc, which I hate doing, and was tested for it, but bloods were normal and negative for coeliac. Tested for Lyme disease at the same time as I’m rather tick acclimatised and had the bullseye rash years ago but didn’t do anything about it, but negative for that too tho.

Very Very Similar loose and sick feeling and indigestion kicks in mid-morning and lasts till mid-afternoon.

I'll have a change round of what goes down the hatch I think.

Thank you!!
 

marco

Member
Magnesium supplements can help you to relax. Excess of calcium cause muscles to contract/cramp and this on its own can lead to the tightness you feel in your stomach when stressed.
Don't believe me? What do people put in the bath to relax? Epsom salts also know as magnesium sulfate. Supplements are cheap so worth a try.
 

delilah

Member
my new job is now starting to push my anxiety levels back up .

Next time you feel it creeping up on you, tell yourself that you are anxious because you give a sh!t. Tell yourself that it is the workers of the world who don't get anxious who are the problem, because they are the ones who don't give a sh!t. Tell yourself that it isn't anxiety, it is an overwhelming desire to do the job properly and to go home at the end of the day having done a good thing for you and your employer.
 

Two Tone

Member
Mixed Farmer
Next time you feel it creeping up on you, tell yourself that you are anxious because you give a sh!t. Tell yourself that it is the workers of the world who don't get anxious who are the problem, because they are the ones who don't give a sh!t. Tell yourself that it isn't anxiety, it is an overwhelming desire to do the job properly and to go home at the end of the day having done a good thing for you and your employer.
Here, here!
I’ll add that sometimes the workers gets shat upon because they have done their job properly.
Even so, they should still go home at the end of the day with pride for having done a good for their employer and themselves.
Sh!t happens. But no matter what happens, provided that you aren’t knowingly a sh!t yourself, go home with your head held high! Believe in yourself.
 
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Chae1

Member
Location
Aberdeenshire

harrow

Member
I have recently started a new job after being made redundant after 20 years at Christmas time .I have suffered from anxiety a couple of years ago when facing a serious health issue and was taking medication for this anyway just before starting my new job the GP suggested that I reduce my medication so I could come off the medication altogether but my new job is now starting to push my anxiety levels back up . Obviously I need to talk to the GP and increase my medication for a time to get through this and I do have access to people I can talk things through with . Anyone else felt like this or had similar experiences ? Thanks

Get to see a proper mental health team, GPs don't not have the expertise to help.
 
I don’t mind saying if you don’t mind hearing!😂
………and a constant sick/indigestion feeling where my food pipe comes through where my collarbones meet.
That sounds rather like acid reflux. Might just be worth asking for an endoscopy to make sure that you haven’t got a bit of a hiatus hernia (where the top of the stomach pops up through the diaphragm). Omeprazole helps.
 

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