The theme around this year’s Mental Health Awareness Week is anxiety. At mirus, we agree this is a topic that can often be misunderstood, and by focusing on anxiety during Mental Health Awareness Week, we hope to increase awareness and understanding of anxiety by providing information to help people recognise they are not alone if they feel anxious, and share some of the techniques that can help to overcome anxious feelings.

Anxiety is a normal emotion in us all, one which we can all relate to, to some extent. It’s a natural response we experience when faced with a challenging, intense, or new situation. But sometimes anxiety can get out of control and become a mental health problem. Lots of things can lead to feelings of anxiety, including exam pressures, relationships, starting a new job (or losing one) or other big life events. We can also get anxious when it comes to things to do with money and not being able to meet our basic needs, like heating our home or buying food.

Across Mental Health Awareness Week, we’re planning to share information with our workforce to explore what anxiety is, how it can affect people, and what we can to overcome feelings of anxiety. We’ll be encouraging our staff to also share what works for them – what coping strategies they find can help in the moment, as a way of sharing knowledge and developing a culture where it is normal to talk about how we manage anxiety.