"Talking therapies has helped me immensely"

I have suffered with acute anxiety for a number of years since the death of my wife who I had cared fulltime for over a period of 10 years. This had affected my ability to lead a normal life causing me to self isolate and cancel many events that had been arranged for and by me. My sister became increasingly concerned about me and persuaded me to talk to my GP about my mental health problems.

My GP was so concerned that she spoke to me on 3 occasions on the day of my appointment and one of the options offered was to contact the above organisation to make an appointment, which I did. This appointment was confirmed and I was promised a 45 minute interview by phone.

On the day of the appointment I waited with trepidation and concern that it would be of little use as I already felt I had started to face my demons due to admitting to myself how to cope with my anxiety.

The call came exactly to the minute promised and a lady called Louise immediately made me feel comfortable and over the next hour empathised with what I had suffered since the loss of my wife and how this had affected my day to daily life. I finished the call feeling more positive about facing day to day life than I had done for years. Further to the appointment she sent me in the post self help literature as well as providing some useful internet links. Most importantly she assured me that if I wished to talk to her again if I felt I was slipping back in my fight to control my anxiety I could arrange to do so.

I cannot recommend  highly enough this service that has helped me immensely in my recovery which at this moment is positive as can be seen by me going online and posting this story something I certainly would not have been able to do a couple of months ago.