Stressed?

**freckles** · 14-Aug-08, 22:06

Stress Management skills may be the answer.

NHS Highland are running a free 6 session course to teach you about stress and ways to tackle stress.

Wednesday evenings, beginning on the 3rd of September at 7pm - 9pm at North Highland College (Thurso).

The six sessions of the course

Session 1: Learning about stress

In this session, we will look at the causes of stress and what keeps us going. We will look at the way it affects your thoughts, actions and body, and explode the myths about stress. We will look at why stress affects people in different ways.

Session 2 : Controlling your body
In this session, you will learn how to use relaxation. You will get a CD to keep to let you practise at home. We also look at how exercise can help stress.

Session 3 : Controlling your thoughts -
Cognitive Therapy
You will learn how stress affects your thinking and how your thinking then affects your thoughts. You will learn how to use your mind to control stress along with ways of nipping stress in the bud. We will look at ways of getting this under control.

Session 4 : Controlling your actions
Behaviour Therapy
You will learn ways of facing up to stress along with a very useful skill called “Problem Solving”. These skills are then combined with what you have learned in session 3 to create a powerful skill (Cognitive - Behaviour Therapy).

Session 5 : Controlling panic
Learning about panic attacks and how to deal with them will be useful even for those who don’t have panic as these work well with all kinds of stress.

Session 6 : Controlling sleep problems and controlling the future
In this session we will look at common sleep problems. Then we look at how to sleep better. This lets you recharge your batteries. This helps you fight stress.

Who is it for?
For anybody over 16 who feels anxious, panicky, stressed or worried and who wants to know more about this and to learn ways to deal with it.

What can I expect?
This is an educational class, it’s not group therapy. You will not be asked about personal problems. You will be taught about stress and ways to help yourself. There will be some written information for you to take home and new things for you to try between classes.

Will it help me?
Most people find the course very helpful. It has been running for many years in the UK so it’s ‘tried and tested’. The more you work on your problems, the more you will benefit from the course, you need to put the ideas into practice to improve the way you feel.

Where and when?
The next course starts on :
Wednesday evenings
3rd September - 8th October 2008
in the The North Highland College
Ormlie Road, Thurso
from 7 - 9pm

Does it cost anything?
No. The course with all the information sheets and tapes/CD’s is free of charge.

Who will run the course?

Your local Guided Self Help Worker who is a trained, experienced professional.

Can I bring someone with me?
If you feel a bit anxious about coming on your own, then feel free to ask someone to come with you for support (they might learn something too)! If you have any friends, family or colleagues that may benefit from the course, they can come along together.

I’m interested-what do I do now?
You can just turn up at the first class but to help us plan, it would be helpful if you could get in touch:

Audrey O’Brien

Guided Self Help Worker
Caithness & North West Sutherland
Dunbar Hospital
Ormlie Road
Thurso KW14 7XE
Tel : 01847 896802
email : audrey.obrien@nhs.net

If you find your call goes to voice mail, please leave a message and your number and we will call you back asap.

What others have said about themselves before the course:

‘I always thought that stress was something that happened to other people. I still can’t accept that stress can have this effect on my body ; the headaches, the nausea, the pains in my shoulder and neck, the trembling and the pains in my chest. I took some persuading that they were due to stress but my doctor explained that they are as real as any physical problem but that they were not harming me’.

‘My own stress is caused by overloading the system. I have been whizzing through life on a ‘fast forward’ basis for so long. I find great difficulty in finding the stop button’.

‘ I can go to bed feeling dog tired but as soon as that light goes out I start to think about all my troubles - I spend half the night in the living room’.

What people have said after the course:

‘I felt the information helped because it was so concrete. There was nothing airy-airy about the techniques and the reason for using them’.

‘I now regard stress as a challenge and get stuck into whatever it is I am afraid of’.

‘I don’t let things build up inside me now. If I have a problem I do something about it before it can grow’.

‘I think it’s important not to expect to be ‘cured’. Stress isn’t a disease but an unavoidable part of life. So I took the point of controlling it rather that curing it. Now I can say, I feel under stress - that’s OK, I can handle it’.

‘The course showed me that stress is a common problem’.

**telfordstar** · 15-Aug-08, 10:08

Pity they didnt offer one in wick i reckon i would definatly be there.

**Fran** · 16-Aug-08, 04:25

me too .............................................

**Torvaig** · 16-Aug-08, 07:51

May I suggest car sharing; recruit another two people and it won't cost the individual so much. I'm sure it will be worth it......

**Kevin Milkins** · 16-Aug-08, 09:55

Originally Posted by Torvaig

May I suggest car sharing; recruit another two people and it won't cost the individual so much. I'm sure it will be worth it......

I feel stressed just thinking about it.
Its my turn to drive!
No its not ,its mine,
But I drove Tuesday
Yer only cos fran did not turn up.
But my car does more to the gallon than yours.
Yer but mine has more room and I can smoke in mine.
But we dont smoke.

What was that number again.

**Torvaig** · 16-Aug-08, 12:27

Haha; you could be right Kevin! They would be better at home with a good book and a glass of wine......

**telfordstar** · 16-Aug-08, 20:01

Originally Posted by Torvaig

Haha; you could be right Kevin! They would be better at home with a good book and a glass of wine......

Alot less stressfull

**freckles** · 18-Aug-08, 19:13

Raised your point and found out they managed to agree a venue in Thurso quicker than they could get one in Wick and then decided it would be best to run one course at a time to start with to see how it goes. They are still looking for a venue in Wick and definately want to run a course there (assuming there's enough interest) so watch this space...

**freckles** · 30-Oct-08, 13:42

This course is now available in Wick!

Stressed?

Stress management skills may be the answer

A 6 session course to teach you about

stress and ways to tackle stress

Details of next course:

Tuesday 11th November

7 – 8.30 pm

PPP Premises,

44 Murchison Street, Wick

Contact :
Audrey O’Brien, Guided Self Help Worker
DunbarHospital, Ormlie Road,
Thurso, KW14 7XE
Tel:01847 896802
email: audrey.obrien@nhs.net

**forevera123** · 27-Nov-08, 16:44

Originally Posted by Fran

me too .............................................

there r 2 many people stressed, should get this kinda course more,will help

**Fran** · 28-Nov-08, 02:01

Just noticedd this, wish i had known earlier that there was a course in wick, now its too late, I missed it!!