Do you #knowanxiety? Your feedback please

[Chris_B]

beyondblue has relaunched its #KnowAnxiety campaign today.

You’ll see the clip below on TV, online and in outdoor advertising spaces.

Why? Well, while progress has been made since its original launch in changing the Australian public’s perception of anxiety, there is still work to be done.

Here’s three things we know from recent research:

• Half the population believe that anxiety is ‘part of someone’s personality’
• Only 6 in 10 people understand that anxiety is not just ‘stress’
• Nearly 3 million people in Australia currently have an anxiety condition, making it more prevalent than depression

What do you think of these facts? What do you think of the ad below? Keen to hear your thoughts.

[Neil_1]

Hi there Chris

Another great initiative by Beyond Blue.

When it comes to stats relating to any kind of mental health issue, they rarely surprise me as to how much of a lack of knowledge there is out there in the general public/community and awareness.

I was on the way collecting the kids from school yesterday arve and on the ABC radio station, they had just interviewed a person who had been dealing with anxiety for a long time, but at this current time in his life, he has beaten it.  He described many different things and also gave glowing recommendations to Beyond Blue, which was very pleasing to hear.

They then went and interviewed a member from Beyond Blue (my memory is not the best and so I cannot recall the person who they spoke with) but it was detailing out things about anxiety and the community and how B.B. are trying to raise the public awareness of such issues.

All very positive stuff.

Neil

[hushed]

Thank you for posting information about this initiative.

 I struggle daily with self-defeating thoughts. Sometimes it cripples my ability to assess a social or work situation. The worst part is that I feel I cannot tell anyone about my struggle due to the stigma associated with anxiety.

Time to change perceptions. Mine, as well as others.

[geoff]

dear Chris, the video is brilliant, and I'm sure that so many people if they could watch it would understand and relate to it, but hopefully they will see it on TV, and then think to themselves 'hey that's me so where do I get help'.

The big question is whether anxiety has depression involved as well, as I say to people that anxiety comes under the umbrella of depression, so I would like to know your thoughts.

I wonder how many people with anxiety have OCD, so are there any figures to indicate this, because OCD is caused by anxiety, just saying. Geoff.

[Plusha]

What a great add! I was at work listening to some calming music in the background as I was trying to struggle through another day and this add comes on! WOW! It really resonated with me. It send chills down my spine but somehow it was uplifting. Well done, whoever filmed this. I showed it to my husband who thought it was great too. Then we got home and he switched on the TV just for a minute and there it was! I think this is going to have a great impact in the population. Good work.

[Chris_B]

Hi Geoff, I think there's a lot of crossover between anxiety and depression, that's certainly been my personal experience, and we often see here when people post that they aren't sure what forum to choose as they're experiencing both. 

As for OCD, it is a type of anxiety and the figures we have indicate that around 3 per cent of Australians would experience OCD in their lifetime, and 2 per cent in a 12-month period - that's just a little under half a million people.

Hushed and Plusha, welcome to the forums, glad you liked the ad. Hopefully it can change some perceptions, as a lot of people still don't believe that anxiety is a real condition.

[Pixie15]

Hi Chris B,

I often wonder if the difficulty for some people in identifying their anxiety is that they do not find themselves to fit neatly within any of the diagnosis criteria such as social anxiety, generalized anxiety disorder, post traumatic stress disorder and obsessive compulsive disorder.

If you find that you do not really align with any of the diagnosis then it might be easy to say well it is just grief or stress and I should try and get over it. This may be possible but sometimes we might need help to implement the changes necessary to do this. I believe sustained stress and grief can lead to depression.

The advertisement seems a bit dark and moody but it does capture this relationship between depression and anxiety.

Grateful.