Dr Krause is a Consultant Clinical Psychologist specialising in teenage and adult mental health. Her clinical expertise lies in variety of areas including eating disorders, self-harm, trauma and OCD. She lectures at post-graduate level and has spoken at many conferences on teenage mental health. Dr Krause is CEO and founder of STEM4, a teenage mental health charity and through this she has worked with over 70 schools in the UK. The media - TV, radio and newspapers regularly consult Dr Krause for her expert view. She is also the creator of MINDYOUR5 and the MERIT programme. Dr Krause has been awarded the Point of Light award by David Cameron and the Team London Award by the Mayor of London for her work. In 2019 Dr Krause received the British Citizen Award for outstanding contribution to mental health.
Check out her website (www.niharakrause.co.uk) or contact her if you think your school would like to arrange a MY5 day.
Managing Anxiety
Anxiety is a common cold of mental health conditions.
We usually say we are anxious if we are worried or fearful. There are many triggers that commonly make people anxious - sitting an exam or attending an interview, for example, and this type of 'good anxiety' helps us prepare to give our best performance.
However, sometimes anxiety becomes unmanageable affecting how we think so that there's constant worry or rumination; it affects us physically in a variety of different ways for example, causing palpitations, stomach problems, nausea, sleep and appetite problems and panic attacks; it can also affect behaviours making us either avoid or overdo things or lead to risk behaviours. Most importantly anxiety affects our emotions so that we can often feel irritable angry or unhappy.
There are lots of very effective treatments for anxiety as well as for most psychological conditions.
Take Steps
- Do disclose how you feel - TALK to an adult, to friends, your GP...
- Find out about your condition: there's lots of helpful websites, check out www.stem4.org.uk or www.youngminds.org.uk or you can call www.childline.org.uk
- If you look after your brain, you look after your mental health, which in turn makes sure your brain runs super efficiently. Practice MY5 daily.
- Learn to relax
- Learn how to get a balance in your life between work and having fun
- You could try the 'calm harm' smart phone app I've developed for STEM4 to help manage the urge to self-harm and to learn alternative behaviours - download as STEM4 calm harm for android or iPhones
- Believe in yourself - you can make a difference. It may take time, effort and learning new ways of thinking and being from a professional such as a psychologist but in the end these techniques will work.
All content and MINDYOUR5 are copyright to Dr Kraus, Consultant Clinical Psychologist, 2015
