While it's common to be anxious in certain situations, for some people like Maddie, anxiety can become a mental health problem when it impacts your day-to-day life. You can feel anxious all, or most of, the time or avoid situations that heightens your anxiety. As well as the effects on your mental health, anxiety can also cause physical symptoms such as a fast heartbeat, sweating, or having panic attacks.

Commonly diagnosed anxiety disorders include:

  • Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD) – this means having regular or uncontrollable worries about many different things in your everyday life.
  • Social anxiety disorder – this diagnosis means you experience extreme fear or anxiety triggered by social situations (such as parties, workplaces, or everyday situations where you have to talk to another person).
  • Panic disorder – this means having regular or frequent panic attacks without a clear cause or trigger.
  • Phobias
  • Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
  • Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
  • Health anxiety – this means you experience obsessions and compulsions relating to illness, including researching symptoms or checking to see if you have them. Health anxiety is related to OCD.
  • Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD) – this means you experience obsessions and compulsions relating to your physical appearance.
  • Perinatal anxiety or perinatal OCD – some people can develop anxiety problems during pregnancy or in the first year after giving birth.

You might not have, or want, a diagnosis of a particular anxiety disorder – but it might still be useful to learn more about these different diagnoses to help you think about your own experiences of anxiety and consider options for support. The charity Mind provides helpful resources here.

Maddie's anxiety means that she sometimes finds situations where she has to interact with others quite difficult – a form of social anxiety disorder. When leaving the house on her own, she would be anxious about not knowing where to go, what time she needed to be there by, or an incident occurring where she would have to engage with another person.

An image of Maddie. A young, white woman with blonde hair. Maddie wears her Hidden Disabilities Sunflower lanyard

“Just leaving the house can be a stressful experience for many people with anxiety. What have I got? What have I forgotten? What time do I need to be at my destination? Where do I need to go to catch the bus/train? What if I can't find something and need to talk to someone?

Wearing my lanyard and knowing that if I need the support, it is there, changes the experience for me. I can ask for help with my lanyard on. Without judgement.

In public you can be very hyper-aware of yourself and everyone around you. So having the Hidden Disabilities Sunflower lanyard on and knowing that people that recognise the Hidden Disabilities Sunflower are there to support you, is very reassuring.”

Living with anxiety can be very difficult, but there are steps you can take that might help. 

We need to talk about mental health

There is a culture of fear and silence around mental health, particularly in the workplace. This can lead to people with anxiety feeling isolated and alone as you can start to believe that you're the only person experiencing these thoughts and feelings. But did you know that around 1 in 6 workers in the UK experience problems such as anxiety, low mood and stress at work.

Some people may be reluctant to talk about their anxiety for fear that they may be treated differently. Talking about what is making you anxious with a trusted friend or colleague can be a relief and support you to manage your worries. It is so important that we, as a society, create a culture where someone feels comfortable enough to talk about their mental health.

Starting a conversation about anxiety doesn't have to be difficult and the Hidden Disabilities Sunflower can help with this.

Organisations often use the Hidden Disabilities Sunflower to support their colleagues and it can act as a catalyst to encourage us to talk about disability more openly. Helping people to feel a little less isolated, alone and excluded.

The Hidden Disabilities Sunflower

As well as being an indication that the person who chooses to wear the Hidden Disabilities Sunflower has a non-visible disability and may require some extra help, understanding, or patience, feedback indicates that wearing the Hidden Disabilities Sunflower can give someone confidence to go out. This is because that person is reassured that they will be supported by businesses and organisations that recognise the Hidden Disabilities Sunflower. And as such, the Hidden Disabilities Sunflower can be used as a stepping stone to creating a disability inclusive environment.

Maddie wears the Hidden Disabilities Sunflower to support her when she needs it:

“Wearing my lanyard and knowing that if I need the support, it is there, changes the experience for me. I can ask for help with my lanyard on. Without judgement.

In public you can be very hyper-aware of yourself and everyone around you. So having the Hidden Disabilities Sunflower lanyard on and knowing that people that recognise the Hidden Disabilities Sunflower are there to support you, is very reassuring.”

Since the Hidden Disabilities Sunflower was established in the UK in 2016, it has been adopted globally by organisations to support both their colleagues and customers.

The Hidden Disabilities Sunflower is now recognised across a broad range of sectors - ranging from retail, financial services, transport including over 140 airports, travel and tourism as well as over 530 universities, schools and colleges, all of the UK railway network, theme parks, supermarkets, leisure facilities, healthcare, financial services, emergency services, theatres and over 350 charities.

For more information about anxiety, support groups and self-care please visit Mind's website.