Jamie experienced the addiction related death of his closest friend approximately 1 year earlier. He was having difficulty in coming to terms with this and had a great sense of guilt that he had not done enough to help his friend. In addition, his marriage had broken down during the past year and his young son had been moved to another country and he was currently fighting for access.
What help did Jamie receive?
Jamie was currently feeling overwhelmed by all of the different aspects of his life. It was vitally important not to overload his initial action plan and make him feel inundated.
We started with a referral to counselling to look at anxiety management techniques and allow him space to explore his relationship break up and the death of his friend. During his counselling, Jamie experienced a breakdown in front of his manager at work and was signed off by his general practitioner. He was hopeful to be able to continue at work and perform different duties however, this proved to be impossible and Jamie felt trapped in a position he felt very vulnerable in.
On completion of his counselling, we began to work on some practical measures and supported Jamie to take back control of his situation. We introduced balanced decision making and problem solving techniques to support the client in finding solutions that he felt would improve his situation and then set clear activities and goals around these items. By breaking problems down into small manageable chunks Jamie was able to prioritise and have a clear focus.
How valuable was the help?
Jamie stated that having our regular contact helped him to define a clear path forward and supported him to gain momentum. Initially, his difficulties appeared so vast to him that any action appeared futile. Jamie was firmly against taking any form of medication to assist him with his anxiety but his
anxiety was affecting the way he was tackling his situation. Through the anxiety management techniques learned in counselling, Jamie was able to begin controlling the panic he was feeling. Being able to discuss his feelings and actions with someone helped to turn them into a plan and once he started to achieve small changes, his confidence and self esteem began to grow and pushing forward appeared to be easier.
What has been the outcome for Jamie?
Jamie has now secured a new job which provides him with a challenge he feels is more suited to his skills and experience. He is upbeat and positive and enjoying his new post. He has engaged legal services to assist him in formalising access relating to his son. Jamie feels he has greatly improved understanding of the effects of anxiety and that he now has positive coping strategies in place.
His post engagement assessment measures demonstrated a reduction in his anxiety of 33% and a 56% reduction in his depression level together with a 35% improvement in his overall health and wellbeing. Jamie does still have unresolved difficulties regarding his custody conflict but feels he is very
well placed to manage this to the best of his ability.