I have been wanting to talk about mental health for some time. Being able to speak about anxiety is something that I feel strongly about. Now more than ever in this period of lockdown many people will be experiencing heightened worry and fear. I hope my three mental health blogs can go some way to explain anxiety and provide some simple coping strategies that everyone can try. An analogy that has greatly helped me is ‘The Stress Bucket’ by Brabban & Turkington and I will be sharing this with you. 

We need to talk! Everyone should be taking care of their mental health and taking the time to look out for others during these uncertain times. Be kind, speak out and show your support. 

The Stress Bucket 

The stress bucket is a way of explaining how different people cope with stress. Imagine there is a bucket that you carry which fills up with water when you experience stress. 

The bucket represents your capacity to deal with different stressors in your life. We all have a different stress tolerance, meaning that the size of the stress bucket varies from person to person. How big the bucket is and how much water it can hold before overflow depends on the person carrying the bucket. Genetics, personality and life experiences play a role in defining a person’s tolerance level. 

The water represents a combination of all the stressors in your life. Your stress bucket can take days, months or years to fill up, and it can easily overflow. No matter who is carrying the bucket, one thing for certain is that at some point, the bucket will overflow. 

Individuals who suffer from anxiety of experience poor mental health have ‘smaller buckets’ and individuals who deal with stress in a healthy way have ‘larger buckets’. This means that the individuals with larger buckets can cope with more stress before overflow. 

Common Stressors include: 

• Academic 

• Work 

• School 

• Relationships 

• Finances 

• Moving house 

• Changing jobs/redundancy 

• Loss of a friend or relative 

• Illness or injury to yourself or your loved ones 

This analogy is demonstrated well in Figure 1.1 by Braive. 

What does a full bucket look like? 

If the bucket becomes full, we can start to feel anxious and overwhelmed. This can feel different for everyone. You might experience some of the effects listed below: 

Effects on your body: 

• Restlessness 

• Churning feeling in your stomach 

• Light headed or dizzy 

• Nausea 

• Faster breathing 

• Tight chest or fast, thumping heartbeat 

• Headaches 

• Problems sleeping 

• Panic attacks 

• Lack of appetite 

Effects on your mind: 

• Feeling tense, nervous or unable to relax 

• Feeling like you cannot stop worrying 

• Having a sense of dread, or fearing the worst 

• Wanting lots of reassurance from other people 

• Worrying a lot about things that might happen in the future

• Worrying that people are angry or upset with you

• Worrying about anxiety itself (e.g. worrying about when a panic attack might happen)

• Rumination – thinking a lot about bad experiences, or thinking over a situation again and again

For more information on symptoms of anxiety please click here 

What does an overflowing bucket look like? 

Most buckets have space to manage a few stressful situations at a time, but when water keeps being added you can be close to the limits of what your bucket can hold. 

It does not take much to overflow your bucket as even a small stressor can tip the water over the edge. You will start to think and act differently, for example being more critical of situations, becoming more irritable and easily upset. People around you may struggle to understand your thoughts, feelings and behaviours. They may also think you are over reacting but you need to remember that they cannot see inside your bucket and everything else you have been dealing with before this moment. 

Burnout is also common during this time where you are experiencing a feeling of complete emotional, physical and mental exhaustion. This is a gradual process that happens over time and can lead to a loss of interest in things you once enjoyed, feeling demotivated, isolating yourself from friends and family, withdrawing from your responsibilities and you may also find it difficult to function day to day. If your bucket is full for too long, your physical and mental health will gradually get worse. 

Burnout is your body’s way of retreating and forcing a shut down so that your bucket does not have to deal with any more water (i.e stressors) being put in it. 

Is your bucket close to overflowing or has it already overflowed and you don’t know what to do? 

Are people telling you that things are going to be ok or to stop catastrophising situations while you feel that you are losing control during these uncertain times? 

Is your anxiety increasing as you feel more worried, more vulnerable and more isolated? 

It’s ok! Many others including myself are experiencing similar feelings. 

You are not alone, and there are various activities and techniques that we can all incorporate into our daily lives that can help manage our stresses and anxieties. These can allow us to feel more in control, more present in life and less vulnerable, improving our overall mental health and wellbeing.