Nobody Panic - How to Not Panic

Episode Date: April 7, 2020

In the truest evolution of the podcast, Stevie and Tessa discuss not panicking, when all you fancy doing is having a lovely little panic.They also round up some great live exercise content you can find online including: The Body Coach TV on YouTube – Live PE lessons with Joe Wicks every weekday morning at 9amInstagram dance sessions with @sitdownaj and @[e-mail] on InstagramRecorded and edited by Naomi Parnell for Plosive Productions.Photos by Marco Vittur, jingle by David Dobson.Follow Nobody Panic on Twitter @NobodyPanicPodSupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/nobodypanic. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello, I'm Carriad. I'm Sarah. And we are the Weirdo's Book Club podcast. We are doing a very special live show as part of the London Podcast Festival. The date is Thursday, 11th of September. The time is 7pm and our special guest is the brilliant Alan Davies. Tickets from kingsplace.com. Single ladies, it's coming to London.

True on Saturday, the 13th of September. At the London Podcast Festival. The rumours are true, Saturday the 13th of September. At King's Place. Oh, that sounds like a date to me, Harriet. it. Welcome to Nobody Panic. Welcome to a aptly named episode on literally not panicking. How to Nobody Panic. Was nobody panic? Come on in, come on into the bunker. Shut the door. Get to safety. It's good vibes at a distance. That's what we're offering here. Safe, safe vibes.

So Tessa, you suggested this as a subject, as a topic. I wouldn't say you've been panicked. Thank you for asking stevie. Well, somebody had written in about it as well and I think it's an air, it's in the air and you can't deny it's in the air. It's airborne. It's airborne. It's an airborne disease carrying an airborne panic. And I think, you know, you walk around, I walk around the park. Sometimes I run, but let's be honest, mostly it's a walk. And you listen to anybody else's conversation as they pass at their safe distance and everyone's just talking about exactly the same thing nobody has been able to have a conversation about anything else for for now three weeks or four weeks and it's undeniable level of of panic in the air and I think well I think that really really

interests me is that when we talk about fight or flight as a response to something those are the big we talk about those two all the time and but there's actually three There's fight, flight and freeze, the big Fs. So we can't fight the disease. There's literally nothing we can physically do unless you're on the front line, then you're allowed to channel that energy. And you can't flee.

You literally can't go anywhere. And so our only option is to literally like play dead, as we would have done in the wild, to sort of freeze and hope that the predators can't see us, whatever. And that takes so much more energy than we think it realizes. And so we're sort of trapped in this constant, we're having a short-term response to a long, long-term crisis. It causes a fifth F, which is fatigue. Oh, Stevie.

Exactly. So I think we're, it's undeniably there. And I want to be, I want to talk about it, and I want to have some positive actions that we can take. Yes. I also would like to bob in before we do our adult things, which I don't know. Mine is definitely not an adult thing. It's if I think a child thing. And that there's a lot of, I feel, I know, I'm not a, I know, I've actually been on Twitter that much, apart from every night, no, no, wait, apart from every night where I've decided the only thing I'll be tuning into is the Trump coronavirus briefing. That is such a mistake.

So bad. To the extent where, and it's such a weird thing that overtakes, it's a weird thing that overtakes me. Last night, I was like, I'm leaving my phone outside the room. Like, I'm not, I'm not, because I went from watching it to not being able to watch it, but watching the top tweet. beats of people watching it so I could see the highlight and be like, what is happening? And then I would promptly not sleep until 5am. And I was before, my not sleeping coincided

so perfectly with watching these briefings. So last night I was like, I'm not, I'm not watching it. And it was so, like, I had this like compulsion. It was so weird. It's like, I have to know what shit he's saying. Like it was, I didn't, but it was so odd to feel that feeling inside me. It's like I want an outlet to panic. And I feel like maybe some people, I think it's like a similar thing as well as that quite a lot of people maybe don't feel like they have an outlet because they don't have, there's a lot of people who are going through some really serious stuff right now. And like I'm having a dreadful time.

And then there are some people who are like, you know, quarantining and they've not got anybody who has passed from the virus or they haven't had the virus. and then maybe, you know, doing okay financially. For example, I'm thinking of like a couple of people that I know, but they're still having like real panicky agrophobic, no, agoraphobic, claustrophobic feelings. And they can't tweet about that, obviously, because it's like, well, shut up. I've seen a lot of like, oh, people tweeting about that

when actually they haven't got this problem. And you're like, look, everybody is allowed to say their thing and just not everybody is going to say a thing that directly relates to your experience. So please, like, I remember, I did a tweet that was just like, oh, can you all stop talking about, this is a great time to do a project because I'm freaking out. And I got so many messages being like, actually, I find it really helpful being busy. And it's like, I wasn't saying you don't. It's fine.

And I just wanted to put that out there. Thank you. And I receive it. And I pass it on. I think a lot of people are saying, you know, things to the extent to the effect of boredom is a privilege. and you're like, uh-huh, understood. And obviously it is. And, you know, we are all, you know, it's very, very easy to think exactly what you're saying,

to be like, well, I'm not a doctor. I'm not on the front line. I'm not dealing with this, you know, hands on. There's no way I can say what I'm going through is in any way is hard or difficult or I'm not enjoying the experience because it's not as bad as, you know, literally 90% of the world's population. but if you imagine that this virus wasn't, if you imagine that the rest of the world wasn't going through this, and I said to you, you can't go to work,

I'm actually going to make you lose your job and all of the money that you have. I'm going to cancel it, and I'm going to make you stay in your house, and I'm not going to tell you when you're allowed to leave, and you can only go out for one hour a day, and every single thing that you were looking forward to, including things that you were organising,

and parties and weddings, and every joyful experience that you had coming up, I'm going to take that away, and I'm not going to allow you to understand when they might come back. You'd be like, this is awful. You would be, you would feel able to say, this is actually horrendous. And so it's okay to feel like this thing that is happening to me individually, losing my job, losing my income, losing my upcoming wedding or whatever you had going on, is a trauma and you're allowed to feel that.

We're all grieving things at the moment. And I was a bit like, oh, and then I was like, no, that is correct. We're all kind of grieving a life a year that we had planned that even if you have planned you had some things planned that were coming up and now you're hot like it's just put a bomb through everything and I think you are allowed to feel panicky and you're allowed to feel stressed and it's almost like a lab right experiment isn't it like you have you have to almost treat it like um like uh with like curiosity so like so like each day like well okay I'm sort of dealt with that okay today or like I didn't deal with that okay I wonder why what would it I wonder why but like what were more like more like

specific things like what could I do better tomorrow to kind of help myself rather than be like ever have any judgment of what you're feeling don't judge yourself at all because we don't need that shit now don't judge yourself and we are so good and this is to our British listeners we're so good as a culture

being like well worse things have happened at sea stiff upper lip you know push on regardless like not to worry we're like well actually that's probably pretty damaging in the in the long term So allowing yourself, forcing yourself, however unpleasant, to feel your feelings is the sort of first step. And, you know, writing them down.

Let's everybody start a quarantine diary, you know, like get those feelings down and be honest with yourself in that diary that's like, you know, and you can put yourself a weird little curse that's like, I know other people are having a worse time. But dot, dot, dot, this is how I feel. Or just be like, these are my feelings and I'm allowed to have them. You are allowed to feel those feelings and they are valid. Before we go right into how we can stop panicking, like when you feel those panicky feelings happening, what can you do about it? Let's just do some nice light adult things, unless your adult things are incredibly heavy in which case, I'd say change them very quickly to the light. They light, baby. I have bought a sewing machine.

Thank you. I have bought a sewing machine. I got it from John Lewis. It was delivered, left on the doorstep at a safe distance. and then they ran away and i went through all the reviews got myself you know a beginner's but solid a solid boy and because the end of my duvet is um shredded basically um um you know where the duvet hole is yes i do know where the duvet hole is why am i making such a scene about it but either way it's in tatters and of course um you can't buy another

duve in this day and age um it's the make do and mend okay so So I was like, I'm going to sew this thing up. And then as I got the, trying to put the sew machine together, I remembered that doing year nine textiles. I had hand cranked the entire thing because I was so afraid of the foot pedal in sewing. When you deep breath, it's like, you've sewed yourself to your corset or whatever it was we were supposed to be making. You were making a corset in year 9. In year 11 for GCSE textiles, they all made corsets.

And it was very much a thing of like you wanted to do GCSE textiles because everyone made a corset. And they were always like under the sea themed or like peacock themed. And then there was this fashion show where people did the walk. It was like a real thing at my school of like the year 11 corset walk. So just a, you know, it was a big deal. Anyway, in year nine, you made a cushion. And my cushion was entirely.

hand sew. So it took me forever. And then instead of, you were supposed to sew bits onto it to make a thing. And I just painted mine. So I had forgotten all of this until I started trying to sew. Couldn't understand anything. I just, I had the bobbin in like upside down, all of this ship. The, the time it took me from Googling, what the fuck is a bobbin? To me genuinely thinking, I could be a professional seamstress was 45 minutes. My sewing is the best thing I've ever done. done. Like it's, wow. It looks so professional, I can't tell you. And I did it with black thread in the zigzag stitch because I didn't have any white. But then actually, it looks amazing. It looks cool. It looks like I would be like, wow. Actually, wow. Anyway, so that's my adult thing.

I'm absolutely, I've been buzzing on the high of that for about three days. That's astounding. Well done. Thank you. And so it turns out if you've just got a lot of time on your hands, you can fully grasp what a bobbin is. That's the take home. I used to hate it in Texiles when you'd be doing, like, I'd have a go at the foot pedal, and then one time you'd have to go in it,

and it'd just go like, and it would be like, and you'd be like, what, what? And then like, someone would be like, oh, it's just this. And then like open the whole sewing kit and do some incredibly complex maneuvering.

And be like, you just have to recalibrate the bobbination. You'd be like, I've done it. Okay, cool. And then it happened again. the fear of being like, I don't know how to... The total lack of control of like, you never knew when it was going to go, you just were on borrowed time, just so in as best you could until it broke. Anyway, but with hours and hours of quarantine time on your hands,

I slowly work my way through it. And now, if you need any work doing, send them to me because I'm ready. I will. Mine is not, like it's on a similar vein, but it's regressing into full childhood, which in a way... Even further back than year nine. Further back into the year nine, we're talking about regress to be a five-year-old,

three to five, and I feel that it's very adult to accept the regression. I, just before it became like you couldn't go out, I don't know if I've already said this on a progress, but my boyfriend needed to go and get some, like, contact lenses or something, and I was like, it sounds like a great day out, because I hadn't been out for a while. Of course.

So I followed him, just followed behind him. him down the road and on and what I didn't realize was quite close to our house is a gigantic hobbycraft which had no business being open like no business being open like I've never been in before and I kind of the sentence was very much that this was the last outing I would ever make so I thought let's go for the essentials hobbycraft and went in and it was like a dreamland that it was amazing. The aspiration of what I could do with my time was totally... There was like a row, a huge aisle,

an aisle that was purely like animals made of paper that you could paint. Every animal you could... I know the ones. Oh my God. Anyway, so what I did was I am, you know, we were feeling a little bit like gloomy because it wasn't, no one really knew what was going on. So, Chich, I thought, by buying numerous craft kits.

So I painted a Tukin money box, which I'm just, I'll just dangle, it's got some cash in it. I've called it Philippa. And I also made these little tiny Play-Doh unicorns, which are the girliest thing. I think I've ever done in my life. They've got little flowers in their hair. And you can see they've got little curly hair. And if you go very close, they've got little smiley faces and little hooves and little tails.

and I had sat there for two hours of the day and I just did that and I have to say you have to put them in the oven which is quite traumatic actually when you've made you little friends but I have to say that just for those two hours I completely forgot about everything

and was all about the sort of hoof dimension and it was I loved it They're extremely impressive Stevie Thank you I'm going to make you one next because I was going to give you one but then they need to be friends so I've got enough FIMO for one final unicorn which is a pink

unicorn which is sitting down and I was frightened to tackle that first but I think now I've got sounding up I can go for sort of crouch perfect I really really back you they look fantastic I'd just say for everybody listening at home and trying to visualize them they you just imagine the best you can that's it thank you very much but I think also that kind of leads quite nicely on to talking about not panicking because I think one of the cornerstones of of keeping the panic at bay is absorbing yourself in something. Like, I've got a puzzle. Just having something that the moment I start to kind of get too into what Trump said

the previous night or what anyone is, like what Dominic Raab is doing, which I just, I can't cope with it. I can go, oh, I feel those feelings. I'm starting to, like, you feel a bit pacey and a bit like, oh, I want to get out. Have a little go of a puzzle. If it doesn't work, oh, well, have a full-up panic attack. Let me go. yes yes there is a reason that jigsawes arts and crafts like doing something very um very intensely that

you're like yes i'm just totally focused on this thing and my mind doesn't have space to think about uh what donald trump has said now everybody go back to your puzzles back to your puzzles everyone back into your box yeah so there is a don't um do yourself down for being like all i'm doing is this jigsaw like in many ways a jigsaw a unicorn a fine working out how to sew, making the sourdough bread, all of these things that people are getting into is like, this is ideal, this is exactly what you need to do. And don't be thinking like, well, I'm not doing anything of use. No, this is it. You're just getting through it. And also, you know, you might be listening being like, oh, that sounds like a dream world that

you're doing. I've got fucking kids or I've got houseways or I've got work to be doing. Stevie and Tessa, what do you do with your days? Look, I hate you. But there are always like, there are equivalent things that you can do, like with, even though obviously living with, if you've got two kids or whatever, or one kid, half a child, very, very difficult, but you can, like, they act as a distraction for you, even though it's very stressful and obviously, but there are things that you can, when you're working with your kids, when you're like trying to distract your kids, you are yourself distracted from Trump, getting the sole sea level and the population confused. You're not thinking about that. You're thinking about caring. And so,

even though it can, like, basically what I'm trying to say is that, like, you don't just have to make sourdough bread and do, like, fun, like fun activities in order to see it as a distraction from panic. I think it's very, anything that isn't sat watching the news and freaking out is a distraction thing, you know? Anything that can keep you, your mind at bay from this, like, absolute, they're coming in waves for me and they come about once a day and it just comes this, like, wave of like bone crushing like oh my god and it's this like it's it's a fear of like what's

happening now it's a fear of like that's worse coming there's a it's like it's very intense and then it passes um how do you how do you help it to pass i lie down yeah good um i tried running away from it but then i just lie down in the park i think you that is a thing that's a a thread in which is you have a lie down and I think oh you get you know you lie down on the floor or you have like a lie and I think that's you found a you found a coping tactic yeah just just get down just like oh come on down that's what everyone was talking about in those songs get on down get on down just get down yes just like I just and I think now that I've more just accepted that it is going to happen every day I'm like ah yeah here it comes come on in friend and that is

that is something that they do talk about in dealing with panic, about not attempting to fight it, not attempting to pretend it's not there, not being like, I shouldn't be having this. Like, it's happening. It's coming. Like, let it in. Come on. It means having a panic response.

If you're not having a panic response at all in any way to this, then look, I don't think you're a human being. Best of look with everything. And also, I'm sure you'll make an excellent CEO of a major conglomerate, but like, I think there's any signs of panic, any signs of sadness or, you know, anything

wavering of any kind of mental stability is, yeah, it's a sign that you're a human and you have empathy and you are, like, for me it's like, it's like constant white noise, so it's, and sometimes it gets louder and then I'm like, and now it's time for the unicorns!

Yeah. But then it's and then it comes out in odd ways, like I, my one is that quite a few times, I've been like, sort of fine, but I've had that white, noisy, horrible kind of all day. And then I've gone to, like, make something for dinner and then, like, thrown a Benny because I've only got tomato pasta. And I'm like, why I'm like, come on, that's so pathetic. But it's because I'm like, it's a symbol of how my life has changed. Yes, yes, yes, yes, 100% it's time to do with the tomato pasta. You just needed an outlet.

Yes. It found it in the tomato pasta. Yes, because I've been like, oh, I'm fine. I'll just keep working. Like, I'm trying to pretend, like, I think as well, like, looking in my diary, I found because I'm self-employed, and I've been very lucky and very fortunate to have work. But the work is now stopping. And I've got the day that I don't have any work. And I'm just sort of being like, and we'll get to that day.

And then, then that'll be fine. And I haven't got, like, a plan for, like, when the work stops. So fine. And I just, what I'm going to do. is I'm just going to come up with like three things a day to do that will make me feel like I am doing something positive, doing something active towards my job. But I don't quite know where they are, but I will have a good thing. And then also allow myself to do things like read a book or, you know, like, oh, what a great

time to focus on other things and try and keep that going for as long as long as possible, while acknowledging the panic. Absolutely. Absolutely. and acknowledging that that panic needs somewhere to go. You know, it's why every check-off play takes place in the build-up to a storm. And then there is a storm. And then we let it all out. And then, oh, we can finally relax.

And finally someone shot themselves. So if that release is, you know, throwing the tomato pasta across the room or whatever happened to you in the kitchen or going for a run or if you're living with somebody that you can have sex with who would like to have sex with you, you know. No. No. You know, like finding a physical outlet to that, whether that's like screaming, shouting, going for a run, doing something very physical, doing the Joe Wicks workout routine, getting, you know, having that outlet, breaking the storm, you know. There's lots of people, like, personal trainers doing, like, sessions, aren't there? Yeah. And one very, uh, fun man called Sit Down with AJ on Instagram and he does do these really cool, like, fun dances. So it's like he does like Billy, and like Beyonce and you're like dancing along and it's really really fun that's really fun but then I started also doing every night at 6pm there is a guy called amazing his name is Patrick Mojo p.T on Instagram and at 6 he does a half hour incredibly intense like workout which you can't look

you can't complete it and that's fine but there's something what I found is my mental health has been so much better since I've been a not watching the trunk briefings that we're talking about one day but it was a good day yesterday and at like six, I've got a little yoga mat and I have to put the tortoise on the sofa because she won't stop like sitting on the mat. And then I just like completely go nuts on this thing. It's just like it's like two exercises or three exercises and you have to repeat them 10 rounds. And by the seventh round, you're like, oh, I got my arms are going to come off. But it's it's so cleansing. And I don't know that sounds so lame, but it really is because

it makes you, for that half hour, all you're thinking about is how horrible it is and how you don't, how you don't want, how you just can't cope. And then you finish and you feel so good. And it's like, ah, and then you can make dinner. And then that's too, that's a great. Dinner is the best thing. That's it. Could you, do you think you could put on your Instagram,

the names of all the good people doing interesting things? I will. Yes, I will. So let's just very briefly talk about what is happening in your body. I think that can help when you're starting to panic to be able to be like, oh, don't worry. It's just the limbic system or whatever. Uh, sure. It's your limbic system, Stevie, would you believe? It's a response to the, in the, it's a stimuli, it's an overstimulation, basically, of the sympathetic nervous system. Oh, very nice to say. Um, which is like, uh-oh, we in crisis and it starts sending out too many messages, not just a helpful message, just like too many messages to the adrenal gland. And then the adrenal glands like, I don't know what to fucking do. So it just starts releasing all of its stress hormones. Basically,

every single part of your body is like, this is too much and we don't know what to do with it. So everybody's working like on overdrive, basically. And in a short term crisis, it's how, it's how if you've ever been in an accident or you've been around, you know, ever have been around paramedics or anybody or you yourself have managed to deal unbelievably calmly with an actual crisis, especially if you were the one in charge, you're suddenly like, oh my God, I was unbelievably. believable in that situation. That is when your body is doing its job and it's like it's suppressing everything else that it doesn't need right now and it's making you slightly detached from what's going on and it's making you just like totally focused and able to like deal with everything.

But if that thing then, if you then have a stress that goes on literally relentlessly for weeks, your body is like, we don't know what we don't know what to do here. One of the things I find really helpful is when you know it's happening because then you can be like, it's just my adrenal gland. And the fact that you said that there are loads, one of the things is there are loads of different messages coming from your brain. That's what it feels. That's what panicking literally feels like

as well as that makes so much sense. And it makes it not easier because it's very hard when you're in the middle of panicking. It really, it's very easy to say, just do a puzzle. It's actually very hard to do it in the moment because you'll just throw the puzzle everywhere. But the idea of, if there are too many messages,

the idea of consolidating it into like one calm message or to really like slow down really kind of you can see where what the point is you have to get to in order to stop panicking like a lot easier now you know it loads of messages and I did get a good tip from somebody the other day who said that when

you know so a lot of people say you know it's very important to write down your feelings when you're panicking and you can really see I am one of the people that that doesn't help because that actually sends me into more of a spiral call just write and write and I'll be like, and I know I'll go to something to write tears. They said that they're the same sort of person and what they do and what their therapist told them to do is to try and consolidate how they are feeling in one paragraph.

So you are still writing your feelings down, but you're trying to make them, so then your brain starts working to make them, it's to make how you feel as clear as possible and exactly like all of the things that you're feeling and why, but you can't go over a word count. So then cleverly, that then your brain is then working on another task. So it automatically shifts your perspective and kind of stops the spiral a little bit because you are forcing yourself to be calm and succinct and clear.

That's a really great one. That's really great. So I think when people say write something, you're like, you'll just feel like you're feverishly write 100 pages or whatever. But to be like, you only get one paragraph. Suddenly you're like, okay, I'm, I'm, other parts of other muscles are sort of like getting into gear, being like, okay, we're making it as clear as possible.

That's a great one. Yeah, because I remember like, well, they're so early on in doing this podcast. It might have been when we were still the debrief podcast. I said about how I'd found like so helpful, but like I was having therapy. And my therapist was like, when you're feeling very panicky and very like,

I get very like, you know, like those, this is not going to be a weird analogy. Me, there's, like, stray dogs that bite people because they're frightened. That's what I'm like. So I get very like, so I was like, how can I stop that? And she's like, oh, it's very helpful to find something in the room where there's lots of it and just count them. And I was like, I'm not paying for the privilege if you tell me to fucking count things. I didn't say that.

I went, oh, how great. And then I left like, I'm never going back there. And then I had a bit of a freak out. I was in the cousin, which is a cinema in Soho. And it had like a cafe. and I started counting all the chairs in the cafe and it worked and I was like oh my god it's because it just your brain is forced

to stop thinking about your own panic because the panic is becomes a very quick very like it's like a Catherine wheel because you start to get panicked about the fact that you're panicked and then you're panicked and then you start panicking about how you're more panicked and then you just can't stop so it's like it breaks that cycle it just relaxes a little Catherine wheel of freak out

because you're going like on chair to chair I remember telling you the same story and you were like yeah I mean I think counting's going to do it and then you said that it was like a family argument or something and you started counting sunflowers or something and your dad started doing it and both of you were just like it works that is exactly right there was a huge row at the Easter table with my extended family and I've been telling my dad about it in the car on the driver and then I counted all the daffodils in the vase and then I looked over at him and he was also counting all the daffodils and then we were both like thumbs up to each other like feeling okay. I guess it's because it, um, uh, it switches over that bar in your brain that's like trying to, it's because the panic is like you literally can't do anything about it. You can't run. You can't fight. You can't get yourself to safety. There's nothing you can do. And so if you were trying to do something and then you're, you're, then you started counting something, your brain would be like, what the fuck are you doing this for? We're, we're,

we're busy. But when you force yourself that way, your brain's like, oh, I guess we're not as busy as I thought, oh, I guess we have got the time to count all the DVDs. Oh, I guess I'm overreacting in this situation and I can take my foot off the pedal. And your brain's like, oh, my mistake, I overreacted here. It's such a, I think it's one that you hear the counting thing and you're like, that's the dog shittest suggestion I've ever heard. And then you have it work and you're like, oh, fuck. They also recommend smells, if that is helpful for you, and naming like things you can see, things you can hear, things you can taste. Things you can feel as well.

So that feels like, so I'm just like sat on a seat. So it's very easy for you're like, there's something to feel, but there's like the seat on my butt. There's my clothes against my skin. There's how warm the room is. There's the, like, so all of that that's part of like,

if you go on those like car maps or headspace or whatever, that makes up the bulk of the meditation sometimes. It's just going through your top of your head to your tips and your toes and just checking in with every single part of your body. And then when I first of doing it, it was like, oh, checking with the body. But actually, it's excellent and incredibly effective. Yeah, it's a grounding exercise because all panic, like that's a future sad thing that we were talking about in the past, all anxiety is like this thing is coming. In Matt Haig's brilliant book, reasons to stay alive, he says that anxiety is all music and no shock.

it's like the music from jaws. It's the da-da-da-da-da-da-da-na-da-na-na-na-na-na. And which actually, that music is infinitely more scary and more anxiety-inducing than actually seeing that guy getting eaten by the shark, which is over quite quick, and then it's done. But all music and no shark is such an excellent way. Because when you're panicking, sometimes you feel like you're kind of,

I sometimes feel like I'm sort of almost not like I'm floating. I don't actually get like I'm floating. But it's like, I'm not tethered to the earth anymore. Yeah, it's exactly that feeling. And then all this. sort of like, where am I? What can I feel? What can I touch? And naming three things. Because again, if you allow yourself just to name things, you know, you're writing, writing, writing, like you're saying, like clarify that paragraph. Just name three things you can see,

three things you can smell, three things you can touch. And be like, okay, that's right, I'm here. I'm just freaking out about the shark coming, but the shark is not actually here yet. So let's, and maybe the shark isn't even coming, you know, so let's all just park the breaks. Yeah. And also if the shark, if your shark is, this is the thing, and I probably should make a disclaimer towards the end of the podcast. So great. But like, some people, their shark is here. And so then that is that, that becomes a completely different topic. And we're not really tackling that as an issue because that is a completely, that's just like individual, trauma that is happening, that you are fully allowed to panic. You will. The shock is here. Yeah.

And then you have to try and focus. on paddling and getting out of the water, whereas we're talking about the music when the Jacques isn't here. Yes, I've got just a few more little things to say at the end. Of course, they come from Lord of the Rings. So Frodo says, I wish the ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened. And Gandalf said, so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All you have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to you. And I think that's something that all of us are going through are thinking that I wish this wasn't happening to me and grieving for the summer or the year that we thought we were

going to have, being like, well, this is the, don't become obsessed with what could have been, be like, well, we're here now and we're just deciding what to do with the time we've been given. Very powerful, almost too powerful. And the very last thing is, if it helps you to feel in control and to be doing something useful, which I know it does for me, you can Google NHS volunteers and they are asking for people to do deliveries, to pick up medicine and drop it off and also to call people vulnerable people who are on their own and just have a chat with them in the day. So you can just sign up online and then no one's got back to me yet. But I'm absolutely confident that I'll be chosen as a professional chatter.

And the other thing that you can do if you have a bit of, and that's, I guess, if you've got time on your hands, if you've got a bit of, if you've not got time, you've got a bit of cash on your hands, then donating to meals for NHS. And that is a community collective that are dropping off takeaways and food parcels and things to the NHS to make sure they're getting free food, which is an amazing thing. There's also Deliveroo and Uberites have just launched a thing where you can support the NHS as a fundraising page on the app for Uberit and delivery, and you can basically buy them a meal. Brilliant. Nothing sort of keeps that all the fear at bay so much as sort of lighting a candle in the darkness and doing something useful and good for somebody

else and in the smallest way possible just like call a friend or call a relative or an elderly person or someone you think is on their own and just like reach out and see how someone else is doing is sort of the best thing that you can do so hopefully that helps if you're sat in your flat and you're worried about panicking don't be worried about panicking don't judge yourself and just know that this is something that everybody's going through it's so so human it's such a human thing and in the truest sense of the word nobody panic if you'd like us to tackle something in the upcoming week specifically then do please tweet us at nobody panic pod or email us nobody panic podcast at gmail.com and we will see you next time see you next time

bye kids bye bye bye