Q: How would you describe your mental health?
Have you experienced anxiety/depression or other similar problems or is life good?
Responses with name, age at SCA and time since
Lifes fantastic
Julie, 31, 8 years
General mental health poor since event, have become agrophobic, experience sleep issues.
Kym, 40, 3 years
Depression and anxiety
Amy, 30, 2 years and 8 months
Diagnosed with PTSD. Cognitive therapy undertaken.
Mark, 56, 14 months
I suffer with depression at times (although this was prior to the SCA also) it is worse but I work my way through it.
Lisa, 40, 7 years
Life is good
Sue, 51, 8 months
Life is fantastic
Stewart, 53, 3 years
Recovery 3 months following was a real challenge, felt very confused, stressed, and would cry in private every day, not understanding the situation and how I got there. 3 to 6 months, still very anxious and a sense of anger. 6 months to 1 year, feeling a little more determined and heading in the right direction. Now, I am me again (new me). Still have moments when the subject arises, but try to forget about it…at least until my heart decides to remind me again.
Judy, 39, 3 years
I have experienced anxiety but on whole life is pretty good! It just takes time adjusting to such a major event.
Natasha, 25, 4.5 years
PTSD, depression, nervous breakdown.
Brenden, 56, 4 years
Life is good, I haven’t experienced any problems so far.
Clare, 31, Almost 5 months.
Absolutely normal with the added benefit of not worrying about all the minor rubbish that used to upset me.
Mark, 46, 23 years
Fighting to get back to normal
Lisa, 35, 4 months
Yes occasionally. Still trying to come to terms with what has happened and nervous for the future but generally I feel ok considering what happened.
Joe, 52, 4 weeks
Fair to below average.
Anon, 36, 11 years
Low mood on occasion
Tracy, 50, 3 years
I don’t want to say I’ve been depressed but I definitely had dark days with anxiety and general upset in the year after it happened. Mainly because I struggled going back to the same place where it happened every day(work).
Imogen, 21, 2 years
Better now. Took long time to get head around it all.
Anon, 56, 15 months
Low and get very down easily
Joanne, 48, 23 months
Happy to be alive
Michelle, 43, 5 years
Had stress management during cardiac rehab which helped . Still get very anxious and can have panic attacks . Post traumatic stress . Less confident
Michelle, 50, 1 year
no anxiety yet
Lynne, 47, 21 months
I’ve had heart problems since birth do that I’ve always had to deal with and can deal with it fine. I recently went in A-Fib and I received an inappropriate shocked while awake after walking for less then 1 min. My HR went to 200. Every time I go into A-Fib I’m terrified in going to get shocked again.
Amy, 17, 14 years
The rollercoaster of the outside world, one day everything can be peachy the next a black hole!!
Ben, 32, 1 year 2 months
Up and down occasional Anxiety
Graeme, 36, 10 years
Anxiety at first worrying if ICD would go off & shock me, but that stopped after a few weeks. Emotionally I feel very flat. I even feel a real heaviness in my mind. I have the odd cry about things, but it’s quickly over. Is that depression? I haven’t really talked about it to anyone. I have said how worried I was about ICD & I was reassured the likelihood it would be needed was very low with the amount of medication I was taking and I felt less worried about it. I have mentioned how flat and tired I feel to GP, with no real response. Right from the start when I thought about what happened to me I thought well that was an easy way to go and it didnt really worry me that much.They see me smiling at them and working and getting on with life but…
Robyn, 57, 18 months
Luckily no anxiety or depression, life is wonderful!
Michelle, 42, 4 years
I gave experienced depression, but several years after my SCA
Lee, 37, 5 1/2 years
I’m perhaps not the best person to ask. However, there are bad days…..
Andy, 51, 5 years
Better than it was at first but still suffer with depression
Dawn, 48, 3 years
Had depression since
Pat, 51, 15 months
Anxiety and panic attacks
Maureen, 68, 7 years
I would say that I have anxiety
Carly, 34, 1 month