Survivor Survey – Mental Health

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

Fair to below average.

Anon,  36, 11 years

Low and get very down easily

Joanne,  48, 23 months

Anxiety and panic attacks

Maureen,  68, 7 years

Better now. Took long time to get head around it all.

Anon,  56, 15 months

Fighting to get back to normal

Lisa,  35, 4 months

PTSD, depression, nervous breakdown.

Brenden,  56, 4 years

Low mood on occasion

Tracy,  50, 3 years

Life is fantastic

Stewart,  53, 3 years

Diagnosed with PTSD. Cognitive therapy undertaken.

Mark,  56, 14 months

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

Absolutely normal with the added benefit of not worrying about all the minor rubbish that used to upset me.

Mark,  46, 23 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

Life is good

Sue,  51, 8 months

The rollercoaster of the outside world, one day everything can be peachy the next a black hole!!

Ben,  32, 1 year 2 months

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

Life is good, I haven’t experienced any problems so far.

Clare,  31, Almost 5 months.

Better than it was at first but still suffer with depression

Dawn,  48, 3 years

no anxiety yet

Lynne,  47, 21 months

Depression and anxiety

Amy,  30, 2 years and 8 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

I would say that I have anxiety

Carly,  34, 1 month

I gave experienced depression, but several years after my SCA

Lee,  37, 5 1/2 years

Lifes fantastic

Julie,  31, 8 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 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

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

Happy to be alive

Michelle,  43, 5 years

Had depression since

Pat,  51, 15 months

Up and down occasional Anxiety

Graeme,  36, 10 years

Luckily no anxiety or depression, life is wonderful!

Michelle,  42, 4 years

I’m perhaps not the best person to ask. However, there are bad days…..

Andy,  51, 5 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

General mental health poor since event, have become agrophobic, experience sleep issues.

Kym,  40, 3 years