Breaks for anxiety sufferers

[Jon06121974]

Hi

I used this site during the peak of my anxiety problems last year and found it a real help so much so i always said that when i was well enough i wanted to help others to deal with anxiety. Whilest not medically qualified i feel that my experience and ledssons learned along the way would be invaluable to other sufferers. Im a great believer that fellow sufferers are the best help to each other in making the best of a bad situation, GPs in general are not well versed in this illness and have little or no sympathy for sufferers leaving many either in a state of desperation or on long term meds with no solution.

I have been back working for nearly a year now and have found it difficult at times as the anxiety never goes away for ever and i have to take days off to recover my strength. I have therefore come up with a business idea that will allow me to learn more about this illness but also enable others the opportunity to share their illness and hopefully take away valuable information and ideas from simalar people.

I am considering organising short seminar style breaks for anxiety sufferers to go on where they will be able to share 2-3 days with other sufferers where they can discuss their condition and what they have found helps. I as a training proffessional would prepare various discussion topics for the group to cover and also invite proffesionals from various fields to join the debate and give advise.

I am hoping that you will read this and give me honest feedback on this idea and whether it would be something that you feel would help you as i know that when i was at my worst all i wanted to do was be around other sufferers who understood what i was going through.

If you could leave a small post with your feedback on this idea i would be very greatful.

Jon

[Rachel_123]

hi =]

it sounds like a really good idea, the only thing i can think of that wouldn't work would maybe me that alot of anxiety sufferers (especially when really bad) find it difficult to leave the house.


goodluck
x

[ladybird64]

Hi Jon

I am glad to see that you are feeling better and have returned to work, its always nice to hear success stories. Having said that, I'm afraid I cannot envisage your idea being successful, I'll explain why.
I don't doubt your motives for a second and agree with you that the best people to help anxiety sufferers are others who are going through the same thing.
However, you are talking about fee paying seminars (as it's a business venture, I'm guessing you would expect people to pay for accomodation etc)
If I was paying to go on a seminar I would expect to gain more than just sharing ideas and swapping stories, I would hope to get some answers to what makes me feel bad and to speak to people who have overcome their anxieties completely.
I'm sure you know that you need to have clear cut idea for a venture like this..who are your target group, what type of professionals do you intend to invite..
I am honestly not intending to put a dampener on your idea but I would be wary of turning anxiety into a business..there are enough people around at the moment who do just that and live very nicely off the proceeds of other peoples misery.
Have you thought of maybe setting up some kind of support group in your local area and finding out if people would be willing to attend?

Anyway, you did ask for feedback! Whatever you decide to do, good luck with it.:)

[Jon06121974]

Thankyou for your feedback so far.

I completely agree there are to many people out there making a tidy profit from our problems and there is a fine line to be drawn with this sort of venture. I hope that being a sufferer a great deal of people would understand the motive behind my idea and not feel that i am looking to make money from such an awful illness and from people who are willing to try anything to find recovery.

As i said this is just an initial idea and needs a great deal of work before i even do a trial run. All feedback both positive an negative is needed so as i can try and get the actual product balanced right.

Many thanks for your input so far please keep the feedback coming.

Jon