For as long as I can remember, I have lived with anxiety. I have always been a “worrier” – at school, teachers would tell my parents I “worried about everything” and described me as a perfectionist. Since school, most of the decisions I’ve made have followed hours of running through every worse case scenario and asking everyone I know for reassurance I was doing the “right thing”.

I’ve since been diagnosed with OCD – a mental health condition which causes a person to experience high levels of anxiety as a result of irrational obsessions, and engage in compulsions to try and deal with that obsession. I have since used cognitive behavioural therapy and antidepressants (which I still take) to help me handle my anxiety.

On a day-to-day basis, I’ve also come up with my own techniques to help me deal with everyday situations which might leave me feeling anxious. Some of these I learnt from my time in CBT, but others are ones which I’ve picked up along the way. For people who deal with conditions such as anxiety, these coping methods and techniques are essential in managing their mental health.

Anxiety and coronavirus: 4 tips for dealing with anxiety, from someone who lives with it