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If you, or someone you care about, are feeling overwhelmed - keep reading. You're not alone and there are plenty of places you can get help.

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The Basics

4. One Step At A Time

When people feel really desperate, minutes can feel like hours. The thought of things staying this way for days, weeks, months or years can feel unbearable - yet they worry that things aren't ever going to get better.

At times like these it can really help to take things one step at a time. If you can't think about how to cope with the next week, try looking at the next day. If you feel overwhelmed thinking about the next day, try looking at the next hour. If that feels too scary, it can help to look at the next five minutes.

Ask yourself: How am I going to get through the next 5 minutes? What am I going to do? What will help me? Who can help me?

Make yourself small targets to work towards (e.g. organising your CDs, ringing a friend, watching a TV show or taking a shower). When you need to, choose another block of time or target and focus on that. Take it step by step.

It's a good idea to let the size of the targets, and the time chunks you're planning for, change as you need them to. As a rough guide, as you feel calmer and more settled you will probably be able to look further ahead.

5. Finding Your Strength Again

All of us have strengths and skills that we can use to get through really difficult times. When we feel overwhelmed, it's easy to lose track of these. Thinking about the ways you've coped in the past can give you some ideas of how to deal with things now.

Ask yourself: How did I cope last time? What did I do? Who did I get help from? What was the most useful part of this? How can I use this now?

It can also really help to spend some time remembering all the good stuff about yourself. It's so easy to lose track of the positives when things feel so bad, but these are the things that can help us recover.

Ask yourself: What do I like about me? What do my friends/family like about me? What do I usually like doing with my time? What I am good at?

If you're finding it difficult to think about yourself in a good way, that's ok - why not have a chat with a good friend or someone you trust. Ask them to help you write a list. Keep this somewhere you can look at it when you need to.

Next Steps

Hang in there. These feelings will pass - other people have found a way through (and you will too). Don't be afraid to ask for help (see our Telling Other People section if you'd like some ideas on how to do this).