Silvia Freeman
Silvia Freeman is a wellbeing facilitator and founder of the Compassionate Care for Carers Method, a support programme designed to provide emotional and mental health support to sa...
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Who are you?
Hi, I am Sylvia. I am a mum. I am a health and wellbeing facilitator and consultant. I am a good friend, I love learning, new things about the topics that I'm interested in, how the body works, so in my spare time I do learn about, always learning about different things, how the mind body works, things about emotions and neuroscience. I love Zumba, I love walking, I love running. So I'm quite active person. I was a sandwich carer for a very long time, I worked in a very big corporate organisation, network Rail for 11 years, where I was a health and wellbeing specialist, and yeah, I love life, I love being active, I love being curious, and yeah, I'm generally quite calm and happy and yeah, love life.
What it's like to be a career?
So it is rewarding, amazing, and tough all at the same time. You get to experience all range of emotions and yeah, you get to experience everything, the ups and downs, the joy, the sadness, the gratitude, fear, everything. Yeah.
What was the impact on your mental health being a carer?
I developed anxiety that was so intense, It led to panic attacks. I experienced a lot of panic attacks that I didn't know what to do with. I thought that I was dying, It was scary. It would happen anytime, anywhere on the train, on the street, and that was because I was in a constant state or fight or flight response. I didn't learn when I was a sandwich carer, I didn't learn how to switch it off, how to relax. So I kind of trained my body for a very long time and became quite good at anxiety. It was just something that I just didn't know how to control, what to do with the emotions. It impacted my mental health, my emotional wellbeing, it impacted my social life as well. I was always feeling very, if I took time to go on holiday, for example, with my husband and my daughter, I'd feel guilt the whole time being on holiday because I left my grandparents or later on my grandma, because my grandad passed away a few years before she did. So I'd feel guilty that I left her at home. It impacted me with just feeling like people didn't really understand me, what I'm going through. Yeah, it impacted me, I'd say in my relationship, my husband, my child, when I was feeling like there was so much pressure on me to do everything. I was overwhelmed all the time. Just didn't know how to regulate myself, didn't know my needs, didn't know anything really. I wish I had knew, but I didn't. So yeah, the impact was huge on, not just on my mental health, but just overall in all areas of my life. Yeah.