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Anxiety

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If anxiety is affecting your life, developing helpful thinking patterns can help you focus on positive thoughts and actions.

It's normal to feel nervous or anxious sometimes, but it becomes a problem when anxiety interferes in your life and causes impairment or distress.

Anxiety may cause you to:

  • worry about things excessively
  • ask yourself lots of 'what if' type questions
  • predict negative outcomes.

Anxious thoughts or worries may be a problem if they are:

  • excessive
  • intrusive
  • uncontrollable
  • persistent
  • affecting you more days than not.
Anxiety and depression checklist: measure whether you may have been recently affected by depression or anxiety.

Healthy strategies to help

When worrying thoughts start to build up, these strategies can help you target negative beliefs and develop helpful thinking patterns.

  • Delay worrying: Put off worrying until a future time and concentrate on what you're doing. This can help you stop or forget negative thoughts.
  • Analyse your worries: Take a step back and evaluate the problem. How important is it really? How likely is it? Will worrying help you solve it? Think about how you can focus your energies most productively.
  • Control your thoughts: Actively choose to pursue positive and productive thoughts and reject negative thoughts.
  • Focus on solutions: Reframe problems as challenges that are yet to be solved, develop an action plan and concentrate your efforts on working towards a solution.
  • Value yourself: Focus on developing greater self-confidence and self-esteem. Don’t attach your self-worth to external measures like the marks you get or other people's opinions.

Student counselling services

If you are having a personal crisis and need to speak to someone urgently, contact the UQ Counselling and Crisis line:

1300 851 998

If you call 1300 851 998 between 8am and 4:30pm, Monday to Friday, our trained staff will connect you to the right support. Outside of these hours, a trained crisis counsellor will answer for immediate assistance. 

You can also text 0488 884 115 between 4:30pm and 8am to chat with a crisis counsellor.

 

Book a confidential appointment with our counsellors for personal support:

Step one:

Complete the counselling intake form. This form must be completed prior to your first appointment.  

Find the form here

Step two:

Book a counselling appointment

Note: For students at Gatton and Herston campuses, please ensure any face to face appointment is at your preferred location.

 

If you're having trouble booking online, contact Student Support and Wellbeing Services.

    Phone Student Support and Wellbeing Services on 1300 275 870

     Visit Student Central at Building 42 at St Lucia, or at Gatton at Level 1, N.W. Briton Administration Centre Annexe, Building 8101A

   Live chat with us (8:30am—4:30pm)

 

Further support

You can speak to your GP, a psychologist, psychiatrist or counsellor outside of UQ.