Catherine Kamau alias ‘Kate Actress’ has joined the growing list of popular Kenyan personalities to go public about her mental health disorder.
The Award-winning actress opened up for the first time on social media, revealing she has been battling anxiety.
“So I asked you guys to ask me questions about me and one of the questions was that I tell you something you don’t know about me. Well I responded by saying I suffer from anxiety disorder and most of you were like, ‘What is that?’” she said in a video.
In a YouTube video titled ‘coping with anxiety disorder,’ the lifestyle blogger said her anxiety prevents her from giving her best at work.
“It is so bad that it even affects my work. In that, I’m thinking about doing something but I am so anxious about it I end up procrastinating, overthinking about it and then end up not doing it. This results in me running behind on work schedules. When you explain to someone how you feel they will be like, ‘this one nowadays has white people’s problems,’ you know,” she narrated.
Kate actress hosted Sophie Muriuki, a clinical Psychologist, to discuss mental health and raise awareness about different types of anxiety.
The clinical psychologist explained anxiety is only normal up to a certain point in humans.
“If it makes you physically sick or mentally withdrawn, you need to seek professional help. There is the anxiety which is the anticipation of something versus the emotional part of anxiety which is now where fear comes in. In this case, fear is the emotional expression of that anticipation.
“When you are feeling anxious, there is something you are waiting to do. In your instance you have talked about it affecting your work, meaning you have planned to do something but you keep pushing it back, so you engage in avoidant behavior. Another thing we need to consider is, how do you feel when you think about that thing you want to do. Are you sweating, are you shaking, are you feeling like you heart is beating so hard? Are you having difficulty breathing?” she said.
Sophie added: “You also want to look at your thoughts, so now because of the way you are feeling physically, it is going to affect how you are thinking. For a normal case, when you are going for a job interview, for exams, you get nervous, you are worried, maybe it even motivates you to do better. But if it gets to a point where you can’t even leave the house to go and do that thing you need to do, then you need to seek help. There is nothing wrong with it, sometimes our bodies just need help to function.”
