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Stand-up comic, writer and eating disorders campaigner Dave Chawner begins our Mental Health Awareness Week 2018 stress stories by talking openly to us about his experience of stress and its cumulative effect, stress and modern life and shares some of his coping strategies.

Dave says 'there are different types of stress. You can have work related stress, social related stress, existential stress. Actually, they can easily come together.

'Stresses that we have nowadays are just as valid as they ever used to be...

'Years ago my coping mechanism used to be the anorexia because that numbed the background buzz of anxiety, of stress, of all of those things I had to do...

'I've been looking into coping mechanisms a lot, and there are loads out there: counting back from 10, mindfulness, breathing exercises.

'I don't think there is a quick fix, but I've found little things that have helped me are knowing my triggers, knowing when I'm tipping over from excited to anxious, and reading a book rather than reading my Twitter timeline. Making sure I have a day a week where I can actually chill out'

By tackling stress, we can go a long way to tackle mental health problems such as anxiety and depression, and, in some instances, self-harm and suicide. We want to look at how we can tackle stress and help improve our mental health.

Let's start with you and me and talk openly about stress. We all know that talking about our feelings can help us to stay in good mental health and deal with times when we feel troubled.