Bristol hairdresser helps clients who suffer from anxiety

A woman who suffered from panic attacks is using her experience to help others through her work as a hairdresser.

Nuala Morley, from Abbots Leigh, started suffering from extreme anxiety when she was 19 years old, and the first time she experienced it, she thought she was going to die.

Ms Morley said she still suffers from anxiety 20 years later but is now using her experience to support others.

She said, “No matter how scary you feel, there is always a way out.”

Morley said she suffered from anxiety despite having a “nice upbringing” and going to “really good schools”.

“Sadly, my father passed away when I was 15 and that’s when everything changed. I moved out of my parents’ home and ended up living on my own.

“I had my first panic attack at work. It was one of the scariest things I’ve ever experienced.

“Then they just kept coming and I couldn’t stop it, it was out of control.

“I stopped going places, doing things, meeting people. I always thought, ‘If I go there, I might have a panic attack.’

“I’ve reached a point in my life where I look back and feel lucky to be here today.”

Morley added that when her symptoms really got worse, she started learning everything she could about how her body works during anxiety and panic attacks.

“It really helped me,” she said. “Now I don’t let anything get in my way. I go abroad by myself and do a lot of other things.”

She said she runs a hair salon and tells her customers how to deal with it.

“I seem to naturally draw women who struggle with anxiety to my studio.

“Recently, a woman who was a lecturer at a university had to quit her job. She is not completely okay at the moment.

“Another woman couldn’t leave her house for a year and came to see me the first time she left.

“No matter how depressed you feel, no matter how scary you feel, there is always a way out.”