Testing Peers
Testing Peers is a growing community of ~60 peers in testing, software quality, agility, test leadership, engineering management, and broader software development. We’re united by a shared goal: to drive quality in everything we do within our workplaces and beyond. Through collaboration, accountability, and mutual support, we strive to elevate one another both professionally and personally.
The Testing Peers podcast is now expanding beyond its original four hosts, David Maynard, Chris Armstrong, Russell Craxford and Simon Prior, striving to represent the voices of a diverse and thriving community. Our inaugural in-person conference, PeersCon, launched in Nottingham in March 2024 and will return in March 2025, further solidifying Testing Peers as a not-for-profit, by testers, for testers initiative.
Testing Peers
Anxiety - Mental Health Awareness 2023
Welcome back for another episode of the Testing Peers. We are releasing this on the back of Mental Health Awareness Week 2023, which has the theme of Anxiety, so the Peers will dive into their experiences with Anxiety and how they have combatted it in the past.
Before going into the main topic, Simon brings up the topic of "Peers Con" which the Peers have aspirations to run this year, but has hit a stumbling block around finding a venue which will then allow us to get a date, call for papers up and running and put on a good event. If anyone listening or reading this feels like they would like to help, please get in touch through the links below.
Simon opens the floor for the peers to share their experiences with anxiety, Russell starts off talking about his anxiety of being late to meetings/events. David talks about the cost of living and the anxiety that can cause for people, chris then discusses some of the issues with the small things you can and can't control and the levels of anxiety that someone not responding to a message can sometimes cause. Simon then explains the feeling of catastrophising which can come from experiencing anxiety and the paralysis that can cause.
Everyone can be impacted by anxiety and as with many mental health issues, there are always people there to listen and support. Talking to someone can often be a huge help to alleviate the anxiety and help provide some level of calm to the scenario.
If you want to read more about Mental Health Awareness Week, there is more information here: https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/our-work/public-engagement/mental-health-awareness-week
Thank you for listening, we hope this episode goes a small way to helping some of you understanding you are not alone if you suffer from anxiety.
We hope you found the discussion useful and would love to hear your feedback.
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