Does Anxiety Affect Your Family or Relationship?

People who have anxiety are known to have some impairment in various aspects of their lives, including their relationships with their relatives, friends, and partners. If you deal with an anxiety disorder, you could be prone to having marital distress and be at a greater risk for divorce.

Common Relationship Problems for People who have Anxiety

If you tend to worry a lot about your family, friends, colleagues or others, you might end up using negative coping methods to help you deal with this worry. Over time, this can act to break down the exact same relationships that you want so badly to work out. This can result in issues like:

• Having only a few relationships

• Finding it difficult to tend to others’ needs because you are too anxious

• Feeling fearful or defensive in romantic relationships

• Difficulty expressing the way that you feel

• Avoiding activities with other people out of fear

• Difficulty feeling joy and happiness because you are too worried

• Being impatient with others

• Feeling suspicious or having a lack of self-confidence

• Overreacting

• Feeling clingy towards others

• Being insecure

How to Overcome Anxiety in Relationships

You can help yourself avoid these problems and at the same time improve your relationships. Besides seeking treatment for your anxiety, you can also try the following strategies:

Practice being mindful and living in the moment by learning about mindfulness and practicing it daily. You should take a mindfulness break before continuing with an anxious thought or deciding to voice an anxious thought.

Acknowledge your discomfort and allow yourself to feel uncomfortable when you know that your anxiety stops you from doing things like hanging out with friends, relatives, or partners. You will find that these uncomfortable feelings will start going away the more that you face these situations.

Try communicating your issues instead of remaining in silence and letting your anxiety get out of control. Let others know about your diagnosis of anxiety if you see that your behaviour has an effect on them. Ask others around you for some support and build up your communication skills by taking a class or reading a self-help book.

Always try to be empathetic towards others and go easy on them when you feel your anxiety creeping in or if it starts to control your behaviour. You can put yourselves in the shoes of others and think about their perspective, and try to understand their behaviour from their point of view. This can help you think twice about cutting off a relationship and if your anxiety is fueling your behaviour.

And lastly, always remember to have fun. Do something with others that can help you laugh and feel relief from your anxiety.

Daphne Georghiou offers psychotherapy for relationship, anxiety, depression and trauma counselling. I am located in Vancouver and specialize in family therapy. If you feel that you would benefit from psychotherapy and wish to work with a psychotherapist you can trust, give me a call now!