Anxiety is a never ending cycle of the feeling you get when your chair almost tips over. It's not a one time thing, it's reoccurring and makes you feel like you want to cry and contributes to making you feel worse about yourself in social situations. Loving someone with anxiety isn't only hard for the person who has anxiety, but also for their significant other.
Here are some tips for loving someone with anxiety:
1.) Just be sure to reassure them.
Anxiety is not just a phase in your relationship, its going to be a hard thing to over come, yes your significant other will have days that they are doing so well and don't seem distant or too worried about you. But there will be those days that they do not want to interact with anyone or see anything, there will be days when they are going through hell just trying to decide if they want to text you, just reassure them and make them feel welcomed.
2.) Don't ask them to "just calm down."
Anxiety is so much more than "calm down." Anxiety is the feeling of something eating at you until you can't stand it anymore and have an anxiety attack and make yourself feel like trash because you cannot believe you blew something so far out of proportion when not thinking clearly. The best thing that someone can do for their S/O in this kind of situation is to tell them it will be okay and to breathe.
3.) Ask them how they're feeling.
And genuinely mean it.
4.) L I S T E N.
Not just in one ear and out the other, respond. Don't just nod your head and pretend to care what they are saying. If Billy Bob and Sue are making them angry at work, talk about something good that also happened that day. Don't be passive, engage yourself in the conversation.
And finally,
5.) Don't just be their significant other, be their best friend.
When you love someone, being their best friend almost comes naturally, but remember that they are counting on you to be there for them when they need it. Most would love to share their life with you as a best friend and significant other.
I want to say thank you to my best friend for giving me the idea to write this article, and I hope you find someone who treats you well and loves you as much as I do.
