You are in a dead sleep, when all of the sudden you hear the sound of someone gasping for air. You roll over to find your significant other sitting up trying to find any air that they can. They are helplessly crying and all you want to do is help, but you do not know how. Not only are they scared to death, but so are you. You hold them close and tell them you love them and that everything is going to be fine. Everything is happening so fast that you do not even have time to think. After what seems like forever, you finally are able to get their breathing under control and they collapse into your arms completely exhausted. This is what it is like to love someone with anxiety. It is a curse, but mainly a blessing.
When you love someone with anxiety, you get a lot more than you signed up for, but this is not a bad thing. Loving this girl is probably the best thing I could have done. I have grown to be a better person, and a better boyfriend thanks to her. I have learned to truly love someone with all of my heart. Sometimes it is hard to maintain the will to keep going through the same things day in and day out, and with maintaining that will I have learned to be patient. Patience is something that a lot of people do not possess in this day in age. It might be the most important aspect that a person can have when being with someone with anxiety. Loving this person is exhausting and makes you feel helpless. It is so hard to find out the right things to say when the person that you love is so beaten down.
Let's be honest, are there even "right words to say?" Of course, things can be said that will help and make them feel better, but that is not the end of it. You have to hold them and love them as they go through something that is so hard on them that it physically tears them down until all they want to do is sleep. It is a merry-go-round of endless thoughts about absolutely everything. While it is terribly hard to watch from the outside, it cannot even compare to what is going on inside that person.
Loving this person unconditionally is all that you can do, and with that you will learn patience. All they want is for you to always be there because they need a sense of security. You will be woken up three times a week because they are having a panic attack and need your support. You will get countless calls every day just so they can hear your voice. They will beg you not to go out on the weekends, just so their wall does not fall down. To the normal man, this can be a lot to handle, because let's face it we all still have our own things to worry about. To be a person who loves someone with anxiety you have to be a special person with a different outlook on love and life in general.
I am proud to say that I am one of those people, as I am in a beautiful relationship and could not be happier. After everything that her and I have been through, our love has not faded and is still going strong. At the end of the day, loving someone with anxiety means that you need to have patience and understanding. So to anyone else who is with me, keep on keeping on and love your significant other unconditionally. To anyone else who finds themselves in a situation like this later in life, stay strong and be PATIENT.
