How Does Anxiety Affect Your Relationships?
Anxiety is one of the most common mental health struggles people face worldwide, and it can be a tricky one. For some, anxiety makes itself known as excessive worrying or irritability. For others, it may be sleeplessness or stomachaches. Beyond that, there are several types of anxiety disorders people experience, from social anxiety to PTSD.
No matter how you experience anxiety, there's one thing that rings true across the board: anxiety doesn't just affect you alone. It can affect your relationships, too.
Signs Anxiety is Affecting Your Relationships
First, let's look at some common indicators that anxiety may be interfering with your relationships. It's worth noting that although some of these examples may pertain to romantic relationships, anxiety can affect any type of relationship, including friendships.
You might notice the following:
You frequently worry the other person is lying
You feel the other person likes other people better than you
You worry that your partner is cheating a lot
You overthink every communication you have, down to the simplest text message
You push people away before they can hurt you
You avoid relationships entirely
How Anxiety Affects Your Relationships
With those indicators in mind, let's dive into how anxiety fuels them. There are two main ways anxiety can impact your relationships and that's through dependence and/or avoidance.
Dependence
For some people, anxiety causes a dependent response. This is often fueled by worry and a fear of rejection. Now, we all worry and no one likes to be rejected. But when left unchecked, it can develop into something unhealthy.
Anxiety may cause you to overthink and plan for all the worst-case scenarios. What if we break up? What if they don't like me as much as they say they do? What if they find someone better?
These thoughts become a constant mantra that can ultimately lead to issues like indecisiveness. It may also cause you to seek constant communication with the other person.
It can even lead to anger at the other person, causing you to act out in ways that may harm the relationship. For instance, if someone doesn't respond to your text or call quickly enough, you might accuse them of cheating or blowing you off... when in reality, they were just busy doing some grocery shopping or working out at the gym.
Avoidance
On the other hand, some people experience an avoidant response brought on by anxiety. You may try to avoid negative emotions by closing yourself off, not sharing your feelings, or being resistant to vulnerability. As a result, you may be seen as cold, aloof, or emotionally unavailable. Despite your apathetic appearance, you may secretly long for closeness.
The logic here is based on self protection, something we are all hard-wired to do. However, as with dependence, it can become unhealthy when left unchecked.
Even if it's not your intention, these kinds of avoidant behaviors may make the other person feel unwanted or inadequate. As you can imagine, this isn't the best recipe for relationship success.
How to Prevent Anxiety From Affecting Your Relationships
It's understandably frustrating when anxiety affects your relationships. The good news is you can do something about it. With the right support, you can learn to identify the source of your anxiety and rewrite how you respond. Talk therapy can help you express yourself in a safe environment while working toward sustainable life changes. In some cases, medication may help in managing persistent symptoms.
There's no one way to approach healing. We're all diverse people, so the process may vary and that's okay! It's important to find what works for you.
If you're ready to make the most of your relationships without anxiety getting in the way, reach out to me today. Together, we'll create a path forward with anxiety therapy.
