Stress & Anxiety
Millions of Americans experience stress and anxiety at one time or another. The difference between the two is that stress is a response to a threat in a situation, while anxiety is a reaction to the stress.
Whether in good times or bad, most people say that stress increasingly impacts their lives. In addition, chronic stress can affect your health, causing symptoms from headaches, high blood pressure, and chest pain to heart palpitations, skin rashes, and loss of sleep.
Anxiety and stress can negatively impact many aspects of your life, including your relationships. Relationships today are under more increasing pressure than ever. Whether it’s a lack of communication, intimacy, or conflict resolution couples are facing unprecedented problems. Excessive anxiety and stress can lead to inappropriate suspiciousness or paranoia, which may manifest as a concern that your partner is not faithful or does not love or care for you as much as you do. Also, you may be suspicious that your mate is leaving you out of activities or talking badly about you behind your back.
Stress and anxiety can also lead to overthinking, planning for all worst-case scenarios, being indecisive, fearing rejection, and seeking out constant communication (and getting anxious if a partner or friend does not respond quickly).
While levels of anxiety and stress can be healthy (it can motivate people and/or help them sense danger within their environment), for some, their anxiety or stress is overwhelming and debilitating, which can be extremely detrimental to relationships.
Contact us if you find yourself being overly distant in your relationships, as cognitive behavioral therapy, along with couples counseling may be necessary. A mental health professional can help a person explore past and present relationships and determine if there is a pattern of anxiety or stress.