How do you support your partner with anxiety?
If you take a moment to look around, you’ll notice that more often than not people experience stress and worry. Some people experience a higher level of stress and worry that is connected to anxiety.
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) is the guide for health care professionals to diagnose mental disorders. In the manual is a disorder called, Generalized Anxiety.
Generalized Anxiety Disorder is a mental health disorder that can be seen when someone experiences the following symptoms:
- Worry or nervousness
- Indecisiveness
- Overthinking
- Difficulty relaxing
- Problems focusing and concentrating
- A lack of interest in previously pleasurable activities
- Irregular changes to sleep
- Irregular changes in appetite.
How To Begin Supporting Your Partner
To support your partner with anxiety, you can take several avenues. The overall goal is to provide support.
Below are areas to consider as you move forward in your journey of understanding anxiety and supporting your partner.
I find education to be a great place to start. Become familiar with anxiety and basically knowing as much as you can about it. For that, I recommended Life Without Stress. It’s a self-help anxiety book that provides education and tools surrounding stress and worry.
Take time to connect and understand your partner. You can do this by engaging in an open conversation that highlights:
- Listening
- Asking questions
- Taking notes
- Empathy and understanding
Take time to have a conversation with a professional. Call your local counselor or schedule a virtual session. Utilize the counselor as a tool to connect you to your partner while taking into consideration the role anxiety plays in the relationship. As a couples counselor, this is something that I can support you with.
Below are fun activities that can be used to connect and empower your relationship. Below are couple activities to address anxiety.
- Go for a walking together.
- Take a yoga class together.
- Get a massage together.
- Have a jar that you both use to write down on slips of paper what you are worried about.
- Practice meditation together.
- Do a puzzle together.
- Go to a painting class together.
- Create a scrapbook.
- Visit a dog shelter together. Have fun petting the animals!
- Pick a book to read and read it separately but come together to discuss each chapter along the way.
- Create a playlist for each other, then share why you selected each song.
- Write a letter to your future self in five years from now. Share your letters with each other.
The next step to help overcome and address challenges in your relationship, join the Relationship Building Course. This is the first step to working on your relationship.
CLICK HERE to see how the course can help your relationship.
Utilize resources. Below are videos that can help you gain further understanding of anxiety and how to support your partner. After watching the video check out the article on helping your partner with anxiety.