7 things to know when dating someone with anxiety

You cannot choose whom you fall in love with. If the person you’re liking is struggling with the anxiety problems, it can become a big issue in your relationship sometimes. Dating someone with anxiety symptoms can be a stressful thing. You may not be able to enjoy activities that you’d like to explore with your partner.

But, that’s not truly the whole thing. You have the right to enjoy with your partner whatever you both like and anxiety shouldn’t come in between. Anxiety can sometimes become a third person in your relationship that you won’t be willing to accept. Your partner having anxiety symptoms doesn’t mean that you have to sabotage the relationship or avoid the partner. Dating someone with anxiety also means that you have an extra opportunity of supporting your partner.

In this article, we discusses the things that you should know while dating someone with anxiety. If you are also worried about the impact of the anxiety in your relationship and how you can support the mental fitness of you both to take your partner out of this condition, keep reading this article below.

Dating someone with anxiety? Is it hard?

The question must be striking in your mind. Seeing someone suffering the symptoms of anxiety might not be your plan. Watching a person having anxiety signs can make you upset and you may also get anxious with that. Questions about how the life of your partner will affect you, will you be able to cooperate with the challenging lifestyle of your partner and will that relationship goes in the future can disturb you in the present. Even people who experience anxiety problems also doubt their relationship success. In fact, these doubts and questions are more frequent in the one having anxiety.

These questions are understandable and usual to come over. The honest answer is that yes, dating someone with anxiety is harder than normal. The thing that becomes important here is that you should be more critical about self care activities and set aside some time for the relaxation of your mind in any way.

If you are someone who are looking forward to start dating a person suffering with anxiety symptoms, there are a few things that you should have a knowledge about. You may feel like helping when you’re around a person with anxiety, especially if that person is the one you want to date. You will be looking for ways to make them feel better and not criticize their emotions. Here are the 7 things that you should be aware of while dating someone with anxiety :-

Learn about what anxiety is

To be able to accept your partner and to get oriented with what your partner is dealing with, it is first recommended that you should do a basic research about anxiety. Anxiety is not a normal stage that people experience at some point in their life but a harsh beast that can make their life miserable.

There are different types of anxiety disorders induced by different triggers. Anxiety in a person makes him/her avoid certain things. Learn about it from the articles available on the internet and talk with your partner’s friends and relatives. After learning more about anxiety and realizing that it’s more than just a phase, you’ll be able to empathize deeper with your partner.

Learn to talk about anxiety openly with your partner

The questions related to the long term compatibility of your partner and how their condition will affect your social life will make you think anxiety as a taboo subject. That’s why you try to avoid any conversation related to anxiety.

The need here is to be more open about anxiety and talking about it in an open and honest manner. You can simply start such conversation with your partner with some casual chitchat about how they’re feeling. And, if you’re partner is comfortable, you can talk directly about it. The thing that matters is that you should not judge what your partner is feeling. Don’t try to get defensive and just listen their words as a sign to show that you respect their words. Motivate them to speak and don’t take things personally.

Know what triggers their anxiety

People who deal with the symptoms of anxiety disorder often have certain triggers. These triggers can be anything from people, thing, situation or place. When they come across these triggers, the anxiety levels hike up and their condition gets worse.

You, as a partner has to be careful about such anxiety stimulating triggers. Yeah, it’s not your duty to keep protecting them against these triggers, you should be aware about how they react to these triggers. You can help your partner to cope up with the effect of such anxiety booster and you’ll be able to know about how your partner reacts to different situations.

Motivate your partner to seek assistance

Anxiety can also result to less social interactions. The partner with a anxiety will try to avoid any social interaction. They think that mental illness issues are not readily accepted openly in a normal environment. This mere thought makes your partner resist any medical help.

When dating someone with anxiety, while keeping this thing in mind, help your partner seek help. Let your partner know that they can get better. Meditation and therapy are the best solutions for anxiety. Tell your partner that how their life will get back to normal if they seek a professional help. Be kind with your partner while encouraging them.

Go for couple counseling

As you encourage your partner to seek for help, you may motivate him/her to attend a therapy session. As therapy is still the best option for fighting against anxiety, you should convince your anxious partner to go for a counselling session with you.

When you both two are not able to solve the problem, seeking the assistance of a third person always helps. A couple therapy session with a psychologist can help you both get things clear. As, sometimes, the reason for anxiety is in the relationship itself, the counsellor will guide you both. He will make you both comfortable with each other and you will be able to learn better communication rules to follow while talking with your anxious partner.

Consider your partner and their anxiety separate

One thing you should know when dating someone with anxiety is that you should treat your partner and their anxiety separately. Yeah, there is a situation when the person feel overwhelmed and doesn’t react the way you thought, but accept it as a part of their anxiety and don’t consider it to be their real nature.

Remember that he/she is still the same person who makes you laugh out loud in different ways, breaks the ice when you both get upset with each other and stands with you when you need him/her. It’s just their anxiety that makes them react that way. Be calm and compassionate with your partner. Your partner will also realize that he/she is more than just anxiety when you consider their anxiety separate with them.

Be clear about the boundaries

One definite thing you should definitely bee clear about is that being patient and accepting their behavior is different letting them do whatever the hell they’re doing. Dating someone with anxiety may make you face some tough situation as a partner but you both should be clear about the boundaries.

There are some extreme situations during anxiety disorders making a person suffer panic attacks and behave bad. But, its not their right to be cruel and abusive with you. You can avoid any resentment in future by setting the limits in advance. If your partner shows such extreme behaviour during an anxiety hike or panic attack, let them know that it’s not acceptable. Tell them that you expect them to improve.

Dating someone with anxiety is hard sometimes. When you come to know about your partner’s condition with a straight disclosure from him/her, it can bring a lot of doubts and questions relating to the partner and the relationship. But, show some trust to your partner and don’t judge. Having anxiety doesn’t mean that the relationship cannot be enjoyed. Just keep in mind the tips described above and you’ll be able to enjoy a great dating life.