Dealing with a spouse, sibling or a friend with an anxiety disorder can be challenging. Anxiety is among the top leading mental illnesses in the world among adults. Anxiety affects all parts of the patient’s life, be it work, school, family, and relationships. To stay with people suffering from anxiety, you are supposed to build a strong foundation for understanding how it affects them and what you are supposed to do to cope with them. Below are many things you need to remember to build a strong relationship with them. Read on
Things to Remember When Dealing with People Suffering from Anxiety
The patient thinks that they might die during an attack. They might start palpitating, experience a racing heartbeat, sweat, and puke. All the above feelings are real. Do not think that they are exaggerating the situation.- Be patient with them. As a parent, sibling or lover, you must find ways to understand them. Remember they already have a lot on their plate. Show them, love, be compassionate and kind. If need be, help them with daily chores and talk to them about doing one thing a time.
- Do not define them by anxiety alone. The individual has so much to define them. I am sure anxiety is not the only thing they have. It is important to treat them as normal human beings with all features of a human. Defining them with anxiety all through will affect your relationship, and you might seize to be friends.
- It can be exhausting. Yes, it gets tiring. Dealing with the same thing, again and again, is never easy. Things which you can handle without pressure is a big deal to them. This calls for a lot of understanding and helping where you can without complaining.
They do not like the question, “are you okay” all through. It is okay to ask them how they are feeling, but too much of it is not necessary because you are not helping. People suffering from anxiety hate this question and hurts them badly. To make them feel better, ask questions like, may I help you? I am here for you and any other statement that can be used to appease them.- They appreciate the support. You might be thinking that they are selfish and only care about themselves, but the truth is that they appreciate people who stick around and help. They have so much to deal with such that you will think they are ignorant.