If you suffer from anxiety, you may have noticed that certain triggers make it worse. Sometimes these triggers can be daily activities or situations (like giving a big work presentation) but for some people, they can also come in the shape of a person.
Relationship anxiety refers to feelings of doubt, insecurity, nonstop worry, and a need for constant reassurance that sometimes occurs during a relationship. Such anxiety may have roots in early childhood attachments and is often a sign of an insecure attachment style.
Often, people just want to help you when you have anxiety, but they end up making it worse. It doesn't help that romantic relationships can often enhance our anxiety just by default. Since anxiety always wants us to assume the worst about ourselves and well, everything, having to trust an intimate partner can be hard.
Some people experience anxiety because their partner is "too" something - too rich, too good-looking, too busy, too talkative, etc. The partner (boyfriend, husband, girlfriend, wife) has qualities that lead to anxiety.
If you are regularly consumed with thoughts of your partner and being worried about what they're doing, what they're going to do, or how they're going to react to a particular situation, it's a sign that your partnership is increasing your anxiety.
One of the best ways to deal with relationship stress is to talk things out. Your words can have power if you use them to understand how your partner is feeling and get a sense of where their emotional state is. Don't assume you understand how they are feeling.
Various factors can cause anxiety to worsen. The triggers vary between individuals but include ongoing stress, a bereavement, financial problems, and key events, such as a job interview. Anxiety can lead to feelings of nervousness, apprehension, and worry.
Someone with an anxious attachment style has an intense fear of rejection and abandonment. Because an anxious attacher feels unworthy of love, they may focus on what they perceive to be a threat to their relationship in an attempt to prevent what they see as the inevitable from occurring – their partner leaving them.
This can be emotional or physical. We may feel toxic stress when we face strong, frequent, or prolonged challenges. These can include abuse, neglect, violence, or substance use in the home. These experiences can trigger our body's stress response. This response floods our body with "fight or flight" chemicals.
People under stress experience mental and physical symptoms, such as irritability, anger, fatigue, muscle pain, digestive troubles, and difficulty sleeping. Anxiety, on the other hand, is defined by persistent, excessive worries that don't go away even in the absence of a stressor.
Things like romantic disagreements, miscommunication and more can cause you to feel even more anxious than usual. Signs your anxiety may be triggered by a partner include sleepless nights, feeling on edge, becoming irrational and experiencing panic attack symptoms.
Anxiety breaks down trust and connection …
It can also make you less attuned to the needs of your partner. If you're worried about what could be happening, it's difficult to pay attention to what is happening. When you feel overwhelmed, your partner may feel as though you aren't present.
Mental health disorders such as anxiety can interfere with a relationship if the individual is not aware of their signs and symptoms or if they allow their mental health disorder to go untreated. However, mental health disorders such as anxiety, in particular, do not have to put such a strain on your relationship.
Symptoms of relationship anxiety may include self-silencing and excessive reassurance-seeking. People with relationship anxiety may also crave acceptance from their partner and fear rejection. These symptoms can negatively impact the relationship over time.
One of the best ways to deal with relationship stress is to talk things out. Your words can have power if you use them to understand how your partner is feeling and get a sense of where their emotional state is. Don't assume you understand how they are feeling.