How to Cope with Relationship Anxiety: Valentines’s Day Tips
A relationship can be excellent, fulfilling, joyful, and, yes, sometimes also stressful. Few things in life can cause you anxiety; a romantic relationship can. While some stress or worries are every days in life, acknowledging that you cannot cope with the problem when things get complicated enough.
You are in a relationship with the person you love. You have developed trust, established boundaries, and learned a lot about each other. But at the same time, you may come across yourself constantly questioning yourself, your partner, and your relationship. Lots of questions run in your mind as Will things last? How can I know if this person is the right one for me? What if they are hiding some dark secrets? This constant worry is referred to as relationship anxiety. It refers to those feelings of stress, fear, insecurity, and doubts that can pop in a relationship, even when everything is going right.
Anxiety is love’s greatest killer. If you have constantly been fighting with your partner a lot, you may wonder if this relationship is right for you? These feelings can also come up in long-term or committed relationships.
What is Relationship Anxiety?
Relationship anxiety involves feelings of extreme worry about a friendly and romantic relationship. Although the experts know this anxiety, the Diagnostics and Statistical Manual and Mental disorders do not include it.
Like other types of anxiety such as generalized anxiety, panic disorders, or other anxiety disorders, doctors do not have specific methods to diagnose or treat relationship anxiety. Relationship anxiety surrounds by some features of social anxiety disorders. Both diseases can cause a person to experience discomfort about rejection or humiliation.
Many people may worry about acceptance and rejection feelings in a relationship; anxiety develops when the person tends to experience excessive worry, stress, and fear. For instance, pressure can lead a person to worry about the future of their relationship. People suffering from relationship anxiety end their relationships out of fear or endure excessive stress in their relationships. The anxiety effects can hinder a person’s function well in a relationship.
What Are the Reasons for Relationship Anxiety?
When your worries start to creep in and become a familiar feature of your current relationship, you deal with relationship anxiety. Let’s take a look at some reasons for relationship anxiety.
Negative Experience
Imagine a scenario where you get stung by a bee; hearing a buzzing sound any time after that incident may produce a certain amount of fear that you may be getting stung again. The same can sometimes happen in a relationship.
Suppose a person has experienced a relationship where their value, self-worth, etc., was triggered or called into question. In that case, this can cause an excessive fear of getting into a new relationship that produces the same effects. It is the primary cause of relationship anxiety in today’s generation. If this happens, a previous heart person may remain confused, constantly questioning the relationship’s stability and feelings involved in it.
Low Self-Esteem
Living in a relationship with poor esteem of your self-respect and value can strongly affect the quality of your relationship life. In many cases where a person struggles with low self-esteem and weight, it can raise a constant doubt about the authenticity of the partner’s feelings for them or whether they deserve your love. It can also encourage assumptions of unfaithfulness and other questions that can question the relationship’s future.
Different Ways of Relationship Anxiety
Here are some other ways to tell that anxiety manifests in your relationship.
- Looking for constant reassurance from your partner.
- doubts about romantic compatibility
- Controlling towards your partner’s interactions and movement.
- wondering if your partner truly loves you
- Over-analyzing simple words and actions for signs of trouble
- The constant feeling that your partner intends to call off the relationship
- And spend more time worrying about it than enjoying it.
In some cases, relationship anxiety may take the form of deliberately destroying things with your partner. It can be seen in the relationships where minor issues are blown out of proportion.
What are Relationship Anxiety Symptoms?
Experts describe symptoms of relationship anxiety in three common symptoms. It includes excessive reassurance, self-silencing, and partner accommodation.
Excessive Reassurance
It is also common in social anxiety disorder and depression. Some experts suggest that excessive reassurance is related to interpersonal dependency that refers to a person’s relevance to others for acceptance and constant evaluation. People with extreme ease may fear receiving a poor review or being rejected.
Partner Accommodation
It is a response from another partner toward the anxious partner. It is a common effect observed in relationships where people have obsessive-compulsive personality disorders.
Self-Silencing
It is another symptom shared across many mental health conditions. The Journal of Experimental and Social Psychology study showed that women sensitive towards rejection might be likely to engage in self-silencing to please their partner or protect their relationship.
People with self-silencing may not express their feelings, opinion, or tastes to their partners, especially when these thoughts are different from those of their partner.
How Can I Cope Up with Relationship Anxiety?
While feeling constant anxiety is uncomfortable, there are many ways to cope with those feelings.
Try to Communicate your Feelings.
To get over your anxiety, you must communicate with your partner. Low communication is the primary cause of the end of a happy relationship. So, talk to your partner about your dreams for the future, feelings, or expectations. Share your doubts and talk about your thoughts from which you are battling in your mind alone.
When you talk to your partner, uncertainties that encourage anxiety are avoided, leaving room for a healthy appreciation of relationships.
Do Not Worry More About the Future.
When your mind starts wondering about the fate of your relationships in years to come, it is always advisable to enjoy the present moment. To manage your anxieties, treasure your current reality and happiness of being with a person you have chosen and love the most and the person who decided to be you with at that moment.
Considering whether your partner will even be in your life in the coming years, or they find you desirable in months to come, only take away your happiness from the current joy.
Do Not Avoid your Anxiety.
It may sound counterproductive to embrace your anxiety while attempting to get over them. But, it is one of the most effective ways to gain control over your emotions. Are you anxious due to your past relationship experience? Perhaps you worry about not being good enough to love because you struggled with how you were in a past relationship. But, questioning the reasons for your anxiety in relation can help recognize the issues and tackle them.
Tips for a Healthy Relation this Valentine
The week of love is just about to arrive. But many people are struggling with the problems and anxiety in their relationship. We are here with some tips to rebuild a happy and healthy relationship with your partner this valentine.
- Remind your partner what attracted you to them: And while you are there, stop and think about the things that created a spark for you and your partner. What were the reasons you were attracted to your partner? What made you think about them when you were apart? When you remind those scenes, your mind will automatically get more attracted to your partner and help rebuild the relationship if there is any problem.
- Look at Old Memories: what was the last time you saw your old pictures with your partner? Grab some moments and recall your old memories and photographs with your loved ones.
- Spend Some Quality Time Together: A relationship with trust in each other makes you feel safe and willing to depend on the other partner. Spending some quality time together can build trust and make your bond stronger.
- Respect Each Other: A primary component of a healthy relationship is how much you value or respect your partner. Try to acknowledge their boundaries and act accordingly. If you wish to express your love through physical affection, make sure your partner is comfortable with that.
