Life Tip Tuesday

One final thing that was very influential in my healing from anxiety was having supportive relationships. Specifically, my relationship with my now-husband. While I did have a bit of anxiety when we first started dating just because of the "newness” of it, he quickly became a source of comfort and emotional support.

We were friends before we started dating, so I was pretty open about my struggles with anxiety (and it was kind of hard to hide vomiting as a stress response). We talked openly about my struggles and my progress in therapy.

When I did get overwhelmed, anxious, or worried, he would comfort me and just hold me. As someone who didn’t learn to how to deal with difficult emotions growing up, just having his supportive presence was immensely helpful for me to process my feelings before they grew into anxiety.

Although not everyone has a significant other, I believe these kinds of qualities can be found in a best friend or even a support group. Having someone you can see (in-person) regularly, not as a therapist, but as someone just walking through this stage of life with you, is important.

Having a loving, honest relationship provides a safe place where you can feel your feelings. For me, talking with someone about it (knowing they wouldn’t judge me) helps me figure out how I truly feel and think about something. When I try to process it by myself, it can take 5x as long! Having this relationship in my life also gave me the courage to enforce important boundaries that drastically improved my anxiety.

Takeaways for Today:

• Your relationships can be one of your greatest tools in defeating anxiety

• Whether dating, married, or single, the most important things for a relationship to be emotionally supportive is that you both be honest and loving (platonically or not)

• If you don’t have an SO or friend that you feel comfortable turning to, check out local support groups or start one yourself

• Change is hard, but having people you can count on makes it all feel much more manageable

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Thanks for reading!

-Faith Smith