5 Self-care Techniques If Your Partner Is Diagnosed With Anxiety Or Depression
by Manpreet Lehal, LPC, LPCS
Raleigh, NC
Anxiety disorder or depression is a common ailment in our society today and if not diagnosed and treated it can cause severe harm to the sufferer. For those with the disorder of anxiety or depression, the experience can best be described as horrible and nightmarish.
But while most of the talk about anxiety or depression is always about those with the condition, there are other sets of people that need to be talked about, and they are the partners of those with the condition.
Just like I have already stated above that living with anxiety or depression can be one hell of an experience. But it is just as difficult for the partners of those with the condition.
Being the partner of an anxiety or depression victim makes you a first-hand witness of the condition, and the feeling can be unimaginably tough. Watching our partners suffer is one thing we find difficult to put up with, and the tendency to help naturally builds up.
However, the task of helping a partner through anxiety or depression can be a very demanding one, but there are ways you can go about it.
So if you don’t mind, let’s dig in and take a look at some of these ways, shall we?
- Be Understanding
It is true your partner has an illness, but it is just as true also that he or she is not the cause of the ailment.
Remembering how the feeling of sickness/pain can drain a person’s strength and cultivating the habit of showing understanding is the first step you can take towards helping your partner.
- Improve Self Care
Being a first-hand witness to your partner’s mental illness can affect you just about the same way it affects your partner.
Therefore, it is important you subject yourself to self-care activities. You can do this by engaging in such activities like socializing and exercising etc. You can also treat yourself to mind-calming or stress alleviating indoor activities like quiet bubble baths.
Such self-care activities are important because they help you stay strong to be able to take care of your partner.
- Get Good Hours of Sleep
Everyone at one point or the other must have woken up feeling refreshed having been stressed out before falling asleep. That’s how powerful sleep can be in helping us overcome stress which can cause anxiety or depression.
But what happens when we don’t sleep well enough? Studies have shown that lack of sleep can negatively affect a person’s judgment and give rise to poor emotional control and so on.
So it is important you have a regular bedtime to improve your sleeping hours. To do this, you need to refrain from such activities like; late evening screen engagement (TVs and computers), excessive alcohol consumption, etc.
This way, you will be able to maintain a positive attitude towards your partner who is a sufferer of anxiety or depression.
- Ignore the Negatives
The last thing you should as a partner to an anxiety or depression victim is to forget how sweet your partner can be when he or she isn’t experiencing anxiety or feeling depressed.
Therefore, it will do you a world of good if you can reminisce more on the positive sides of your partner than solely focusing on his or her feeling when he or she is experiencing anxiety or depression.
- Exercise
Most people find it difficult to exercise when anxiety or depression gets the better of them. But, do you know?
Research has shown that exercise is very effective at helping to release stress-relieving neurochemicals throughout our bodies. So it will serve you and your partner well to engage regularly in exercises. Such activities may include; walking with your partner to the grocery store or go running or jogging in a local park.
Whichever you choose to get it done, just be aware that exercise can naturally help in relieving your depressed or anxious partner.
Loneliness can worsen the severity of anxiety or depression. It is therefore unhealthy for anxiety or depression victims to go through the experience alone. The importance of us reaching out to our loved ones suffering from mental illness can therefore not be overemphasized. Of course, it can be challenging, but you can always seek external help by consulting a specialist if the going gets too tough.
Manpreet Lehal, LPCS, is a counselor & founder of Wake Counseling & Mediation, PLLC. She also has certification in Family & Divorce Mediation & Parent Coordination.
