The four words you should say to someone with anxiety

Anxiety is a common disorder that can affect anyone at any time - in the UK there are currently 6 million people suffering from it according to the most recent Psychiatric Morbidity Survey.

It can lead to fears that people close to you will leave you or that your partner will break up with you.

Callie Theodore from Maine shared a Facebook post describing her experience with the disorder. ​

Her post, which has had over 136,000 shares, speaks of how important it is to find someone who "doesn't make feeling like loving you is a job"

Find yourself someone who doesn't make you feel like loving you is a job. Someone who will assure of you the little things. Someone who doesn't tell you that you're overreacting. Someone that will rock you on the floor in the dead middle of an anxiety attack. Find someone that no matter how hard you push them- they do not leave.

In the post she describes how she checked with her boyfriend is they were okay, and his four word response "very much so honey" meant so much to her.

She then shared a link to a YouTube video of her boyfriend about what it's like to have a mental illness.

Speaking to Refinery29, Theodore said

Always communicate when you're feeling anxious and allow your partner to comfort you. You don't want to keep your negative thoughts bottled up until they unleash. Don't settle for someone who doesn't even attempt to understand you.

Her boyfriend, Chris Briggs added

Dating someone with anxiety is like owning a beautiful house, but you don't have a key for it.

You can't just break the door down, but you have to find some other way into it. You know how beautiful it is on the inside, but you have to let the walls come down on their own.

You can read more about Anxiety on NHS choices.

HT Her.ie

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