What is the best way to manage people from reacting to my anxiety because I feel like it only makes it worse ?
9 Answers
Last Updated: 09/05/2016 at 11:56am
Moderated by
Tracy-Kate Teleke, PsyD, M.A., LMFT
Marriage & Family Therapist
I assist adults and couples in CA experiencing relationship challenges and interpersonal struggles including anxiety, depression, and a myriad of other life challenges.
Top Rated Answers
Anonymous
January 28th, 2015 11:16pm
I completely understand. There is little you can do, unfortunately, to control how others respond. Just know that their responses come from their own biases, fears, and ignorance. It is NOT a reflection of your worth as a human being, or your ability to function with anxiety. The more familiarity they have with you and seeing you function with anxiety will help them understand it better.
Anonymous
November 27th, 2015 1:51am
You cannot stop people from reacting, all you can change is whether you allow it bother you or not. People will genuinely be concerned about you and will react
Well, anxiety is nothing but the stage of fearing the worst. What is this happens.. what if they think like this... What matters is what we are upto. We know who we are. When we loose the confidence within we tend to forget our real Life source. The way our loved ones wait for us, the way they look at us when we smile. The way they wait for just a SMILE on our face. So when this BIGGEST TREASURE is with us why do the Other people have even a Single chance to stand between our life?? Hope this answers exactly. God bless!!
People will always react to your anxiety as if they would react to your joy, sadness or other feelings. We all are humans. This means that we care about each other's feelings. It is normal. You don't have to hide your feelings. Let them all out. It will make you feel better and it also makes it easier for others to understand you better. that is exactly what we all need, isn't it?
Anonymous
May 4th, 2015 9:45pm
Sitting down with the people you'd like to have stop reacting to your anxiety might be a good place to start at. You could explain to them that you appreciate their concern for you but that their reacting to your anxiety only makes you feel worse, and explain to them ways they can help you that don't leave you feeling more anxious.
i think just knowing for yourself that your anxiety doesn't control/determine who you are as a person is a really first step important. then you can explain to them that you are dealing with your anxiety and are determined to not let it control you...i also think its ok to choose who knows about your anxiety and who doesn't (i only recently became more open about my experiences with anxiety, before that only my really close friends and family knew about it)
Simple tell them. Explain to them that you don't need them to come fix you or your problems, because you're not broken. You simply need them to be a safe haven where you don't have to think about it.
To have open communication and tell people in your life how it makes you feel when they react to your anxiety.
Anonymous
September 5th, 2016 11:56am
Sometimes it helps to directly tell people to stop reacting to my anxiety. If that doesn't work, I apologise and leave the room saying I'd get back to them later.
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