How do I talk to my family and friends about my anxiety?

Talking about anxiety can be difficult, especially with the ones you love and know you best. I suffer from anxiety and I can tell you I have had some rough times. But it's important that your family and friends understand what you are going through so that they can help you overcome your life's challanges. I would suggest you collect osme information about anxiety. It makes you feel more human and less alien. Then tell your family you would like to talk to them about something important. Explain how you feel, tell them what they can do to help when you get an anxiety attack. Work on it together, don't feel like you have to be excluded from anything.

I personally asked my mother what it was like for her when she was younger as she suffers from anxiety herself, and from then on it was a lot easier to talk about it.

I think the best way would be to try to bring it up to them at a time with little chaos. I'd open up to them about exactly how you've been feeling.

Anxiety can be very tricky to explain to friends and family, because it may be hard for them to understand how difficult your thoughts and feelings may be, how they impact your daily life and what they can do to support you. It might be a good idea to think about what you want to say and maybe take some notes before you sit down with the people you would like to tell about your anxiety. Think about how to explain your experience and its impact on your life, and about what you want your family and friends to do for you. Try to use I-statements ("When I get anxious, I feel X." "That feeling makes it hard for me to Y." "It would help me a lot if you Z.") Also, try to describe your anxiety by relating to your friends and family. In what situation might they feel the same anxiety? For example: on a rollercoaster, just before a big exam, in a job interview... This may make it easier for them to understand your experience and may even inspire them to find creative ways to help. In a nutshell: 1) Plan the conversation 2) Explain your experience, relate to your friends and family. 3) Explain the challenges you are facing. 4) Ask for help (be specific, use I-statements).

Tell them how your anxiety makes you feel, how it can be sudden and unpredictable, and how it can seem to come from nowhere. Anxiety is a very real mental disorder and can affect everyday activities. Ask them for help some days when you need it, family can help.

There are many different ways. Some ways could be that you talk to one by one, or you can talk to a large group, or even small groups. Either way, they'll all support you because they love you.

It's often very difficult. Often family and friends also experience anxiety because you are experiencing anxiety. So they just want it to go away and they tell you stuff such as to be positive and that everything will be alright. If you really find a chasm growing between you and your family it might even help to ask a third person who can be neutral to help. It also helps to really know what you want to say and to insist on being heard. Also to tell them that you don't feel heard.

Open and honest. Your family and a few close friends should listen without prejudice. If they are not, you have to cultivate them to accept it.

Start with telling them that you feel something is not right with your life and you.. then highlight what all you feel is not okay with your life i.e. all the ways you feel anxiety is showing its outcome as(i.e. hint at anxiety.. and let them decide it inside their heads) and then slowly offer your explanation that you feel its anxiety.. and that you will need their help to get through it!!

Try to tell them that your anger is not from them in-order to listen then talk about your feelings.