Your Mental Health In Relationships
Being in a relationship can trigger parts of you and your partner that can impact mental health and interfere with the quality of the relationship. This can often be experienced as increased anxiety, depression or stress in day-to-day life. It's important to explore the underlying causes of these triggers, so that you can work toward a better understanding of each other's roles within the relationship.
Relationships & Anxiety
Dependence​
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Constant reassurance seeking
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Indecisiveness and decision paralysis
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Requiring constant communication from your partner
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Overcontrolling​
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Being critical or judgmental of your partner
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Inability to share tasks, including micro-managing
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Perfectionism
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Attempting to control their whereabouts and interactions with others​
Avoidant
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Suppressing or withholding thoughts and feelings
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Overrationalising feelings, responding to emotion with logic
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Physically avoiding your shared spaces
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Relying on alcohol and other substances
Anxiety can create many problems in a relationship, and is often the result of fear of rejection or conflict with your partner, which can prevent healthy communication. Signs of anxiety in relationships can include:
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Relationships & Stress
Stress is predominantly the experience of being overwhelmed, feeling as though you can't manage your responsibilities effectively. Signs that stress is impacting your relationship include:
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Reduced tolerance and patience
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Being irritated by another's mannerisms
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Increased conflict over trivial matters
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Inability to relax with someone else
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Divided attention when in conversation
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Quick to rise to anger and increased defensiveness
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Difficulty remaining present
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Relationships & Depression
People experiencing depression can find it difficult to connect with their partner, often trapped in the belief that they're not good enough and that they're letting their partner down. Signs of depression in relationships can include:
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Withdrawal
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Engaging less in conversation
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Not participating in social gatherings
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Reduced affection and intimacy
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Low Self-Esteem
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Feeling like there's something wrong with you
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Worried your partner doesn't think you're good enough
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Chronic feelings of guilt that you're letting them down
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Irritability
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Unpredictable mood swings
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Increased conflict
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Heightened rejection sensitivity
How can therapy help?
Reducing anxiety, depression and stress in relationships begins with understanding yourself better. From an early age, we develop different attachment styles, which 'pre-program' us to deal with relationships in ways that are not always healthy. Some of us tend to withdraw and retreat, others tend to latch on and chase, while some of us may simply self-sacrifice to the point of losing our sense of self. These unhealthy attachments lead to increased anxiety, depression and stress.
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Therapy can help to change these attachment styles to healthier and more stable approaches, which allow you to improve communication and assert your emotional needs. People who feel heard, supported, cared for and accepted, are far less likely to feel anxious, depressed or stressed in their relationships.
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To find out more, please contact us to see how Better Half Psychology can help you feel better in your relationship.