hakone
06-03-2016, 08:44 AM
My wife struggles with anxiety and I have come to this forum looking for advice on how I can help her.
Short version of our background: we moved to a new state a year ago for a new job, far from either of our families. We have a 2 yr old daughter and my wife is pregnant with our second daughter. My wife has anxiety when I leave for work and she is left at home. Usually she will feel an urgency to leave the house while I'm at work in attempts to escape her anxieties. This pattern has happened for several years, with some days/weeks being better than others. She has experienced some bad panic attacks also.
She has only briefly tried medications because she did not see significant effects and she does not like to be on medications. She has been to a few sessions with a therapists, but does not go because she does not see the benefit. The thought of therapy gives her anxiety because she does not want to talk about it. She has difficulty talking to me about it. She does not talk to her family about her anxiety issues, so I am the only one that knows what is going on.
The current situation is that she has had building anxiety and has asked me to stay home with her the the past two days. Today is the 3rd day, and it looks like I'll be missing work again. This similar situation with work has happened several times before. Some days I am more willing to stay home from work to help her but I admit I do fight to get to work because it is my nature to not miss a day; so it is a source of contention (and anxiety for both of us).
I'm not sure how to help her short term and long term. Any suggestions would be helpful.
Short version of our background: we moved to a new state a year ago for a new job, far from either of our families. We have a 2 yr old daughter and my wife is pregnant with our second daughter. My wife has anxiety when I leave for work and she is left at home. Usually she will feel an urgency to leave the house while I'm at work in attempts to escape her anxieties. This pattern has happened for several years, with some days/weeks being better than others. She has experienced some bad panic attacks also.
She has only briefly tried medications because she did not see significant effects and she does not like to be on medications. She has been to a few sessions with a therapists, but does not go because she does not see the benefit. The thought of therapy gives her anxiety because she does not want to talk about it. She has difficulty talking to me about it. She does not talk to her family about her anxiety issues, so I am the only one that knows what is going on.
The current situation is that she has had building anxiety and has asked me to stay home with her the the past two days. Today is the 3rd day, and it looks like I'll be missing work again. This similar situation with work has happened several times before. Some days I am more willing to stay home from work to help her but I admit I do fight to get to work because it is my nature to not miss a day; so it is a source of contention (and anxiety for both of us).
I'm not sure how to help her short term and long term. Any suggestions would be helpful.