With all of the info out there about Anxiety and the plight of those suffering from it, you probably think you know how to interact with someone suffering from this disease, but have you ever found yourself in a situation where a friend starts avoiding you or limiting contact with you, seemingly out of nowhere?
Unless you did something terrible and are too much of an ignoramus to realize it, chances are your friend has Anxiety and took a casual comment VERY personally, whether you meant it that way or not. For those of us suffering from Anxiety, it’s extremely difficult for us NOT to take things personally.
What follows is a list of things we wish our loved ones knew:
1. We are not anti-social!
It’s not that we don’t enjoy hanging out, but often doing so comes with so much inner baggage (Will they like what I’m wearing? What if I say the wrong thing? Do they REALLY want me there?) that it becomes easier not to go at all.
2. If we make even the slightest faux-pas we will disappear for weeks.
We’d rather not see the people who witnessed our misstep then risk having to be reminded of it.