Is anxiety interfering with my relationship? Help!

[Hgolden]

Hi all,

Recently something very scary has started happening and I have no idea how to deal with it. I'm 23 and I've been seeing my boyfriend for roughly 2 years now. I was diagnosed with GAD and major depression at 16. He hasn't been my first relationship - I had two others prior to him but both were prime examples of what shouldn't happen in a relationship; infidelity on both occasions, physical and mental abuse on another occasion.

So my issue has been though I deeply love my boyfriend, I feel so emotionally detached from him - almost like I'm falling out of love and just thinking about it makes me tear up.

My current boyfriend and I are very close. We don't hide anything from one another and he's very respectful of my anxiety, my boundaries, and is really all around a great person. He's very supportive of everything I do whether that be my career, health, school, etc. as long as it's making me happy. I have had trust issues in the past with him, knowing he wouldn't ever do anything to hurt me but my mind wanders sometimes.

From anyone else who has experienced this, what is there to do? I hate this; I've considered him being the person I want to spend my life with but all of a sudden, I feel so detached. I do have other stressors in my life but this has been my primary one.

[designguy]

Hello Hgolden, yes it's common for anxiety to interfere with relationships. Anxiety thinking makes us mistrust our thoughts and feelings. Anxiety thinkings is catastrophic thinking so it's common to have thoughts about the worst that could happen. Detaching is a way to protect yourself from the hurt and pain that could happen if the relationship doesn't work. It's also common for people with anxiety disorder to have trouble with commitment as a form of self-protection. Understanding that a relationship is a mirror of what issues we need to work on and heal for ourselves can help.