Hi! I a do not have anxiety, however my husband of 13 years does and so does my 9 year old son. We have put a great team in place to help my son and I am confident as he gets older he will continue to get the support and develop the tools that he needs to be a happy young man.
Unfortunately, my husband and I have been separated for the past 4 months. A large reason why we are separated is due to his anxiety which he has yet to treat. In many ways his anxiety is the 3rd person in our relationship. His anxiety manifests as a mixture of OCD, compartmentalizing his life and a very large emotional wall that I have been trying to break down since we said "I do." Fortunately/unfortunately I am a people pleaser, and had a lower self-esteem than I would like to admit to, so I continually did what I could to keep my husband happy. He was so emotionally removed that for many years now I have been trying to prove to him that I am worthy of his love. More times than not I have felt lonely due to his rejection of my advances.
After some therapy and the revelation that he was having an emotional affair with his close friend from childhood, I finally built up myself enough to tell him enough was enough, hence the separation.
I am glad to say that through this separation and a lot of couples therapy, my husband has admitted that he should get help for his anxiety as that is playing a huge role in his emotional availability. He has gone to an incredible psychiatrist and has a prescription for Prozac that he has yet to fill. I am very proud of him for taking this step and pray that he takes the Prozac and the it helps him as I believe his life will be so much more fulfilling with his anxiety under control.
That said, I feel like this awful human being that now that he is at the point of potentially getting his anxiety under control, I am so emotionally exhausted and so much damage has been done, that I just don't know if I can keep doing this anymore.
If there is anyone out there that has gone through this and can provide some guidance I would so welcome it. Thank you!