3 Ways You Express Your Anxiety Toward Others (Unknowingly)

“Behaviours Become Your Identity, So Choose Carefully.”

Despite the age of modern thinking, psychological issues still come with a lot of social stigma. This is the reason why many anxiety sufferers tend to never show their discomfort in fear of being labelled socially awkward. Most people with anxiety tend to hide their anxiety and not show it to others. But most anxiety sufferers do not know or realize that there are several physiological, mental, and psychological ways in which they exhibit their anxiety toward others. 

Below are 3 ways in which anxiety sufferers unknowingly give off the feeling of anxiety towards others:

1. Behaviors at home

• You may struggle, even for hours, to get out of bed. Taking a shower can be unmanageable and tiresome, making you want to take a nap.
• You may go to bed as early as 9 PM and sleep for more than 12 hours at a time.
• You may keep calling your partner for the smallest reasons possible. Such behavior is not an attention seeking one, which others often misconstrue it as, but is often due to you not wanting to be alone.
• Being in a constant state of exhaustion and fatigue! You may also ‘not feel good’ on more occasions than not.
• You stay put in your room, not speaking to anyone, and watch TV excessively.
• You forget to eat for an entire day. Even when you feel hungry, you feel too tired to make the effort to get out of bed and cook something.

2. Behaviors at work and in social circles

• You may not speak much at a social gathering. Others often misconstrue it as rude or antisocial behavior. You may smile and laugh even though you don’t want to.
• You may agree to attend a party, but then give some awkward excuse and cancel. Anxiety sufferers behave in this manner because they feel that their friends really don’t want them at the party but are obliged to ask them. Hence, they sort of chicken out.
• Even when attending a party, you tend to hide on your cell phone. You may check shopping sites, read messages, watch videos, etc., and always try to avoid actual conversations with others. This is because anxiety suffers are anxious about saying something negative and want to stay safe in the bubble-world of their phones as I did for many years prior to my recovery through cognitive behavioural therapy.
• You may make self-depreciating jokes at parties; you may work below your potential to remain un-noticed and isolated; you may lack interest in your job or anything in your life in general.

3. Other distinctive behaviors typically regarded as not being ‘normal’

• You may drink excessively. It can be misconstrued by others as being a party animal, but the excessiveness is often due to driving away your anxiety and other associated deeper problems.  
• You may unnecessarily be rude, angry, and hurtful toward the people you love. You may not even realize that you are being so. When you do realize it later on, you may feel sad and awful about your words and actions.
• You may volunteer for everything, even for causes that you do not believe in. You may do so because your anxiety makes you feel obligated to avoid social confrontations.

Step 1 in any anxiety and depression recovery program is to accept what is, and that is that you have anxiety and depression. To admit it to yourself and others isn’t weakness but inner strength which opens up the doors toward answers. Answers that will in time show you how perceiving the things that currently make you feel this way can be shifted, and a new outlook and personality can be developed.

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