Re:Married to someone with anxiety
by deanCommie on Friday November 25, 2016 @12:36PM
(#13038362)
The first love of my life had severe depression. It was heartbreaking and awful. After we ended after 2 years (not directly due to the depression), I told myself that as much as I loved her, I would never allow myself to get in a relationship with someone like that again. It's too much.
The second love of my life had issues like anyone else, but the depression and anxiety didn't REALLY manifest themselves until a year into our marriage, after we were together for 6. I wanted to run. I wanted to quit. Not from the depression alone but because she refused to acknowledge a problem until it got REALLY bad. But she promised she would work on it, she promised we'd talk to a counsellor. I stayed. She went on anti-depressants. We talked to a counsellor. We got through it. Things got good again.
But they'll never be 100%. In the year since then, there have been 2 more dips. Each time, like the last, she refused to acknowledge a problem, I faced the decision "Well, either the person I love is a terrible person who I don't want to be with, or they're suffering from something, and I need to be there to help them." Each time she finally admitted a problem, and things got better. But she doesn't want to talk to a counsellor anymore. She's too stubborn, too independent, doesn't want to admit weakness. (Not because I would judge - I'm much more the empathetic and emotionally open of the two of us). So I don't expect us to be ever 100% again.
All this to say that I would give the exact same advice as you, thro32. If you still have the choice early, get out while you can.
The second love of my life had issues like anyone else, but the depression and anxiety didn't REALLY manifest themselves until a year into our marriage, after we were together for 6. I wanted to run. I wanted to quit. Not from the depression alone but because she refused to acknowledge a problem until it got REALLY bad. But she promised she would work on it, she promised we'd talk to a counsellor. I stayed. She went on anti-depressants. We talked to a counsellor. We got through it. Things got good again.
But they'll never be 100%. In the year since then, there have been 2 more dips. Each time, like the last, she refused to acknowledge a problem, I faced the decision "Well, either the person I love is a terrible person who I don't want to be with, or they're suffering from something, and I need to be there to help them." Each time she finally admitted a problem, and things got better. But she doesn't want to talk to a counsellor anymore. She's too stubborn, too independent, doesn't want to admit weakness. (Not because I would judge - I'm much more the empathetic and emotionally open of the two of us). So I don't expect us to be ever 100% again.
All this to say that I would give the exact same advice as you, thro32. If you still have the choice early, get out while you can.