Does anyone's partner suffer from stress/anxiety?

fannyanna

Hi

I think my husband is suffering from stress/anxiety.

Lately he's been getting dizzy and the Dr's gave him medication for vertigo. Since then he's still been getting dizzy but only in situations when he's stressed or anxious. The dizziness then makes him more anxious. This morning I would say he had an anxiety attack. He's since been very emotional. He has a Dr's appointment later so we'll see what is said then but I think the dizziness is a physical manifestation of the stress and anxiety.

To be honest I'm kinda shocked. It's very out of character for my husband. He's normally annoyingly laid back. Having said that I can completely understand why he would be suffering from stress. I know everyone has ups and downs but there's been a lot of stressful situations of late.

I suppose my purpose of posting is to get some advice on how I can help him. I've been depressed before so can empathise with that but I don't think he's depressed. He's just struggling to deal with the stress of the current situations and that seems to be adding extra anxiety and making him emotional. Now I'm generally a stressy/high strung person but what he's going through obviously isn't the same so I feel like I don't know what to do to support him.

Oldernotwiser

What do you mean by "emotional"?

universalady_2

my partner doesn't suffer with it, but I do. I'm only just starting to be 'myself' and it's taken several months of CBT to help me. The dizzy spells were the worst thing for me, and relaxation tecniques helped ALOT, but TBH I needed professional help. My therapist uses www.getselfhelp.co.uk for sheets which help track and identify problems

Desperado99

I've found this site to be useful:

http://www.depressionforums.co.uk/

and this is a free online course to help with anxiety:

http://www.selftherapy.org/

I think the best thing is just to be there for him really, hopefully he will get some good advice from the GP. I've also found meditation to be good for relaxation, there are some nice guided ones on youtube.

fannyanna

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

What do you mean by "emotional"?

Crying. He's been feeling quite low and has been crying or on the verge of crying a lot today.

We went to see his GP and he's prescribed him some beta blockers to help with the anxiety for now and will see him at the end of the month to see how he's getting on.

faerie~spangles

Re' the Beta Blockers. I was recently prescribed them for HBP.

The best side effect ever is that my anxiety levels and dark moods have disappeared.

When I mentioned this to the doc' she said "yes I can see that."

BTW, I noticed the difference in myself almost immediately.

sassyblue

fannyanna, is it possible he can step away from whatever the problems are or delay decisions until he feels stronger??

He needs lots of support, TLC and quiet times to get his strength back.

sillysausage1977

Hi Fannyanna, my husband went through somthing similar, we had a lot of very stress full situations that seemed to happen one after the after, ranging from illness to losing his dad, with other things inbetween. He was very emotional, developed depression and was very anxious. He did do lots of things to try and help himself like going to the doctor and going to open minds. Though the most helpful thing he ended up doing was going onto Prozac. I noticed the effect very quickly. Maybe not the best way to deal with it. He is on the lowest dose but to me he is back to himself, yeah he still has moments when he gets down but he is getting there but it has taken quite a long time. I suggest you just be there for him and I know it sounds like a cliche but time does help. x

fannyanna

sassyblue wrote: »

fannyanna, is it possible he can step away from whatever the problems are or delay decisions until he feels stronger??

One of the main problems is the pressure he's currently under with his studies. I've suggested to him that he cuts back a bit but it will be dependant on his work and college.

I think I've been the problem as well. I've been feeling really low lately and have had a pretty naff 6 months because of health stuff (nothing major but it all really got to me). I think I've added to his level of stress so I just feel awful at the moment.

Hopefully after having a good talk about things and after taking the beta blockers for a few days he'll start feeling a lot better.