Person with depression + person with anxiety

[nesy]

Hello everyone!

So, I have suspected for a loooong time that I have an anxiety disorder (possibly GAD with previous Social Anxiety when I was little), and many of my close friends and family agree. I have recently started dating a person who has depression, and I just want to do my best to support him as well as I can.

I do, however, realise that I worry a lot about them, how they're going, and if they're feeling okay. I just want to know that they're not getting too worried about me, but I do think that maybe I should be looked out for a little bit as well. I do not want to inflict the kind of anxious thoughts onto this person though that I have about them.

How do I keep this relationship balanced? A person with depression plus a person with suspected anxiety. He really does look out for me, but he's very in tune with his own problems and how he's feeling. I don't want to be a burden, but I think I may need to be cared for as well.

How can I make sure that I'm being looked out for as well?

[white knight]

Hi nesy, welcome to Beyond Blue forum

Only time will tell. My wife has depression and sleeps and sleeps when she is unwell. I have depression with mania, dysthymia and bipolar 2. So how do we work with this?

We dedicated ourselves to working as a team to achieve anything we need to achieve to keep our heads above water. When one is down the other can support and help pick the other up. When both of us are up we are in heaven. When both of us are down we have problems.

When we are both down we both acknowledge that we will clash It is not unlike both of us drowning and asking the other to come and save us. We know when this occurs we have to wait it out before we can get back to our normal selves. But sadly we cannot do this without an upset first. Once we recognise both of us are down we then see the light.

So regardless how you do it, what works for you, you both need to band together to get the teamwork going. Both partners can read up here on the others issues eg the anxious one can read up on threads on depression etc. Knowledge help a lot.

Good luck   Tony WK