Those who experience strong apprehension in relationships continually fear that something bad might happen. This apprehension can become dysfunctional.
The quality of life of people who constantly experience apprehension in relationships can be seriously damaged since the disruptive anxiety with which they live can seriously compromise their well-being, both in private affections and in social and work exchanges.
Apprehension in relationships: when it is dysfunctional
L ‘ apprehension in the relationship becomes dysfunctional and a clear sign of anxiety disorder , usually of a generalized anxiety disorder , when it exceeds what may be commonly considered a normal concern.
While it is understandable for a parent to worry that their 5-year-old child might fall off his bicycle and get hurt if he jumps downhill at full speed, it is not so obvious that forbidding the child to go out and play or expressing this same kind of apprehension is. towards an adult son.
The anxiety underlying a dysfunctional apprehension becomes excessive, difficult to control, interfering with the person’s work and social activities and often invasive even for those who are affected by it. In these cases the person perceives and manifests a perennial apprehension – regardless of a specific reason – about the future , economic issues , the most varied circumstances of life and, last but not least, the health of friends and family .
This anxious apprehension can involve physical and cognitive symptoms, it does not reach the proportions of a panic attack , but it constantly keeps the person in a psychophysical state of stress and alert.
Apprehension and fear of death
In these cases, in people who manifest apprehension in relationships in a dysfunctional way, there may be intrusive thoughts about the fear of death , their own and / or others, of illness, catastrophe or financial crisis .
These mental scenarios are presented even in the absence of an actual problem or by amplifying what can be a real difficulty. For those who are in relationship with these people it can be very difficult to understand the causes of this apprehension which appears intrusive and unjustified .
Often the person requires continuous reassurance and may be involuntarily demanding and controlling towards friends and family in an attempt to prevent any unforeseen and accidents that may happen to them.
Those who are the object of these apprehensions may try to comply with it, without however this serving to reassure the other in a lasting way, or be led to implement attitudes of impatience and rejection, thus increasing the relational detachment.
Apprehension and anxiety disorders
If the apprehension in relationships appears excessive and interferes with the person’s freedom, it is often attributable, as mentioned, to a dysfunctional anxiety that can configure a real generalized anxiety disorder .
This disorder is free from the dramatic peaks of panic attack episodes , but imprisons the person in a chronic anxious state that interferes with all important activities and relationships.
Often this type of anxiety is attributable to a substantial fear of abandonment , irrational but very powerful so as to keep the psyche “in check”, which can concern more or less deep levels of the personality.
Although in many cases it is considered advisable to evaluate the use of pharmacological support , it is not necessarily the case that this is always appropriate or welcome.
These people, precisely because of the strong fear of abandonment that connotes them at deep levels, can show a strong resistance to feeling dependent on someone or something and therefore refuse a drug therapy, at least at first.
A path of psychotherapy can promote both adherence to pharmacotherapy in the event that the severity of the symptoms – or the patient’s lifestyle – requires it; both to help the person to work on the causes of anxiety and to build greater emotional security and consequently a better management of distance in relationships from which they can derive greater gratification and fulfillment.
