Hi. I was wondering if you had any sort of help for this predicament I'm in... You see, my parents are always saying that I'm "perfectly normal", "Just fine", and that I just don't get out enough so I'm feeling "a little depressed"... But whenever I try to tell them that I'm afraid of going outside, or afraid of anything, really, so it's hard for me to do things, they just tell me to stop using excuses... How do I get them to understand that their "solution" isn't helping at all?
I’m sorry your parents are marginalizing your problems. I don’t have any personal experience with needing to convince a guardian of the existence of anxiety disorders, but here are a few things I think may help:
- Emphasize the possibility that there may be an underlying problem that’s causing these fears. Stress to them that they need to take your complaints more seriously.
- Show an interest in seeing a professional about these problems. Assure them that, while you have all of these fears and anxieties about everything, you really want to get it taken care of and managed.
- Print (or if they’re tech savvy, send links) some pages of information about anxiety disorders. This would help them understand the seriousness of a potential underlying problem, some perspective on how much it can affect everyday life, and the fact that there are treatments available to help manage it (with varying effectiveness).
Some pages that may be helpful in informing them:
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generalized_anxiety_disorder
- http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/generalized-anxiety-disorder/DS00502
- http://www.uth.tmc.edu/uth_orgs/hcpc/understanding_anxiety_disorders.htm
I hope this is in any way helpful!
- Abi
