My wife suffers from two very common disorders or illnesses. The first of which is depression which led to the second which is anxiety. If you ask her she would not be able to tell you when she first became depressed or started to feel anxious. She has often told me it seems as though one day it wasn’t there and the next it was. Her anxiety and depression has led her to develop even more problems and probably the biggest one was extremely low self esteem. My wife is in her mid 30’s and I feel confident in saying attractive by most mens’ standards but if you were to ask her she would tell you she is one of the most unattractive woman alive. She just has a very low opinion of herself.

My wife has been treated as being bipolar and this is most likely the cause of her anxiety and depression. Living life alongside someone with these conditions can be trying and takes a great deal of understanding. You can’t expect to understand every one of their moods or why they feel the way they do. Nine times out of ten they may not even know why they feel a certain way. When things start to go wrong or get uncomfortable for my wife her anxiety and depression really begins to show surfacing in the form of anxiety attacks which can be very scary. A side product of my wife’s illness is an extreme case of jealousy. We have been married many years and I’ve never shown an interest in another woman but even now my wife swears one day I will leave her for a younger better looking woman. Often times when we go out in public I will be accused of gawking at other woman many times whom I don’t even notice. When I first started a face book account I was met with a very angry wife who thought I might be using it to reconnect with old flames.

Reading all of this I’m sure it all seems very illogical and you may even ask why one would submit themselves to such hardships in a relationship but you must understand when a person is suffering from depression it may not be totally within their control to stop such feelings. Over time my wife has worked hard at finding ways to treat her anxiety and depression trying everything from antidepressants to anxiety medications but all have came with nasty side effects. At one point she went from 103 lbs to 135 lbs in a matter of months. My wife didn’t even weight 135 lbs nine months pregnant so this was of great concern to her. When she continued to raise this as a concern her doctor finally agreed to change her medications and she dropped 30 lbs in two months without exercising or changing her eating habits. I was floored by the result. I always believed the medication to be responsible but to see such drastic results in so little time blew me away. Since part of my wife’s anxiety and depression stems from her low self esteem losing this weight was especially important to her. Every little thing she can do to improve herself image of herself is a blow against her illness.

I don’t expect that my wife will be totally cured of her anxiety and depression any time soon but she is learning to cope with it and that is the most important part. The outbursts of jealousy are becoming more and more infrequent and I can’t remember the last time she went through my call logs on my cell phone. If you are living with someone suffering from anxiety and depression don’t take it personally. Trust is an important part of a relationship but they are suffering from an illness and that illness has symptoms. If you truly love them you will stand by them, remember that in sickness and health part, and help them to get the help they deserve. Moral support is after all perhaps the best known treatment for depression.

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