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Health & Fitness

Why Caregiver Personalities Develop Anxiety

Caregivers are definitely adapting personalities. Although it may feel uncomfortable to think this at first, Caregivers are "dependent" on that approval.

In my last blog I ended with this comment:

There is a reason why the more adapting and approval-seeking personalities have more anxiety, panic and OCD symptoms. Their need for approval and want to avoid possible rejection or exclusion makes them fair game for the more manipulative people in the world.

All you caregivers, conformers, peacekeepers and perfectionists are really good people, but you need to learn to set boundaries with people who would take advantage of your adapting natures.

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So let’s look at the caregiver personality. Caregivers are definitely adapting personalities who want approval. In fact, although it may feel uncomfortable to think this at first, Caregivers are “dependent” on that approval to feel that deeper sense of worth and value, which gives them a purpose and meaning to their lives.

In order to secure that approval, Cargivers tend to develop a game plan of “being needed" by others. They develop a sensitivity to what others need, and we might call that “intimacy.” Often, they will give the proverbial shirt off their back as they are truly caring people. These are good people to have around. 

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Their need to be needed can become a compulsion, however, meaning, they over-extend themselves, can be taken advantage of by either very needy selfish people, or controlling and manipulative people. They must learn to set limits and boundaries when putting energy into helping others. They need to recognize that in their efforts to be there for others, they are all too often NOT there for themselves.

I often see Caregiver types experiencing panic attacks or obsessive-compulsive symptoms. What I have found is that those anxiety symptoms are often triggered by the conflicting emotions they feel as they gradually realize, often subconsciously, that they are giving more, but feeling less approval and respect. Instead, they are feeling taken for granted or worse.

Caregivers often do not express their needs for fear of appearing needy, and thereby losing their position as the caring person. In fact, there is a huge difference between having needs and being needy.

Neediness, in my mind, conjures up a picture of a selfish, self-absorbed person who feels entitled. Caregivers, like most adapting personalities, have needs and must learn to express those needs. Caregivers must also make better choices as to whom they invests energy into, because when the caregiver feels taken for granted or used, anger and resentment can develop below the skin.

That anger and resentment is so much in opposition to the caring and intimate personality, that it creates a sense of inner confusion, a sense of being out of control emotionally.

That conflicting set of emotions can lead to anxiety which can lead to symptoms which cause the Caregiver to feel even more out of control, i.e., panic attacks, phobias or intrusive-obsessive thoughts.

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