Situation · Family and friends
“I get anxious for days before visiting my family”
What could be going on
You walk on eggshells around them: Fits if you expect to have to manage someone's moods there.
Triggers: Check whether certain people or places set off reactions from the past.
Hypervigilance: Could be scanning for danger learned in that home; check if you can't relax there.
Fear versus anxiety: Check whether it's a specific fear of one person or a diffuse dread.
Complex PTSD: Fits if the home involved long-term harm and the dread feels like the body remembering.
Questions to carry
- In the days before the last visit, which moment or person was I bracing for?
- Where in my body does the dread sit, and when does it ease?
Also said as
- dread going home for the holidays
- my stomach is in knots before seeing my parents
- why do I feel sick before family visits
- anxiety before seeing my mum
- anxiety before family visits
- dread visiting my parents