Nervous Smiling
Hello everyone,
I joined 7 cups out of desperation. You see for the last couple of months I have developed some sort of social / behavioral tick if you will. This tick of mine is smiling when nervous or confronted with a serious conversation with my Fiancé. This issue started happening some time last year, but only happened every now and then. I was also able to control the urge to smile, and was able to push it down. The issue now is I have the urge to smile during almost all of our conversations, and as you can image this has caused her to withdraw from our relationship.
I've told her to please understand that what I'm going through is just a habit that is rooted in anxiety and stress, but she still gets upset as soon as she sees a smirk. With that said, I'm working on my empathy, managing my anxiety with meditation and also working on my relationship skills to really kick this habit.
Has anyone in this group experienced this kind of behavior in the past or currently going through it?
Any help / advice would be very much appreciated.
Thank you.
@intuitiveBranch4736
Hello! I'm so sorry to hear how badly this is affecting you!
I also experience something like that, when there is a scary/serious situation i smile or laugh uncontrollably. One occasion is my cousin fainted for a while and i started smiling and i was petrified because if anyone saw me they'd think i'm a joke and a horrible person.
Honestly i think it's just how we deal with stressful nerve-racking situations, i don't know how to control it. The sad thing is when you're in that situation, most other people won't understand and they'll judge you.
I know no way to help you, but i hope you find some comfort in the fact that you're not the only one❤
@intuitiveBranch4736
It seems as if this has been a most recent development and something that has happened during the time of your relationship with your fiance. When I say recent, not something that has been long standing over the course of your lifetime. Perhaps the relationship with your fiance is what is stressful? The mind is a powerful thing. It seems as if you feel uncomfortable, stressed out, the relationship is somewhat anxiety inducing. It sounds person specific to me. And now your fiance is becoming upset about this "tick". Have you considered that there are things going on in your relationship that make you feel uncomfortable, stressed out, anxious but you may not feel as if you have a voice to express yourself?
Maybe it could be good to consider these things before the "tick" becomes worse and starts to carry over into other interactions with different people?
