Will People Treat Me Differently If I Tell Them I Have An Anxiety Disorder?

— -- Question: Will people treat me differently if I tell them I have an anxiety disorder?

Answer: Actually, those people who are most close to you probably already know if you have an anxiety disorder, because they've noticed that you're jittery, anxious, or they've seen you've had a panic attack, or perhaps if you have posttraumatic stress disorder that you have nightmares, or if you have OCD that you're washing your hands many times during the day.

So your loved ones, people close to you, probably already know. And in fact most of the time, it's a great relief to them to know that you're getting help, that there's a name and a diagnosis for what's troubling you, and that there's an effective treatment.

So for the people that you know who are living with you, who are close to you, those people will be relieved to know, and it actually will help them. So that should be shared with them. Now, in the case of an employer, if you are not missing work, or your symptoms aren't interfering with your job, there's really no need to alert your employer. And in fact you should know that no employer can discriminate against you based on a diagnosis of anxiety disorder.

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