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Claire, welcome to the program.

Hi, how are you, Dr. Laura?

Excellent. Thank you. What is causing you stress today?

Well, it seems to be there some stress going with family members on my husband's side of the family and I feel like I'm putting him in the middle of it.

And I want to see if there's a better way to handle things than what I'm currently doing.

Okay, slow down. Slow down. How old are you? How old is he and how long have you been married?

We've been married for 23 years and I am 47 and he's 47.

Okay. Do you have any children?

We do. We have 117 year old son.

Okay. So tell me about his family.

He has a lot of family nearby and my family is not nearby.

So we moved here a few years ago to be closer to family because we were a military family and we didn't have that support.

When my son was younger and I looked forward to having a lot of support being around family.

Unfortunately, I do suffer with long-term depression and anxiety and I find that it causes me to sometimes shut down.

And I see it feels like I think in my observations are that I have closed down on his family and I've kind of put him in the middle of it and I probably stress him out because I claim I'm not a family member.

Okay. Give me. I don't understand. I don't understand what you're talking about.

How does this cause stress to his family?

Well, it's not causing stress to his family. I must have misspoke there and I apologize.

I probably cause stress to him because I complain to him about the lack of a connection with his family over the last few years.

And I desperately want that but with the things that I struggle with, I find it hard sometimes to reach out and let them know exactly how I feel.

So instead I shut down.

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