Helping Enneagram Type 6 with anxiety

[Miso Soup]

I wrote a post about how E6s operate on EIDB recently:


In short, E6 anxiety stems from lack of confidence in their own capabilities to deal with the world. When this happens, they forget about their own abilities and instead aggrandize the circumstances around them that bring them down, in turn justifying to themselves that they're helpless to do anything about it. The more they focus on the outside world, the more ungrounded and reactive they become.

Personally, the only real solace I can find in moments like these is to know that while there may be problems facing me, I am indeed strong enough to overcome them. By knowing full well what it is I want out of life, it becomes that much easier to place the external problems into context and deal with them accordingly. When a 6 is more entranced, it becomes that much harder to understand what he/she truly needs, so something from within has to break that cycle and take action to ensure that his/her desires come to fruition.

Yes!! Ahh! This is so true!
1. She has told me multiple times that she sees herself as being a weak person - that she admires me for being strong. Meanwhile I'm thinking, what are you talking about? I have done nothing that shows any more strength than you, other than having confidence in what strength I do have.
2. She talks about her family as if they own her - as if she has no say in what they decide for her and her life.
3. She asks me what I think of her personality, often. I suppose this could be a way she copes with her self-forgetting. She is extremely forgetful in general. I will repeat what I said before, that she has very little memory of her childhood. She asks me about how she was when she was younger as well. I answer her questions, but have always been puzzled by them.

In regards to your comment on how to overcome the anxiety, although I can't think for her, I will try to coax these kinds of thoughts out of her the next time she comes to me with her problems.

Thank you!

[jessica129]

3. She asks me what I think of her personality, often. I suppose this could be a way she copes with her self-forgetting. She is extremely forgetful in general. I will repeat what I said before, that she has very little memory of her childhood. She asks me about how she was when she was younger as well. I answer her questions, but have always been puzzled by them.

I have the same problem with memory. I honestly don't know if it's because I was on those pills for 3 years or if it's something related to anxiety. My childhood and teenage years and even some of my 20's is really hard for me to remember....like there's a few key points I remember but it's still cloudy and just seems like a blur. I'm also extremely forgetful when it comes to simple things like managing to get out of the house without forgetting a trillion things..i attribute that to thinking about so damn much all the time. It's such a curse.

[Creepy-pokeball]

#E6WorldProblems lol

[Creepy-pokeball]

What, lol...

[Absurd]

Man, to help someone with their anxiety probably requires that you understand it on an existential level. AKA this shit is kind of personal for each E6.

...although alcohol and drugs can probably help everyone on a superficial level, if it doesn't become an addiction.

ugh

Alcohol is a depressant and so are drugs that are used to slow down brain activity. It can become an addiction easily for you need larger does every time to achieve the same effects.

[strangeling]

Alcohol is a depressant and so are drugs that are used to slow down brain activity. It can become an addiction easily for you need larger does every time to achieve the same effects.

...yeah, I guess you're right.