Your partner could be dealing with anxiety.

Your partner may be worried that their ways of expressing affection could be judged. iStock

Anxiety can cause many social issues for those dealing with it, but one thing that is not talked about as much is the impact that it could cause on personal relationships. Dr. Eric Goodman,clinical psychologist, speaker, and author of "Social Courage: Coping and thriving with the reality of social anxiety," told INSIDER that anxiety absolutely has the ability to decrease the level of affection your partner shows you and it has nothing to do with anything you're doing.

"The very nature of anxiety is to make people hyper-focus on either an internal threat or external threat," he said. "When anxiety is acting up, it becomes a challenge to focus on anything other than the perceived threat even when the situation you are in is something you'd normally enjoy. Affection just may not be on their radar. And, it is hard to desire affection when danger feels like it is closing in on you.

He added that if you're in a relationship with someone with an anxiety disorder, there could be the added phobic component that can interfere with affection. "For example, someone with social anxiety disorder might feel highly self-conscious about showing affection, especially in public. They might worry about being judged for not 'performing' affection right, like 'What if I kiss too awkwardly, what would they think of me then?'"