Learn Hardcore Spanish (Latin America): La confianza en mi familia me ayuda a sentir menos ansiedad. - Trust in my family helps me feel less anxiety.

La confianza en mi familia me ayuda…
Literally: The trust in my family helps me…
This sounds a bit more general or abstract, like talking about “the trust I have in my family” as a concept.
Mi confianza en mi familia me ayuda…
Literally: My trust in my family helps me…
This explicitly underlines that it’s my trust.

In everyday speech, La confianza en mi familia… sounds natural and does not feel vague; context makes it clear it’s my trust. Using the article la with abstract nouns (la confianza, el amor, la paciencia) is very common in Spanish.

Why is it en mi familia and not de mi familia?

In Spanish, some abstract nouns use specific prepositions, and you mostly have to learn them as chunks:

Confiar en alguien = to trust in someone
La confianza en alguien = trust in someone

So:

La confianza en mi familia = (the) trust in my family

De mi familia would suggest more a relationship of possession/origin, like:

La casa de mi familia = my family’s house
Un amigo de mi familia = a friend of my family

But with confianza, when you mean trusting someone, you use en, not de.

Why do we say me ayuda a sentir and not just me ayuda sentir?

In Spanish, when one verb helps, teaches, learns, starts, etc. another verb, you usually need the preposition a before the infinitive:

ayudar a hacer algo – to help to do something
empezar a hacer algo – to start doing something
aprender a hacer algo – to learn to do something

So:

me ayuda a sentir menos ansiedad = it helps me to feel less anxiety

Leaving out a (me ayuda sentir) is incorrect in standard Spanish.

What is the function of me in me ayuda a sentir? Could you just say ayuda a sentir?

Me is an indirect object pronoun here:

me ayuda = it helps me

The structure is:

(La confianza en mi familia) → subject
me → indirect object (who is being helped)
ayuda → verb
a sentir menos ansiedad → what it helps me to do

If you say ayuda a sentir menos ansiedad with no me, it means:

it helps to feel less anxiety (very vague: who feels less anxiety?)

To clearly say helps *me feel less anxiety, you must keep *me:

✅ La confianza en mi familia me ayuda a sentir menos ansiedad.

Why is it sentir and not sentirme in me ayuda a sentir menos ansiedad?

It depends on what you want to express:

sentir menos ansiedad
- Literally: to feel less anxiety (feel something, a noun)
- Focus on the thing you feel (anxiety).
sentirme menos ansioso/a
- Literally: to feel less anxious (feel yourself in a certain way)
- Focus on your state (being anxious).

So you could also say:

La confianza en mi familia me ayuda a sentirme menos ansioso. (if the speaker is male)
La confianza en mi familia me ayuda a sentirme menos ansiosa. (if the speaker is female)

All are correct, just slightly different in focus:

sentir menos ansiedad → feel less anxiety
sentirme menos ansioso/a → feel less anxious

Why is ansiedad feminine? How do I know it’s la ansiedad?

In Spanish, every noun has a grammatical gender (masculine or feminine). You generally have to learn the gender with the word:

la ansiedad – anxiety (feminine)
la libertad – freedom
la felicidad – happiness

Many abstract nouns ending in -dad are feminine:

la ciudad (city)
la universidad (university)
la enfermedad (illness)

So we say:

la ansiedad
menos ansiedad (no article here, because we’re talking about an unspecified amount, like “less anxiety”)

Can I say menos ansioso instead of menos ansiedad?

You can, but the sentence structure changes:

sentir menos ansiedad = to feel less anxiety (noun)
sentirse menos ansioso/a = to feel less anxious (adjective)

So:

La confianza en mi familia me ayuda a sentir menos ansiedad.
→ Focus on the emotion anxiety.
La confianza en mi familia me ayuda a sentirme menos ansioso. (speaker male)
La confianza en mi familia me ayuda a sentirme menos ansiosa. (speaker female)
→ Focus on how I feel (less anxious).

Both are natural and common; it’s just a change from noun to adjective + reflexive verb.

Can the word order change? For example, can I say La confianza en mi familia ayuda a sentir menos ansiedad me?

No, that word order is incorrect. Pronouns like me normally go:

Before a conjugated verb:
- La confianza en mi familia me ayuda a sentir menos ansiedad.
Or attached to an infinitive or gerund:
- La confianza en mi familia ayuda a sentirme menos ansiedad.
  (This specific version sounds odd because of sentirme menos ansiedad, but the position of me is grammatically allowed.)

In your example, …ayuda a sentir menos ansiedad me is wrong because me cannot go after that whole verb phrase in this way.

The standard, natural version is:

✅ La confianza en mi familia me ayuda a sentir menos ansiedad.

How would you say “Trusting my family helps me feel less anxiety” using a verb instead of the noun la confianza?

You can use the verb confiar (to trust):

Confiar en mi familia me ayuda a sentir menos ansiedad.
= Trusting my family helps me feel less anxiety.

Structure:

Confiar en mi familia – trusting my family (infinitive phrase acting as the subject)
me ayuda – helps me
a sentir menos ansiedad – to feel less anxiety

Is there any Latin American–specific detail in the pronunciation or usage of this sentence?

Usage is the same across the Spanish-speaking world, but pronunciation has a small regional detail:

In most of Latin America, the z in confianza is pronounced like an s:
con-fí-an-sa (not “th” like in parts of Spain).

Everything else (grammar, vocabulary, structure) is standard and fully understood everywhere in Latin America.