Do You Have High Functioning Anxiety?
Do you second guess or doubt yourself? Do you feel the need to control the things around you? Are you seen as a perfectionist? These can all be signs of high-functioning anxiety, and it’s real!
Sometimes it can go hidden for an extended period since people with this type of anxiety can manage daily tasks and often succeed in what they are doing, thus not raising concerns among family or friends. A “production-obsessed” culture can further reinforce high performance where validation and praise encourage those to perform at top levels. These individuals often seek therapy and professional help later than those with anxiety that impacts their daily functioning and lives. The mental load it takes to maintain the level of functioning can be overwhelming and cause anxiety, self-criticism, and distress.
What’s high-functioning anxiety?
High-functioning anxiety is when you experience anxiety symptoms while also being able to manage daily tasks, such as work and personal relationships. Anxiety symptoms may manifest as intrusive thoughts, overwhelming emotions, sleeping difficulty, perfectionism, stress, and fatigue.
Folks living with high-functioning anxiety often ignore their mental health and don’t seek help because they can succeed despite their symptoms. Their anxiety can even be seen as a driving factor for their ability for high performance. Even though it may be viewed positively as being an over-achiever, the tradeoff is the emotional and mental toll it takes to maintain their current level of functioning.
What causes high-functioning anxiety?
Having parents who pushed for academic achievement and success
Having parents who were not emotionally available and/or were punitive
Chronic stressful environments
Perfectionism (often stemming from trauma and fear of failure)
Personality traits such as nervousness or shyness
Health issues such as thyroid disorder or heart problems
High functioning anxiety in the workplace
The workplace is where folks with high-functioning anxiety typically excel; they are the top performers that take on extra tasks and projects, often doing more than what is expected, are always eager and “on” when interacting with colleagues, and feel a strong sense of pride in their production and outcome. However, this way of functioning is often not sustainable, leading to burnout and resentment.
High-functioning anxiety can sometimes lead to burnout since it can go undetected. Once burnout has been met, depression may occur. Depression may show up as a lack of motivation, lethargy, trouble sleeping, lack of emotions, and no longer feeling excitement for the things that once caused joy.
Thus, you must catch anxiety symptoms and manage them before it becomes too overwhelming and impacts your mood and overall wellbeing.
High functioning anxiety in relationships
People who live with high-functioning anxiety may have a hard time communicating their needs and boundaries in relationships; this is due to perfectionism and people-pleasing tendencies where they would feel fear of getting their needs met. Instead of direct communication, what can happen is over assumptions or interpretations of what their friends or partners are feeling, often projecting their insecurities or personal experience to make sense of the dynamics around them. This relates back to the control tendencies that come out to ease anxieties. However, assessing relationships and the people around them takes a lot of mental and emotional effort daily.
How to cope with high-functioning anxiety?
Identify your trigger. When do you feel the most anxious? Is it a person, a place, or a task? Learning the patterns of when your anxiety flares up is the first step in addressing the problem.
Identify your values. Please take a moment to reflect on what’s important to you and let go of the things that are not on the top of your list because you’re most likely unable to do it ALL without sacrificing your health and wellbeing.
Practice mindfulness. Research shows that 5 minutes of daily meditation can relieve stress and increase focus. Wake up 5 minutes earlier than you usually would and set a timer to be mindful. The purpose is not to have a clear head with no thoughts but to be in your current state without trying to control and notice what happens.
Eat nutritious, balanced meals. Don’t skip meals! You may be extremely busy and often on the go, but setting a time to eat is a way to take care of your body and ensure you have the energy for your day.
Sleep at least 7-8 hours a night. Sleep is the foundation of our health.
Practice breathing. When you notice your thoughts starting to race or anxiety coming online, take a minute and breath in your nose and out of your mouth until you feel more regulated.
Keep a thought journal. This relates to triggers; notice that thought patterns that activate the anxiety. Challenge the thoughts and see if they are rooted in reality or based on distortions. Name that if they are based on distortions, and practice letting it go.
Practice compassion. This one may be difficult since often we are our harshest critics, however, start slow and know that you are trying your best and remind yourself that.
Therapy treatment for high-functioning anxiety
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is an evidenced-based modality where we reexamine your thought patterns to identify the root cause of your anxiety. Finding the root will help build awareness of your inner world—with attention, we can introduce coping techniques to challenge your thought patterns, reframe anxious thoughts into more balanced ones and ultimately change the narrative surrounding yourself, which can help you move past the anxiety.
Somatic Experiencing Therapy is an evidenced-based body-centered modality that can help you locate the feeling of stress and anxiety in your body and then move towards releasing them. Anxiety can be stored on a physical level which can impact your overall health,
By working holistically with your mind and the body, you can build more resiliency in your nervous system to guide you beyond stress and self-doubt to create healthier behavioral patterns that align with your desires.
You are also welcome to learn more about my approach as a psychotherapist and contact me if you need more support with your journey.
