Do you have high-functioning anxiety?
This term refers to people who appear externally to have everything together but experience significant anxiety and stress internally. High-functioning anxiety is not considered a mental disorder but negatively impacts your quality of life on a daily basis.
Some symptoms of high-functioning anxiety include:
- Constant worry: A tendency to overthink and obsessively worry about various aspects of your life, such as work, relationships, and future outcomes.
- Fear of failure: An intense fear of making mistakes or falling short of expectations, leading to an excessive need for perfectionism and a constant drive to succeed.
- People-pleasing tendencies: A strong desire to please others and avoid conflict, going to great lengths to avoid angering or disappointing others.
- Overcommitment: A fear of saying no and a desire to meet everyone’s expectations, taking on excessive responsibilities and overcommitting yourself, leading to feeling of being overwhelmed and often irritable or discouraged.
- Inner critic: A persistent and harsh inner critic that generates a lot of mental chatter, constantly judging and criticizing your thoughts, actions, and decisions.
- Physical symptoms: Headaches, muscle tension, stomachaches, and difficulty sleeping due to the constant state of stress and worry.
- Difficulty relaxing: Unable to relax and switch off from your responsibilities, so that even during downtime, the mind may continue to race with thought and worries.
Everyone’s experience with anxiety is unique and not all symptoms may apply to every individual. But if you resonate with this list and feel that high-functioning anxiety may be affecting your well-being, there are many positive steps to take to manage and address these challenges.
Some symptoms of high-functioning anxiety include:
- Talking through the situation or task that is causing stress may help you see alternative solutions or give another perspective that will enable you to make different choices resulting in less stress and greater satisfaction.
- Recognizing the connection between your symptoms and your chronic stresses can bring some relief. Try acknowledging your challenges and give yourself words of encouragement and comfort instead of judgment.
- Make changes in your daily routine that will allow you even brief amounts of free time to let your mind wander and your muscles move. 5 or 10 minutes several times a day can make a difference.
- Support your body and mind by eating a healthy diet and avoid eating fast food. If you don’t have refrigerator access during the day, pack a bag of healthy snacks to keep your blood sugar and your spirits up.
- If you have trouble sleeping, before going to bed, make a list of the important tasks to accomplish the next day so you can let those thoughts go, knowing you won’t forget anything important.
- Like a professional athlete who is seeking optimal performance, consider adding science-based dietary supplements to your daily wellness routine. Research has shown that specific nutrients can help support your body and brain deal with the extra demands of stress. See www.brillianthealth.me/calm-one/science for more information.
- Seek guidance from a mental health professional if your anxiety becomes unmanageable.
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