High Functioning Anxiety is a blend of three anxiety related conditions. The first component of High Functioning Anxiety is  people pleasing, which comes from social anxiety. Second, the physical responses such as heart racing, dizziness, tiredness, shortness of breath, etc. are signs of general anxiety disorder. Finally, the third component is rumination or obsessive thoughts, which comes from obsessive compulsive disorder. 

I had no idea that what I was experiencing was High Functioning Anxiety. I knew I had anxiety, but I never knew that I fit under the category of High Functioning Anxiety. Once I had awareness that I wasn’t alone and there were others out there experiencing the same symptoms I was, I threw myself into researching. Here is information from a fantastic article called “The Characteristics of High Functioning Anxiety” by Arlin Cuncic from verywellmind.com

Sign & Symptoms of High Functioning Anxiety:

  • Constantly overthinking

  • Excessive worrying

  • Striving for perfection

  • Insomnia

  • Trouble relaxing

  • Fear of failure

  • Trouble expressing emotion

  • Fatigue

  • Need to please others

  • Problem saying no

  • Tendency to dwell on past mistakes

  • Rumination

Some people might think of High Functioning Anxiety as a gift or a curse.
Below are positive and negative characteristics of High Functioning Anxiety.

Positive characteristics of High Functioning Anxiety:

  • Outgoing personality (happy, tells jokes, smiles, laughs)

  • Punctual (arrive early for appointments)

  • Proactive (plan ahead for all possibilities)

  • Organized (make lists or keep calendars)

  • High-achieving

  • Detail-oriented

  • Orderly and tidy

  • Active

  • Helpful

  • Appears outwardly calm and collected

  • Passionate

  • Loyal in relationships

Negative characteristics of High Functioning Anxiety:

  • "People pleaser" (afraid of driving people away, fear of being a bad friend, spouse, and employee, fear of letting others down)

  • Talking a lot, nervous "chatter"

  • Nervous habits (playing with your hair, cracking knuckles, biting your lip)

  • Need to do repetitive things (counting stairs or rocking back and forth)

  • Overthinking

  • Lost time (arriving too early for appointments)

  • Need for reassurance (asking for directions multiple times or checking on others frequently)

  • Procrastination followed by long periods of crunch-time work

  • Avoiding eye contact

  • Rumination and a tendency to dwell on the negative ("What if?" thoughts and dwelling on past mistakes)

  • Inability to say "No," always having an overloaded schedule, being constantly busy

  • Insomnia (difficulty falling asleep or waking early and being unable to fall back asleep)1

  • Racing mind

  • Others think that you are "difficult to read" (stoic, unemotional, cold)

  • Limited social life (turning down invitations)

  • Inability to "enjoy the moment" (being unable to relax and be in the present or expecting the worst in any situation)

  • Feeling intimidated by the future

  • The tendency to compare yourself to others (falling short of expectations)

  • Mental and physical fatigue

  • Loyal (to a fault) in relationships

  • Potential for alcohol or substance abuse as an unhealthy coping method

 

A typical characteristic of someone with High Functioning Anxiety is a high achiever, meaning they excel at their job, school work, home life, etc. Their anxiety often goes unnoticed as their anxiety symptoms are not typical to traditional anxiety symptoms.

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