Maybe you’ve never considered the possibility that you have anxiety. On the surface, it seems like you have it all together. You might be holding down an impressive job, excelling in your college courses, keeping up with a large social circle, or making progress on exciting creative projects. But on the inside, you feel like you’re barely keeping your head above the water.
You always feel like you’re doing something wrong, no matter how hard you try. It seems like you’re working so hard, yet other people are always outshining you. You might struggle to sleep due to chronic stress. But despite your exhaustion, you keep saying “Yes” to new commitments.
If these symptoms sound familiar, you may have high-functioning anxiety. Here are a few common signs of high-functioning anxiety, as well as some tips for managing your symptoms.
Perfectionist Tendencies
People with high-functioning anxiety are often perfectionists. You never want to make a mistake, and if you happen to make even a minor error at work or in school, your stress levels skyrocket. You worry that you’ve let other people down, even if the mistake is easily fixable. This attitude extends outside of your professional responsibilities and applies to your personal life as well.
You might rewrite texts to your friends over and over again or replay interactions with family members in your head, wondering if you said the wrong thing. Sometimes, simply allowing yourself to act without analyzing yourself intensely can help you release these feelings.
Constantly Feeling Guilty
Despite trying your best at everything you do, you can’t help but feel like you’re always slipping up somehow. You frequently feel nervous before you send a deliverable at work or submit an assignment in school. After hanging out with friends, you fear that you embarrassed yourself in some way without realizing, or accidentally made an offensive joke.
On the rare occasion that you do have to turn someone’s request for help, or simply to hang out, you fret about what they’ll think of you. Remember, no one expects perfection from you, and guilt is often a result of being saddled with unrealistic expectations when growing up.
Rumination
Rumination is a common habit amongst people with high-functioning anxiety. You might spend hours reviewing certain memories, trying to think of how you could have handled certain situations differently.
You struggle to let go of past mistakes and failures, and you’ve never managed to forgive yourself for errors you made when you were young and didn’t know better. Instead, you keep beating yourself up for incidents in your past. Shifting your focus to another activity can help you break out of ruminating.
Strict Routines and Habits
When you have high-functioning anxiety, you feel like you need to maintain a strict sense of control over your own life or risk failure. Therefore, you might have highly structured routines that you try to stick to at all costs.
Giving yourself a relaxed schedule for certain days of the week can gradually encourage you to break out of these strict routines.
Overworking
People with high-functioning anxiety are vulnerable to overworking. You might feel like you have to work extremely hard to prove your self-worth.
Additionally, you worry that saying “No” to any professional tasks, or setting limits around the time you spend working, will lead to disastrous consequences, like job loss. Getting comfortable with establishing boundaries can lead to improved work-life balance, giving you more breathing room while alleviating your stress.
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A therapist can support you in managing and overcoming high-functioning anxiety. Reach out to us to learn more about our anxiety counseling services.