While “high-functioning anxiety” isn’t an actual clinical diagnosis, it’s a phrase that’s become increasingly popular in the past few years and includes a cluster of symptoms that, in my opinion as a therapist, most closely aligns with Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), a diagnosis that is found within the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM).
Affecting roughly 40 million adults, anxiety disorders are the most common mental health issue in the United States. And “high-functioning anxiety” may be particularly common for ambitious, young, professional Millennials and Gen-X’ers living here in the Bay or in other major urban areas.
The tricky things is, those of us living with “high-functioning anxiety” may not recognize that it’s a problem that needs support because it doesn’t look like more “textbook” anxiety disorders where daily life is a lot more noticeably impaired.
After all, you’re still getting a ton accomplished and holding it all together, right? So it’s easy to assume that the kind of anxiety you personally experience may not be a legitimate concern that requires support. But it is.
Indeed, while GAD affects 6.8 million adults – with women twice as likely to experience it as men – only 43.2% of folks are receiving treatment to support it. And this is an issue.
Because the reality is that “high-functioning anxiety,” like any other anxiety disorder, has considerable potential side effects and impacts on your physical and emotional well-being if left untreated. And, like other anxiety disorders, it’s also highly treatable.
So my goal in today’s post is to introduce you to the idea of “high-functioning anxiety” and its accompanying cluster of symptoms described in a way you may be experiencing them and to walk you through ideas of supports to help alleviate these symptoms if you think it may be time to get some help.
Common Symptoms of “High-Functioning Anxiety”
1) Excessive anxiety and worry most of the time.
Call it apprehensive expectation, anticipatory anxiety, worry, rumination, etc., it’s mental state that you experience more days than not for 6 months or more.
This worry can and likely includes everything from worries about your career to your love life, the size of your thighs to the viability of your eggs, to not having saved enough for retirement to wondering how you’re going to cope with the family at Thanksgiving this year, etc. etc..
And, often, the amount and intensity of the worry you have is likely disproportionate to the event itself. In other words, everything feels like a really big deal when it, perhaps, isn’t. And even when you tackle and try to solve the thing that worries you, it never feels good enough.
2) You find it really HARD to control your worry.
You know all the tricks — three deep breaths, making lists of your worries, releasing it all on the yoga mat, meditating, etc. — and still, it falls short.
