High-Functioning Anxiety: When to Seek Treatment in Illinois
High-functioning anxiety means you experience chronic anxiety, but it doesn’t stop you from doing everyday things. In many cases, this anxiety even drives people to function and helps them excel. Since these people are worried about failure, don’t want to get embarrassed, and always want to outperform themselves, they actually ace certain things.
However, this constant overactive state is terrible for your nervous system. When you just can’t relax, your thoughts race, and you keep trying to be better, it’s a recipe for chronic exhaustion. In case you don’t handle this high-functioning anxiety, it starts affecting your relationships and inner peace because there’s just always something to worry you out.
And interestingly, many don’t even know when to seek treatment for this kind of anxiety because it’s their normal state. But little do they realize there is a very peaceful life outside this constantly noisy bubble, and proper treatment is needed to achieve that.
If you have knots in your stomach before doing something and can hardly stop stressing, read on to know when it calls for professional help.
When to Seek Treatment for High-Functioning Anxiety?
High-functioning anxiety could mean you perform better at work and in general life things, but it doesn’t stop there. Even if it helps to some extent, your brain and body pay for the undue pressure it brings.
Here are some signs that your anxiety, even if it’s not impairing your daily life functions, needs treatment:
You Can’t Just do Nothing
If downtime feels wrong and stillness makes you uneasy or guilty, it means you have high-functioning anxiety. Sometimes you just can’t simply be and need to be doing something to feel okay. Therefore, you feel every gap in your routine with something to cope with that uneasy feeling.
So if resting without purpose feels threatening and brings along guilt of not doing something, anxiety treatment will help you. It’ll ensure you overcome this undue pressure of being productive and not go hard on yourself. Sometimes we unknowingly stretch ourselves thin, which burns us out mentally and physically. But expert help, such as talk therapy or grounding exercises, can fix this.
Your Body Remains Tense
Anxiety in any form can keep your body tense, and sometimes you don’t even know what’s causing it. For example, if you have headaches, tight chest, clenched jaw, stomach issues (especially before or while doing something), it means your body is facing the consequences of anxiety.
If you experience any of these problems when something is about to happen, discuss it with a mental health expert to find a way out. And once you get over these challenges, you can likely perform even better at work and other things in life.
Everything Spirals
Anything small can make your thoughts spiral. For example, if someone doesn’t reply to your text right away, says something ambiguous, or you make a small mistake, your brain immediately jumps to the worst version of what it could mean. And most of the time, this spiraling isn’t momentary; instead, it might stay in your system and keep you on edge.
That’s why you should talk to a professional to break that exhausting loop, so you can start taking things at their face value instead of reading too much between the lines.
Constant Need for Reassurance
Anxiety makes us crave reassurance from others, even if we’re clearly more qualified or skilled than they are.
For instance, you might ask people if things are ok between you and them; might assume your colleagues think your work is terrible (even if it’s not at all); or never feel confident in yourself.
If these are normal occurrences in your life, seek therapy to become more grounded and self-assured enough not to seek external validation.
Saying ‘No’ Feels Dangerous
Most of us struggle with setting boundaries and saying no to things that clearly make us uncomfortable. You also probably overcommit because declining feels like it will cost you something. And since you also seek others’ approval and appreciation, you assume that your reputation will be harmed if they don’t like you. So even if you resent it, you agree to others’ requests and burn yourself out.
Needless to say, all these scenarios affect your mental peace and physical health, so take an expert’s help to handle them more smartly.
Exhaustion for No Clear Reason
If your life looks functional from the outside, but you’re perpetually tired from all those mental marathons that anxiety makes you run, put a stop to it with treatment. High-functioning anxiety can even make a simple conversation exhausting because you’re hyper-engaged in it and try to fill the awkward silences just so no one is awkward.
However, you don’t have to do all that because it only drains your energy. Luckily, anxiety treatment can help you in this aspect and teach you to set clear boundaries without constantly doubting yourself.
Avoiding Things Because Almost Everything Makes You Anxious
Since high-functioning anxiety makes you operate at a certain energy level (which is more tiring and time-consuming), you might avoid certain things just to not go through all that.
Even if one can do the said thing without the anxiety, racing heart, and knotted stomach, it’s not possible for your high-functioning anxious self, so you opt out. It might cost you, so seek treatment.
You Haven’t Felt Calm in a Long Time
If you can’t remember what it feels like to be at rest in your own head, it means you haven’t felt calm in a long time. So get over the self-inflicted pressure and live in a state where your fight-or-flight mechanism isn’t always activated.
Simply discussing your persistent stress and overwhelm with a compassionate mental health expert will fix half the problem. And the rest you can do with the exercises and skills you learn during therapy.
You Aren’t Supposed to Be on Edge Always
Treating high-functioning anxiety is like removing a huge rock from your shoulders that was always weighing you down. If you’re ready to live a more relaxed and intentional life where small things don’t overwhelm you, Forrest Behavioral Health will help you with it. Let’s discuss and get to work!
