Welcome to Part 2 of The Couch Therapy’s High-Functioning Anxiety blog post! If you have not read Part 1 and are curious to better understand what high-functioning anxiety is before diving into what we can do with it, feel free to check out this blog post.
Common Struggles of High Functioning Anxiety
One common struggle when it comes to high functioning anxiety is recognizing it and figuring out what to do with it. So often, individuals with high functioning anxiety notice the feelings of exhaustion but insist on powering through to continue moving towards success. After all, that pattern of overworking themselves seems to be working based on their externally apparent achievements. However, over time the anxiety will build up and begin to impact their functioning.
Just because you carry something well does not mean that it is not heavy. In the context of weight lifting, the more weights you pile on and the longer you carry the weight, the more tired you get and the more difficult it becomes to keep bearing. That does not make you weak, it makes you human.For right now, your outside world and performance is going well, but it might be coming time that your body is burnt out and in need of a break.
Oftentimes, people decide to seek support when they start to struggle with their productivity or performance. Approaching taking care of oneself in that order can result in piling on and increasing the intensity of the anxiety. It is more difficult to get help and implement more self-care while simultaneously addressing obstacles with performance.
Why wait until then, when overworking yourself can result in burnout which will likely lead to that drop in societally-defined success? Why not address the overwhelm before it starts to more directly and heavily impact your daily functioning? You can start to proactively make changes and process the anxiety now, rather than in a reactive way when you are flustered and trying to regain stability externally and internally.
The fear in taking that step is so real. If you start to prioritize taking care of yourself and finding a balance, what will happen to your performance? There are so many elements of high functioning anxiety that have gotten you to where you are at and that can help get you to where you want to go. However, those positive aspects of anxiety can become a whole lot less helpful when the anxiety takes over and leads to burnout.
You might have a love-hate relationship with anxiety, and there can be space for both sides. You can appreciate its intention in pushing you towards growth, while still finding contentment and peace with where you are at right now. Rather than letting anxiety fully consume you or trying to entirely wipe it out of your life, let both parts exist. Approaching your anxiety with curiosity and self-compassion rather than judgment can give you space to do something more helpful with it. Anxiety isn’t necessarily bad, but taking time to consider what about it isn’t helping right now can allow you the opportunity to explore less draining ways to interact with it.
Utilizing Our Strengths
One way to begin navigating high-functioning anxiety is to look at the strengths that come with it and creatively explore how those strengths can be utilized in more aspects of your life. You don’t have to let go of those parts of yourself in order to also take care of yourself. You can care about your responsibilities and implement your value of hard work while still nurturing your well-being. Individuals with high-functioning anxiety have a variety of strengths including a strong work ethic, a detail-oriented mindset, personable social skills, organization, punctuality, passion, and proactivity.
These qualities can be incredibly helpful and are parts of you that have shined in the process of reaching your goals. However, the exhaustion that comes from the hyperactivity of those parts can gradually lead to the dimming of your strengths.
Since reaching certain goals, those traits may have expired for the purpose you were using them for, but that doesn’t mean that you need to stop using them. Maybe you can just start using them in new, more helpful ways. How can you use those strengths to take care of yourself? You can use your strength of passion to engage in activities that energize you. You can use your social skills to connect with people in relationships that fill you up. You can use your strength of proactivity to seek support now and minimize the potential impacts of burnout.
We would absolutely love to support you in your journey of navigating anxiety, finding balance, and creatively exploring how to embrace your strengths in the most helpful ways. Reach out to info@thecouchtherapy.org for a free 15-minute consultation.
Comments