How do you deal with high-functioning anxiety that no one around you can see?

Question

I appear very calm and capable from the outside but internally I am in a constant state of anxiety and overthinking. I always prepare obsessively, avoid uncertainty, and lie awake running through scenarios. No one believes me when I say I have anxiety because I seem so put together. How do you manage this?

benjamin_taylor · Accepted Answer

High-functioning anxiety is real and often harder to address because it is masked by productivity. The very behaviors that manage it in the short term, over-preparing, over-controlling, avoiding, maintain and reinforce it long term. Therapy is usually necessary to interrupt the cycle.

sarah_m · Answer

The exhaustion of performing calm while feeling anything but is significant and often invisible to others. You deserve support even if your anxiety does not look like what people expect anxiety to look like.

How do you deal with high-functioning anxiety that no one around you can see?

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How do you deal with high-functioning anxiety that no one around you can see?

2 answers Most votes Newest Oldest

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2 answers
Most votes Newest Oldest