A common issue we work with our clients here at Good Therapy SF is some type of high functioning anxiety. So what do we mean by high functioning anxiety? That’s not actually a diagnosis. Typically high functioning anxiety is likely to be diagnosed as something we call generalized anxiety disorder.
So it’s focusing mostly on a lot of worry thoughts, but a lot of internal distress as well that come with those thoughts. And sometimes this anxiety can be debilitating enough to warrant a medical leave. But often people are able to manage their daily lives, they’re just really struggling with the anxiety. So that’s why it’s more high functioning. People are managing to complete their responsibilities, but they’re suffering internally for it.
Some other kind of signs with high function anxiety. People find themselves worrying about their anxiety as well.
And then these folks also tend to be really critical of themselves and often they could be critical of other people. So they have high expectations for themselves and they help and they hold other people to these expectations as well. And with that, they often want to make sure as though they’re always coming across as competent.
So they’re really concerned about appearing silly or foolish to other people.
Often there is a strong sense of high achievement for these expectations, like I was saying before. And with these expectations, they can lead to feelings of burnout as people try to push themselves harder or inadvertently do the same things that created success in the past.
But they’re actually working against themselves now, so it’s creating more anxiety that they’re experiencing in the first place. As a result of these repeated, unhelpful behaviors, there can be sometimes a lack of self care. Such as overworking yourself or avoiding the healthy behaviors that used to help in the first place, such as eating well or exercise.
And then with this lack of self care, there can be a breakdown or an influence in your personal or work relationships as well. So you’re coming across as more irritable or moody to people.
High functioning anxiety can certainly happen to anybody. But generalized anxiety disorder, which is probably what high functioning anxiety is, is twice, women are twice as likely to be diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder as men.
Why this is? Perhaps, men are less likely to report their symptoms. But it could also be related to societal pressures as well.
So when it comes to this high functioning anxiety, cognitive behavioral therapy really is a good approach for these types of situations, often because it’s a very structured and goal oriented plan where we focus on the unhelpful behaviors, and the unhelpful thoughts. And it really gives people a direction, so people feel like there’s a set path for them to work through in order to accomplish their goal here. And that tends to really align with their mindset in these cases.
One case I had with this, with someone who is a high functioning anxiety person, a lot of their anxiety, was coming from the expectations they were holding for themselves at work. In this case, they did not receive a promotion that they thought they deserved and the justifications that they were telling themselves to why they deserved that promotion were the main reason why they were having this anxiety. So we took a couple different approaches here. Often. I try to help people see that just because the evidence that they are looking at might be justified, but I try to help them see the bigger picture through which their life is happening. And this sometimes is a uncomfortable experience for them. But helping people realize there are other competing goals in their lives with people around them and different situations can really help. They don’t have to necessarily like the fact that this has happened to them, but it does help them accept and therefore reduce the intensity of the anxiety that they’re experiencing around these situations. So with this person in particular, we use cognitive behavioral therapy techniques around these particular justifications that they were using, and we also use a more mindful acceptance approach as well, and that really seemed to provide the satisfaction that reduce the anxiety in this case.
And if you feel like you’re someone who’s suffering or working through some type of high functioning anxiety issue, certainly feel free to reach out to us at Good Therapy SF. Take care.
