Home Anxiety 6 Warning Signs That Indicate You’re Suffering From High-Functioning Anxiety

6 Warning Signs That Indicate You’re Suffering From High-Functioning Anxiety

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I guess when you hear the word anxiety, the first thought that comes to your mind is of a person who always looks worried, upset, and afraid. But, did you know that there’s a type of anxiety that it can camouflage itself? Yes, this wild beast can rage through your mind and body unnoticed. Its name is high-functioning anxiety.

People who suffer from this disorder have a significant level of anxiety, but they can still have a successful life, both at a personal and professional level. They can still perform their daily activities without feeling the burden of constant anxious thoughts. They normally appear calm and collected on the surface, although the way they actually feel on the inside can be quite different.

So, could you possibly have a high functioning anxiety disorder? Well, if most or all of the following traits look familiar to you, chances are you do have it.

Here they are:

1. You’re highly detail-oriented.

You pay a lot of attention to details because you want to make things as perfect as possible. You seek perfection in your personal relationships, at your work, and even in the physical appearance of other people.

The idea of making a mistake or not completing a task terrifies you, or I should better say, seems like the end of the world to you. Therefore you spend a lot of time and energy planning and organizing things so as to make everything perfect.

2. You tend to avoid risks.

What the average person would consider ‘exciting’ is definitely not something that someone who has high-functioning anxiety would enjoy. For example, riding on a roller coaster or watching horror movies is not exciting to those with anxiety at all.

Leaving their comfort zone and venturing into the unknown is what terrify them the most. Therefore, they do their best to avoid situations that trigger strong emotions in them and make them feel uncomfortable, worried, and afraid.

3. You often fidget.

People who suffer from high-functioning anxiety have nervous habits and they usually hide them in public. These habits include repetitive movements which help the person who has this disorder calm and free their mind from anxious thoughts.

The most common nervous habits these people display are: nail or lip biting, knuckle cracking,  tapping their feet, playing with their hair or an object, like a pen, or frequently looking at their phone.

4. You feel a strong need to control your environment.

Considering the level of stress a person with high-functioning anxiety constantly struggles with, they feel a strong need to control as many things as possible. In this way, they feel more in charge of life.

So, if you’re a person who doesn’t really like changes, especially unexpected ones, because they increase your anxiety, and you always try to anticipate and control them, chances are you’re suffering from this disorder.

5. You have rare but strong outbursts.

A person with high-functioning anxiety usually hides how they really feel or decreases the intensity of their emotions so they appear calm and collected most of the time.

But, suppressing and piling up your feelings inside of you together with your anxiety makes you feel overwhelmed and frustrated. And this can be really bad for you when you find yourself in stressful situations because chances are the bottled up emotions will come to the surface and cause you to explode.

6. Your mind is always racing.

A person who has high-functioning anxiety struggles with constant racing thoughts. They’re constantly overanalyzing and worrying about things. Thus, when you’re talking to them, their mind appears to have wandered off somewhere. They seem like they’re not paying attention to what you’re telling them.

Chances are they’re thinking about what to tell you in response or worrying about what you think of them. They worry about their future too and create all kinds of scenarios, mostly negative ones). It’s simply impossible for them to give their mind a rest.