high-functioning anxiety

high-functioning anxiety.jpg

 This is a form of anxiety which does not prevent you from functioning in your job, home life, etc.  Indeed it drives you on to perform even better than others while at the same time masking your underlying anxiety and feelings of inadequacy.  It can make you a little irritable as you strive for perfection while at the same time being haunted by a fear of failure.  You have a tendency to want to be busy all the time, and to overthink your actions and overanalyse the responses of others.  

 The solution at the moment seems to be a combination of drugs to help you relax and psychotherapy to help rewire your brain away from these harmful patterns and towards others that will give you a better night’s sleep.  This is not a clinically accepted neurological dysfunction but it is certainly one that is getting a lot of popular analysis at the moment.  The name is no doubt modelled on high-functioning autism.

Sue ButlerComment