How High-Functioning Anxiety Differs From GAD

High-functioning anxiety, at face value, can appear more like an overachiever personality or be misconstrued as something positive. It shouldn’t be confused with all good things or assumed that the person isn’t struggling the same as someone with general anxiety.

Most people think of general anxiety when the topic of anxiety comes to mind. General anxiety isn’t the only type, so it is important to understand an alternate variation.

The ABCs Of GAD

A diagnosis of GAD, or generalized anxiety disorder, stems from an excessive amount of worrying that significantly impacts day-to-day life. It’s a gnawing worry that occurs persistently over a longer period of time, generally at least six months. It affects around 6.8 million adults each year, and women are twice as likely to be diagnosed. While it can occur at any age, it’s more commonly diagnosed between adolescence and middle age.

Symptoms of GAD include nervousness, irritability, a sense of impending doom, panic, and trouble concentrating. Additional physical symptoms include an elevated heart rate, rapid breathing to the point of hyperventilating, sweating, tremors, weakness, fatigue, and gastrointestinal issues. Usually, GAD is classified with at least three of these symptoms. No matter the number, they often are so difficult to control that they interfere with a person’s ability to function or socialize productively.

What High-Functioning Means

High-functioning anxiety is harder to detect compared to general anxiety due to the nature of its presentation. It also doesn’t have a specific clinical diagnosis, so it isn’t always on the radar. High-functioning means life still moves along a normal course, whether at school, work, socially, or personally.

Those with high-functioning anxiety may not even realize they have it themselves. They tend to be productive people, high-achievers, and experience great success. Maybe even more than an average person. Seems almost contradictory to general anxiety, right?

Diving A Little Deeper

While high-functioning anxiety isn’t its own diagnosis, it doesn’t mean it isn’t real or that it can’t significantly impact a person’s life. Imagine going about your day, being very successful, but being mainly driven by this negative perfectionism and needing to address every possible thought that enters your head. You have constantly racing thoughts and a nagging worry about the most tedious points. These things consume you and then also drive your successes at the same time. So you mask your anxiety with false happiness or extroversion to carry on. The nervousness doesn’t turn off, so you just make it work.

What To Look For

High-functioning anxiety, as mentioned, is not so obvious. Things to pay attention to or red flags to watch for include:

Personality tendencies – being constantly busy, inability to relax or slow down, fear of failure, overly ambitious (to an excessive or strong degree), difficulty sleeping, people pleasing, or unhealthy coping behaviors
Work tendencies – inability to make decisions, being a workaholic, taking on too many projects, constant dissatisfaction with performance, panicking over minute details or mistakes
Relationship tendencies – being people pleasing, being afraid to say no, or always giving more than they receive in return

GAD Compared To High-Functioning Anxiety

With general anxiety, the body enters a fight or flight mode. In times of anxiety, they will withdraw from certain settings or situations to try to avoid the stressor. The need for treatment becomes more noticeable, and coping strategies are clearer.

With high-functioning anxiety, the body basically lives in fight mode. It makes them push through and hustle harder. The need for treatment is less obvious, and coping behaviors will differ.

There also is a challenge to getting treatment related to shame and the need to be right with high-functioning anxiety. If any of this sounds familiar to you or a loved one, check out our Anxiety Therapy page or contact us for a consult.

Tags: