WHAT IS ANXIETY?

Everyone experiences anxiety – it is a normal and healthy emotion. When a person faces potentially dangerous or life threatening triggers, feelings of anxiety are completely normal. Anxiety is our bodie's’ way of signaling that we are in danger to allow us to take the necessary action. This “fight or flight” reaction from our brains and bodies are necessary for survival. However, this “fight or flight” switch can be flipped even when we aren’t in physical danger. For example, this nervous or worried feeling may happen before a big life event or a difficult scenario when our mind is uneasy and attempting to figure out how to react. The anxiety seems disproportionate because our mind gets stuck in “fight or flight” loop related to worry and fear that we need to break. It can not only involves worried thoughts that are hard to control, but it can also manifest physically and cause physical changes like increased blood pressure, shortness of breath, perspiration, muscle tension and fatigue. Our anxiety can get so intense that it can negatively impacts work, school, relationships, and our overall quality of life.

HIGH FUNCTIONING ANXIETY

Even high achieving individuals experience disproportionate amounts of anxiety. Though they appear fine on the outside, internally they are experiencing underlying frustration and irritability, constant rushing, tension headaches, and racing thoughts. These remain hidden as they continue to perform well at work, school, or home.

Sometime when their anxiety creeps in, they cope by engaging in people pleasing, ignoring what is stressful or increasing their focus in one domain (i.e. work or relationships) but can’t manage both. Oftentimes, these people suffer in silence. The long-term effects of high functioning anxiety are still detrimental and impact a person’s cognition, immunity, and even digestion. It also puts that at an increased risk for other mental health conditions like depression or chronic physical conditions.

Often times, high functioning individuals believe that this anxiety is hard-wired into their personality, and because of their abilities, they believe they can “fix it” on their own or even worry that it means they are failing or lacking in a certain area. They don’t see themselves as being someone who has no motivation or experiencing disabling symptoms. Rather, they seem themselves in these ways: never as successful as they believe they should/could be, the success they do achieve doesn’t match up to what they desire, or they find that their friends, family, or coworkers are “more successful” than they are.

HOW DO WE TREAT ANXIETY?

Anxiety is generally treated with either therapy, or both medication and therapy. Talk therapy is typically directed at a person’s specific anxieties and needs. It focused on the patterns of negative thinking and behaving that are impacting our daily functioning. These can be situations, people or objects that we are avoiding, and can help you identify, challenge, and neutralize the disproportionate levels of anxiety caused by them.