High-Functioning Anxiety: Unmasking the Hidden Path to Burnout - Video Transcript

Hi everyone. I'm Kristen, the anxiety therapist. And today, I want to talk about the connection between high-functioning anxiety and burnout. We hear a lot about anxiety in a more generalized sense. But so you might not be familiar with the term high functioning anxiety.

But this is characterized by individuals who outwardly appear calm, competent, and successful while internally, they're battling this relentless worry and self-doubt and trying to meet these sorts of self-imposed high standards. And so they often push themselves to excel in various domains of life, whether it's career, relationships, parenting, or personal achievements. But despite any of their achievements, these individuals tend to live in this constant state of apprehension, fear of failure, and really seeking external validation from others because they don't have that sense of internal validation and confidence.

On the surface, they're going to appear cool, calm, and collected. But then beneath that facade, there's really an immense struggle that often goes unnoticed. So perfectionism is a common trait among those with high-functioning anxiety. They have these exceedingly high expectations or standards for themselves and then feel compelled to meet or exceed them at all costs 

This can be really mentally and emotionally exhausting because it's driven by an underlying fear of failure or disappointing others. There's this pressure to sort of maintain the appearance of being in control, which leads to chronic stress that further fuels the cycle of anxiety and can lead to burnout if it's not addressed or managed.

There's also endless worry and overthinking. So there's sort of this constant stream of worry. Individuals with high-functioning anxiety often have racing thoughts and are kind of hyper-aware of potential negative outcomes. They might excessively analyze or overthink situations and try to sort of anticipate every possible problem and plan for all contingencies.

This overactive mind can be really overwhelming and draining to mental and emotional energy, which leaves us more susceptible to burnout. It can also really cause some sleep issues such as difficulty falling asleep or frequent wakings throughout the night.

There's also this relentless need for validation. So, one of the underlying drivers of high-functioning anxiety is this need for external validation. People are constantly seeking approval and affirmation from others and fearing criticism or rejection. So this need for validation then further fuels this overachievement and perfectionism. And this just sort of perpetuates the cycle of high-functioning anxiety.

So there's this pressure to meet expectations, both self-identified and external, and that becomes a really heavy burden to bear. And so again, this can contribute to chronic stress and eventually lead to burnout. So if high-functioning anxiety continues and is not addressed or managed, it's just not sustainable and it's going to take a toll. And so burnout really becomes an imminent threat.

And so when I'm talking about burnout, this is a state of physical, mental, and emotional exhaustion that's caused by chronic stress. So it can manifest in an array of different ways, including feeling sort of detached, you can have a reduction in motivation or productivity. A sense of hopelessness, feeling just fatigued all the time. There can be a sense of apathy like you don't really care about anything. This relentless cycle of anxiety combined with the pressure to perform and that constant worry really drains our energy reserves and leaves us particularly vulnerable to burnout.

So how do we break this cycle?

We need to recognize and address high-functioning anxiety, and this is essential to preventing burnout. And it's really important to utilize some of the strategies that I'm about to share with you to help with that.

Five things that can really help manage that high-functioning anxiety in addition to preventing burnout.

1.Self-Care

When we're thinking about self-care. This is going to refer to activities such as exercise, certain relaxation techniques like meditation and practicing mindfulness, and hobbies to reduce stress and promote emotional well-being. And it also refers to habits or routines that we have daily. And I'm gonna do a separate video related to that because I just, I don't have enough time to go into all that here.

2. Setting Boundaries

We need clear boundaries in our personal and professional lives and learn how to say no and avoid over-commitment. This is because the difficulty in setting boundaries was very evident during the pandemic when everyone was working from home. So there was no clear distinction between personal and professional life.

And that lack of boundaries is what sort of led to this uptick in anxiety, depression, substance abuse, and a lot of other mental health issues, not to say that there weren't other contributing factors obviously from the pandemic, but the lack of boundaries was a big one.

3. Seeking Support

Reaching out to trusted friends, family members, and mental health professionals like therapists who can provide support, guidance, and help to put things in perspective. Because sometimes when we're in it, we have a hard time seeing the bigger picture.

4. Challenging Perfectionism

We really want to be aware of our expectations and what's unrealistic and just be aware of our perfectionistic tendencies. And just set more realistic goals and focus on progress rather than outcomes. So, perfectionists tend to have sort of a fixed mindset and are very focused on those outcomes or accomplishments and what can be measured.

But we must be setting goals that can actually be achieved and that gives us a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment and motivation to keep going as opposed to setting unrealistic goals that are going to leave us feeling disappointed and sort of like we're failing in some way.

5. Mindfulness and Meditation

And then similar to self-care where this falls under the sort of the self-care umbrella is mindfulness and meditation. You want to just start out with maybe a couple of minutes a day to try to practice meditation or mindfulness techniques, and this just helps to create cultivate a greater sense of present-moment awareness and reduce anxiety, which is often future-oriented.

So I hope you guys found this video helpful, feel free to ask any questions or leave a comment or let me know how you deal with burnout or preventing burnout or any of your own experiences with high-functioning anxiety.

And if you feel like you need more help in this area, this is my area of specialization, so feel free to schedule a free consultation at catharticspacecounseling.com, and I will see you next time.