Dan’s Blog

High Functioning Anxiety: Why You Can Seem Fine But Feel Struggled Inside

High functioning anxiety: From the outside, everything might look fine – you’re coping, getting things done, and keeping things together. But on the inside, it can feel very different.

You may be working, managing responsibilities, supporting others and appearing calm and capable. People may even describe you as organised, reliable or successful.

Externally you come across as confident and self assured.

But internally, it can feel very different.

You struggle with overthinking, negative thinking and you may worry ab out messing up or being judged. You push yourself and place yourself under pressure to perform. It may feel exhausting.

This is more common than many people realise, especially among people who are used to being capable, reliable, and ‘holding things together.’

High functioning anxiety often means you are coping on the outside, while feeling under constant pressure on the inside.

Why Anxiety Isn’t Going Away On Its Own

Many people hope that anxiety will eventually pass on its own. If your anxiety is about a specific thing, that thing happens and things may settle again. However, where your anxiety continues to persist, you may start to wonder why your anxiety isn’t going away on its own.

Anxiety often doesn’t go away on its own because it is maintained by patterns in the mind and body, including avoidance, worry and the body’s stress response. These patterns can continue even when there is no real danger.

At times, those negative thoughts and feelings may ease for a while. But for many people, anxiety keeps returning or gradually becomes more noticeable over time.

Clients I work with for anxiety in Ely often tell me how they know there is nothing they should feel anxious about, yet that feeling of dread and thinking the worst continues. In fact, it starts to feel almost habitual and automatic. You may start to worry about feeling anxious, or you find that it permeates into many aspects of your life.

You can easily get caught in an ongoing cycle of anxious thoughts and feelings that impact upon what you do and what you don;t feel capable of doing.

This can be confusing and frustrating, especially when there doesn’t seem to be a clear reason why it isn’t improving.

I’ve covered many aspects of understanding anxiety, the physical symptoms and overthinking patterns. And in this article I’m covering why it can seem like your anxiety isn’t going away on its own.