High Functioning Anxiety

I believe that every human in modern society experiences anxiety, on some level. How could we not be anxious when the world and her people are on fire, literally and figuratively? However, not all anxiety is created equal– there is a distinction to be made between justifiable anxiety about potential harm, ancestral harm and all the -isms we experience, and what is known as high-functioning anxiety, which typically refers to “someone who experiences anxiety while still managing daily life quite well.” This distinction is important because high-functioning anxiety shows up in many insidious ways, disguised as being productive in response to an overwhelming fear of failure, as an example. Anxiety has become a buzzword, plastered on many headlines, research journals, newsletters and Instagram feeds. But how do we release it so that we can feel more alive and can access the reservoir of peace within us?

I believe that anxiety serves a complex purpose. It’s actually a function of our bodies' attempt to distract, minimize, protect or cover up bigger and deeper feelings. What we experience on the surface (general tension you carry in your body, racing and irrational thoughts or any myriad of “symptoms”) is a signal that your body is trying to keep you away from what you’re feeling underneath so that you can keep on keeping on.

From an evolutionary standpoint, we needed anxiety to determine our basic levels of safety— Ie: “Is there a bear behind that tree that is going to maul us?” Fast forward to modern day society, anxiety has transformed from an alert to physical danger into an alert to many non-life threatening things. Why? Because it’s much “easier” to be preoccupied with the anticipation of a big meeting, or a moment your friend was unkind, instead of facing the unfelt truths–the bigger fears, trauma, shame, rage and grief we carry. The cost of continuing to allow this anxiety to flourish without examination is steep— we cannot access liberation and joy with layers of anxiety in the way. Anxiety not only protects us from the hard feelings, it protects us from ALL feelings, including the relieving ones.

"quiet down i begged my mind
your overthinking is
robbing us of joy"
-rupi kaur

Visualize that your anxiety has a shape, texture, image or perhaps a face. Imagine for a moment that you’ve thanked your anxiety for keeping you safe all this time, but let it know it doesn’t have to work so hard. Envision asking it to step to the side and it obliges. Allow the droplets of emotion to emerge. Be gentle with yourself. 

Because we’ve built our worlds around anxiety, we have learned to accommodate it instead of stopping to dig deeper and ask the harder questions of “What is underneath this? What are the systems in place that benefit from me overfunctioning?” Dig deeper.