There is a saying, “People with depression are focused on the past, and people with anxiety are focused on the future.” It may help explain those two conditions in a broad sense, but there is a ton of missing information that fits in between. People experience anxiety on a scale, but it can be terrifying at every dose. People who suffer from anxiety tend to have a bad reputation in society. They are often told to just calm down, to not think too much about it.
For a person with standard brain chemistry, this may work. But, not everyone has standard chemistry in their brains. There are people who can’t control their thoughts and fears. They can’t stop that growing pit in their stomach that threatens to consume them. They will worry, they will stress, and at times these emotions will be debilitating. A high-functioning anxiety sufferer experiences all these symptoms.
The difference is they can hide it to some degree. However, there are other consequences of high-functioning anxiety. On most days people with anxiety may be able to get up and go to work. They may be able to talk to people and engage socially, too. But none of these tasks are easy. Their anxiety is a constant presence, and it manifests in unrecognizable ways.
These people are not easy to spot, which means that they tend to suffer alone. People are not sympathetic to them because they have no idea what anxious people are going through. If you suffer from anxiety, here are 18 things that result from high-functioning anxiety you should know about.
1. You Exhaust Your Mental Power Needlessly
Apparently, there are optimists, pessimists, and realists. This is how we try to categorize humans. It may be true in some cases, but it is also quite limiting. People can change their outlook on life depending on the day or even the situation. They can be optimistic one day, realistic another and pessimistic the next. One thing is for sure; people are subject to change.
High-functioning anxiety, on the other hand, is quite consistent. People with this condition tend to dwell on the worst possible outcome. They don’t do it because they want to torture themselves. They do it because they are always anxious. They are anxious that things will go wrong, that if something bad can happen, it will.
They can’t abate their anxiety by thinking of every bad outcome. But, at least they are prepared or aware when the worst does come to pass. The problem with this kind of thought process is that it can be consuming. A person who is constantly stuck in this mental loop may be terrified into inaction. They could spend so much time thinking about what could go wrong, they convince themselves that things will go wrong.
The result of all of this is that you may end up not doing anything at all. If you don’t try, then you can’t fail, right? Anxious people are not pessimistic. They don’t do this because they want to. They do this because they can’t help it. Their brain naturally turns to the worst, and it becomes difficult to convince them otherwise.