Self-Improvement

11 Things Others Don’t Realize You Are Doing Because of Your High Functioning Anxiety

Published on February 27, 2018

“Anxiety is the most silently painful experience. It makes no sense and you sit alone and suffer for an unknown reason. You can’t explain it. You can’t stop it, It is horrible.”

Depression and anxiety have become the talk of the day in this busy twenty first century world. There are two things true for diseases like depression and anxiety: one, they are way more serious than you think and two, there are misconceptions regarding them which are far away from the truth.

Many people think that anxious people are mostly lazy and irresponsible, but this is not true.

To help people understand certain key things about anxiety, we have compiled this list of eleven things that might help you:

1. Passing on chances to be social

Even though we like company at times, we normally pass on chances to be social. We, the anxious sometimes can’t bring ourselves to be social out of fear of making the experience less fun for others.

2. Obsessing over tiny and often insignificant details

We will over-analyse every word, gesture, glance, sigh and burp because we are afraid (constantly) of doing something wrong/ ruining some experience for others.

3. Our sleep cycles are haywire

Thanks to our brooding, overthinking and analysing every situation at night, we end up sleeping in the afternoon or dozing off at work.

4. Always waiting for the worst

No matter how positive the situation or scenario is, we will always imagine the worst conclusions in our head. Then we will somehow convince ourselves that the worst case scenario will happen and end up feeling physically ill thanks to it.

5. Reviewing conversations

Every single word said to us, will be reviewed later, inside our head. We will try to look for some sign of hate/annoyance in every frown of yours. This is just because we are really afraid to displease you.

6. Other people’s concerns will be overthought about

If my friend says I don’t look well, I will invariably panic about it and end up ruining my health further.

7. Assuming self-guilt

Whatever happens, our first impulse is to blame ourselves. This is the way we cope with unfavourable situations. By assuming that we are the ones at fault, we can at least console ourselves saying that we had it coming.

8. Chronophobia: the fear of the future

Everyone has their own fear of the future. But someone with a hyperactive brain and imagination like an anxious person, experiences it to a whole different level.

And this is more because life is not particularly kind to them now as it is. The thought of spending life like this for some more time, is terrifying to say the least.

9. Always comparing and evaluating

Thanks to our crippling self-doubt, we are constantly in purgatory, thinking how our peers and friends have surpassed us while we sit idle and useless.

10. Mistakes, the real and imaginary ones

No human being is perfect, but many individuals with anxiety cannot accept this—and they scream at themselves whenever they don’t do something precisely as they wanted to.

This is also when they can’t help others out as much as they want. It’s painful.