5 Things You Need to Know if You Love Someone with High Functioning Anxiety
Learn How to Support Your High Functioning Anxiety Loved One
You’re probably here because you know and care about someone that struggles with anxiety. Sometimes it can feel so helpless.
In this blog, I’m sharing 5 things you need to about loving someone with high functioning anxiety and how you can help.
I am an online anxiety therapist in Wilmington, NC, and provide anxiety therapy for anxious high-achieving women in North Carolina and Maryland. Often high-achieving women experience anxiety, perfectionism, and burnout.
Do you know someone ready to start anxiety treatment with me? Talk with them and encourage the next steps of starting anxiety therapy. Click the button below to reserve a free 15-minute consultation on the date and time of their choice.
Keep reading to learn more about high-functioning anxiety could be impacting your relationship and how you can help your loved one.
How is High Functioning Anxiety Different from Anxiety?
Someone who experiences generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) often has multiple symptoms and experiences significant challenges in different areas of their life due to their anxiety symptoms.
A person that experiences high functioning anxiety may experience some symptoms of GAD but it doesn’t impair or impact areas of their life that may be noticeable to others.
5 Things You Notice About Your Loved One with High Functioning Anxiety
As the one that is closest to the person with high-functioning anxiety, you may notice or pick up on some interesting and challenging behaviors. Sometimes it may be things that just don’t seem to make sense to you.
This is normal.
The high-functioning anxiety person may not even realize what is going on or where their behaviors are coming from, to be honest.
Check out these 5 things you may notice your high functioning anxious loved one might be doing.
What You Notice About Your High Functioning Anxiety Loved One #1 - Asking you a bunch of questions
Your loved one may ask you a lot of questions and sometimes more than once. This is because often high functioning anxiety folks can experience a lot of self-doubts, low confidence, and difficulty with concentration or focus.
What You Notice About Your High Functioning Anxiety Loved One #2 - Can never just sit down and relax
It can be especially challenging for high-functioning anxiety folks to relax. So you may notice they keep their schedule jam-packed and that may fall into the family schedule as well. Those who experience high-functioning anxiety find it difficult to just sit still. Often underlying difficulty relaxing is fear of failing or making a mistake.
What You Notice About Your High Functioning Anxiety Loved One #3 - “I don’t know, what do you think?”
This easily goes back to #1 and decision-making can be challenging for your loved one with high functioning anxiety. This can be traced back to people-pleasing tendencies and challenges with confrontation, saying “no,” and setting boundaries.
Often it becomes easier to go with the flow rather than rock the boat but avoidance can lead to even bigger problems.
What You Notice About Your High Functioning Anxiety Loved One #4 - Being a control freak
Anxiety likes order, predictability, safety, stability, etc.
Ya know, basically everything that you can’t guarantee in life.
For an anxious person, having control is a false sense of security but it doesn’t stop them from trying to achieve it.
This can look like your loved one over-scheduling and planning, critiquing you, making comments about your driving, etc.
What You Notice About Your High Functioning Anxiety Loved One #5 - Puts in a lot of hours
Lastly, your loved one may put in a lot of hours and energy into their work, volunteering with the PTA, or planning the neighborhood get-together.
What You Can Do to Help Your Loved One with High Functioning Anxiety
If you recognize some of these things in your partner, that’s pretty normal. If you have some concerns and want to help your loved one, check out these tips listed below to help your high functioning anxiety loved one:
Helpful Tip #1: Build patience and trust
Laying the groundwork and starting here is essential. If you can provide a safe space emotionally for your loved one, chances are they will be more likely to open up and talk to you about their experiences.
Remember safety and security is key for someone who experiences anxiety.
Helpful Tip #2: Learn about anxiety
Do some of your research. If you are reading this blog post and you made it this far that’s awesome!
Your loved one will appreciate that you have some basic knowledge and understanding. Remember it isn’t about whether you can personally connect with what your partner is experiencing. It’s more important to validate your loved one is having these experiences and it’s real to them.
Helpful Tip #3: Ask your loved one questions
After doing some of your research, talk with your loved one about their experiences and what you can do to help them.
For example, doing some deep breathing for anxiety may work for a lot of anxious folks but deep breathing may not be helpful to your partner.
Find out what works for them.
Helpful Tip #4: Encourage support
Kindly take the time to express your concerns for your loved one.
Often those that experience high-functioning anxiety may think their anxiety isn’t all that bad and others have it worse. There can be a lot of downplaying or even simply not recognizing what is going on. This is where your observations can be helpful.
You can encourage your loved one to seek some outside support and get anxiety therapy help.
Start Anxiety Therapy in Wilmington, NC at Calm Waters Counseling
It is important to recognize that you are not going to have all the answers and there will be challenges.
However, support is available for folks that experience high functioning anxiety. It is also important to note that high functioning anxiety can lead to experiencing symptoms of burnout.
I use acceptance and commitment therapy for anxiety treatment.
You can learn more about ACT and if Acceptance and Commitment Therapy can be helpful for your loved one.
Get started in therapy at Calm Waters Counseling by following these 4 simple steps:
Click the button below to schedule your free 15-minute consultation
Complete the brief questionnaire sent to your email before the consultation
Meet with your anxiety therapist
Start living your life more in control
Therapy for High Achievers in Wilmington, NC at Calm Waters Counseling
High achievers are easily prone to experiencing anxiety and often identify with having high-functioning anxiety.
You can learn more about me and my Wilmington, NC counseling practice.
Check out all therapy services offered at Calm Waters Counseling, listed below:
Anxiety counseling in Wilmington, NC
Treatment for Perfectionism in Maryland
Burnout Counseling in Wilmington, NC
Therapy for Imposter Syndrome in Wilmington, NC
Online Anxiety Therapy in Maryland
Can’t make it into the office for your therapy appointments?
Live in a different town or even a different state than your therapist?
No problem!
Online therapy offers benefits such as flexibility and consistency while remaining just as effective as face-to-face therapy sessions.
Online acceptance and commitment therapy for anxiety is helpful and effective.
Click the links below to learn about online therapy where you live
online therapy for anxiety in North Carolina
online anxiety therapy in Maryland
Still, have questions? Click the buttons below to learn even more!
Written by: Laura Rippeon, LCSW, LCSW-C
Updated 3/18/23