What is Emotional Regulation?

December 21, 2022 Comments Off anxiety, blog, Depression

Emotional regulation is the ability to be able to control your own emotional state. Such regulation can include focusing on being calm and happy, rethinking the situation to reduce anxiety, or overcoming the sense of fear or sadness.

Regulation is often about reducing how intense some emotions are or increasing that intensity. Down-regulation and up-regulation are terms for ways to control your emotions. The first one is for reducing negative ones, and the latter is to increase anxiety or happiness when needed.

Psychologists say that emotion regulation happens in two phases – before feeling an emotion and after. The first is antecedent-focused emotion regulation, and the second is response-focused emotion regulation.

Today, we are diving deeper into the meaning of emotional regulation and the ways to enhance that superpower in order to improve your overall quality of life.

Why Is Emotional Regulation Important?

Adults are expected to manage their emotions in a socially acceptable way, without the outbursts and tantrums that children usually have. On the other hand, failure to meet those expectations usually has two mutually connected consequences.

First, your social circle shrinks, and your intercommunication patterns begin to suffer. And second, you begin to feel lonely, distant, irritated and misunderstood.

Sometimes when emotional control is poor, we tend to say and do things we regret later. If learning how to regulate emotions happens sooner, the life and relationships of a person can benefit massively.

So, what are the emotional self-regulation habits you need to integrate into your lifestyle and philosophy?

Ways to Control Your Emotions

The two main ways to reach emotional control are changing how you think about something or suppressing it. Unfortunately, the latter can have a negative effect.

Other ways are to change the situation that influenced emotional experiences or shift your attention. The hardest one is to accept your emotions and simply move on.

Emotional Regulation Exercises

If you are looking forward to an emotional regulation activity, then we have a couple of suggestions down below.

Breathing Exercises

There are three main breathing exercises for good emotional regulation:

You can do breath counting, sitting calmly, counting to 5 on an inhale, and counting to 7 on an exhale. This makes you focus on breathing and not on intrusive thoughts.
Breath shifting is another way to help yourself out. You just need to put one hand on your chest and the other on your abdomen. Notice how they rise and fall when you breathe. This gives you a good focus on both areas and calms you down.
Breath relaxation is simply taking deep breaths with your eyes closed until you feel that all the stress is going away, and you can feel a bit more relaxed.

You can try out all three of them and choose the one that works best for you and your temperament.

Reaching Emotional Catharsis

A great effective way to deal with emotional dysregulation disorder is to go through an emotional catharsis. This way, you will let go of suppressed emotions and reach a good mental balance.

To reach such a blissful state, you need to observe your emotions without trying to change them. Evaluate the experience that caused your emotions and acknowledge that emotions are just states that pass. Don’t identify with them; instead, treat them as a river flowing through you.

You can name or write these emotions down on a piece of paper and talk them out with friends, relatives, or a therapist.

Mindfulness and Self-awareness

Mindfulness is one of those emotional regulation skills that can help you live in the present by acknowledging your feelings, mind, and body.

Such a skill can help you look at your feelings and thoughts from a neutral point of view.

Exercises for mindfulness are implementation and acknowledgment exercises. The first ones include self-expression, empathetic listening, or thinking in a non-judgmental way. The latter are naming thoughts and emotions and observing them.

Mindfulness is also a synonym for self-awareness which is again about recognizing our emotions and how they affect us.

Again, thought and emotion naming here is a good exercise, and you can even create a chart with columns titles like:

What am I feeling right now?
What caused it?
How did I respond to it?
What emotions did I feel at that time?

Once you have the answer, you can have the strategy for managing what you feel.

Which Are the Hardest Emotions to Control?

The most challenging emotions to control are disappointment, anger, and resentment. Unfortunately, people tend to suppress such feelings, and this often leads to mental health issues like depression or even borderline personality disorder.

When not addressing such emotions correctly, you can overreact and feel less satisfaction in your life and relationships.

Sometimes controlling your emotions can be difficult thanks to beliefs that negative emotions are destructive and uncontrollable. For example, uncertainty might make emotions run wild, and if you don’t communicate clearly with someone, you might start feeling hopeless.

Emotional regulation can be tough to harness and manage, especially in this day and age. Social media is a massive trigger for everyone that has a hard time being too self-aware. The perfect life portrayed online is why so many young people feel like they are missing out on something.

Always find a friend or therapist that you feel comfortable speaking to; when a traumatic experience arises, don’t wait for the emotions to go away. They never do by putting a lid on them. Instead, let them out and let them go.

What Is Emotional Regulation Disorder?

An emotional regulation disorder is a condition in which the ability to manage and regulate a person’s emotions is not present. Emotional dysregulation, or ED, is a term that psychologists use for weakly governed emotional responses.

The most common symptoms of the emotional regulation disorder are:

Sudden anger outbursts to someone who hasn’t done any harm or simply passive-aggressive behavior;
Suicidal thoughts and self-destructing behavior;
Symptoms like chronic pain not caused by a medical condition and unexplained by specialists;
Having difficulty in building social relationships in professional and personal fields;
Inability to focus on work since the mind is occupied with negative emotions;
Poor self-control, hypersensitivity, etc.

Usually, emotion regulation disorder is accompanied by other mental health conditions like mood polarities and depression.

The best way to treat emotion regulation disorder is through Dialectical Behavior Therapy or DBT. This condition can be treated if the person takes care of the issue as soon as possible and follows consistently long-term treatment.

Another way to start your recovery journey is to build a well-being routine with a chosen mental health app, a podcast, or a tailor-made well-being program.

20+ Grounding Techniques for Anxiety for When You Feel Overwhelmed

December 21, 2022 Comments Off anxiety, blog

If you have anxiety, you know the heart palpitations, the dry mouth, and the trembling. You know the feeling of cold sweat coming over your body and the panic taking over your mind. At this moment, all reality and logic seem to blur together. However, there are ways to manage those symptoms, and these are called anxiety grounding techniques.

Anxiety is usually triggered by fight-or-flight instincts which are common in people with traumatic events in their lives. As a result, such people develop PTSD, and they always feel like the world is out to get them.

Grounding techniques for anxiety are a precious resource for those with intrusive thoughts that influence their lives negatively. So, let’s talk about the best grounding strategies out there.

What are Grounding Methods In a Nutshell?

Grounding exercises for anxiety are mental or physical actions that distract you from the anxiety when it hits.

Such methods help you focus on the current moment and what is happening around you. Grounding methods enable you to create a healthy space from upsetting feelings in situations where it’s needed.

These methods can help you achieve the following:

Decrease anxiety;
Improve well-being;
Decrease stress;
Improve your mood;
Help you deal with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD);
Decrease depression;
Lessen dissociation, etc.

Grounding skills are distributed in categories like physical grounding techniques, mental grounding techniques, and soothing grounding techniques.

Physical Grounding Techniques

Physical panic attack grounding techniques for anxiety take over all of your senses, so your attention is directed toward the current moment.

Below, we have gathered some of our favorites which are pretty effective.

Use Water, Touch Items, and Breathe in Deeply

The first panic attack grounding technique is to put your hands in some water and feel the temperature with your palms, fingers, and backs of your hands. Try out with warm water and then cold water. Examine how it feels with both temperatures. Bring your focus on your body.

The next good technique is picking up items and seeing whether they feel soft, heavy, warm, or cold. Think about their color and texture. How do you feel about them? Import breathing deeply in the mix and feel your lungs expand each time you inhale. Focus on exhaling slowly and steadily.

Savor Your Food and Scents, Take Walks, and Hold Ice

Good physical grounding techniques for anxiety include savoring what you eat, drink, and smell. Take small sips and bites out of your food and drinks. Explore their smell and taste.

If there is a scented candle around you, breathe in deeply. Notice its notes- is it spicy, sweet, or citrusy? This helps you concentrate on your surroundings and focus less on your anxiety.

Taking short walks and counting your steps help, too.

However, one of the best grounding techniques for anxiety is still holding a small piece of ice. The cold sensation makes your brain focus on it, and the anxiety strips away.

Do Exercises, Listen Carefully, and Focus On Your Body

Doing stretches or exercises like jumping jacks, jumping rope, jogging, or stretching can help you release stress and boost serotonin. Simply notice how your body moves and feels, how the mat and floor you exercise on rub against your body. For example, intentionally wiggle your toes or curl your fingers, and pay attention to how that feels.

Incorporate listening to the sounds when you exercise – what sounds does the gym equipment make, the conversations around you, the aircon working in the background, anything.

Use the 5-4-3-2-1 Technique

The last physical grounding technique is the 5-4-3-2-1 method. With this method, you count backward from 5 and list things you notice in your surroundings.

List 5 things you hear, see, touch, smell, and taste. Notice even the most minor things, like the hum of your computer box or the tiny specks of color on your carpet.

Mental Grounding Techniques

Mental grounding techniques for anxiety are good for helping you turn away your thoughts from overwhelming sensations.

Memory Games, Math, Poems, and Categories

Memory games are great when you feel like your mind is going to burst. Simply take a photograph and look at it for 10 seconds. Then, turn the photo upside down and try to remember it as best as possible. Write down everything you remember.

Thinking in categories is also great, so place down some categories, like football teams or musical instruments and write as many things as you can think of.

If you are a maths person, you can use math to calm yourself down. For example, count backward from 100 or do short equations in your head.

Reciting a book passage, a song, or a poem in your head and visualizing them is another good way to stay concentrated away from anxiety.

Leave the Pain Physically Behind

Visualizing throwing your pain away, like balling it in a scrunched-up paper ball or putting it in a box, helps. Then, you can jog, bike, swim, or walk away from these feelings and thoughts. See your anxiety as a TV program or a song and change the channel or mute the volume.

You can even describe your surroundings in your head, like, “This building is yellow with a red roof. The sun is shining on my face, and I can hear a bike bell nearby. A poodle is barking at children jumping rope.”

Soothing Grounding Techniques

Finally, using soothing grounding exercises for anxiety is another great option.

Below, you will see some examples.

Picture the Face or Voice of a Loved One and Be Kind to You

Picturing the face or voice of a loved one can make you feel comforted and confident that you will get through every obstacle. Imagine them coming through a door and sitting opposite you. Talk to them in your head and let go of your pain.

You can also visualize a favorite place or memory and feel its warmth.

Remember to be gentle towards yourself with phrases like “you are doing your best,” “you are strong,” and “you will make it through.”

Spend Time With Your Pet and Plan Activities

Spending time with pets is so important. You can snuggle with them or play at home and enjoy your company.

If you have a dog, go on a long walk or to the dog park and throw a ball together or throw them a stick. If you have a cat, play together with their cat toys.

Plan activities with humans, too. Go to the cinema or a restaurant with friends or family. Be present in the moment and cherish this experience. Share with them what bothers you, and you will feel a weight lifted from your shoulders.

Touch Comforting Items, List Your Favorite Things, and Listen to Music

Touching something comforting like a fluffy blanket or a loved T-shirt, even a smooth stone, is good for comfort.

Put on your favorite socks, scarf, or sweater, and feel the fabric against your skin.

List Your Favorite Things, and Listen to Music

Listing your favorite things can also bring happiness. Then, listing some things that you are grateful for helps out, too.

Listening to music also helps, and you can even try dipping into some soothing podcasts for mental health or mental health apps.

Gaslighting in a Relationship – How To Recognize and Avoid It?

December 6, 2022 Comments Off anxiety, blog, Depression

The term gaslighting has gained popularity in recent years, but the phenomenon behind it reaches way further back in time. In fact, the term originates from a 1940s film called Gaslight. In this psycho-thriller, a man leads a woman to believe she is losing her sanity by plotting a super-detailed pattern of deception.

What we get is a brand-new concept in the field of psychological manipulation – the so-called gaslighting.

Fortunately, people nowadays are paying increasing attention to recognizing and avoiding toxicity in their relationships, and emotional manipulation is a subject that’s worth all the discussion it takes.

So, let’s discuss.

What Is Gaslighting?

Gaslighting is a type of manipulative and emotionally abusive behavior where the abuser minimizes their victim’s feelings and shifts the blame in order to acquire dominance. While the process may look different, the results are often the same – emotional neglect, devalued feelings, and overall damaged well-being.

More often than not, gaslighting includes a conscious and well-planned effort toward building a sense of uncertainty, insecurity, and emotional instability. While the victim falls deeper into that state of self-doubt, the abuser gains more and more power over their inner world.

Although it is most closely associated with romantic relationships, gaslighting is common enough in all other types of interpersonal interaction. You can see it between friends, co-workers, and even business partners. One of the worst types of gaslighting happens between family members, including between parents and children.

What Is an Example of Gaslighting?

The most straightforward gaslighting example to come up with is something you’ve probably heard at least once in your life. “It’s no big deal”, remember? Unless it is.

Complied briefly, some other examples of what gaslighting is looking as follows:

Claiming you’re paranoid, overreacting, or making things up in order to dramatize – when you, in fact, have the absolute right to be upset.
Putting the blame on you whenever something goes wrong or things get tough – even when none of it is actually your fault.
Lying and clinging on to made-up scenarios, including when it comes to easily checkable facts.
Never taking responsibility for the things they did wrong or the ways they’ve let you down.
Blaming you for being overdramatic, imagining things, or having skyrocketing expectations – when you’re actually settling for something below the bare minimum.

Or else said – “You’re just paranoid,” and “You are making that up” will be among your most powerful red flags for dealing with a gaslighter.

Gaslighting in Relationships: Definition and Signs

Recognizing gaslighting in a relationship might be a challenging thing to do, especially if you’re insecure. The reason is simple – gaslighters will lead you to actually believe it’s your fault instead of theirs.

That’s why spotting the early signs of gaslighting will be your most effective strategy for leaving this toxic relationship unharmed. And the easiest way to spot it is to stay cautious about your own feelings.

Some of the most evident emotional reactions to being gaslighted are:

You feel confused and question yourself. Did that really happen? Are you a horrible person for making a scene? Are you even sane? You are most probably okay, so you better trust yourself or ask for an unbiased opinion because gaslighting is all about making you question your judgment.
You spend a lot of your time apologizing. It seems like whatever you do, you do it wrong. You never feel like you’re good enough and your input is continually undervalued. Looks like you have something to think about, right?
You feel lonely and cannot share your genuine thoughts. Whatever you say in your head sounds wrong, and you’re too afraid of being a disappointment. So you watch your tongue, filter what you share, and get too self-conscious when you speak about your feelings.
You’re growing apart from your friends, family, and relatives. You keep your struggles secret and probably feel embarrassed by how you feel and what you go through. If you try to seek reassurance and support, the other person reminds you of how insignificant your feelings are and how irrational your behavior is.

This list can be modified and filled up with multiple different emotional reactions to being gaslighted. But however different, they revolve around a single feeling – that something’s just not right, and it worsens with time.

Am I Being Gaslighted?

If you spot just one of the signs listed above, it’s already time to think about it and react. The higher the red flag count, the more pressing the need to step up for yourself and regain your right to be who you are with no remorse.

Seeking support from family and friends will always give you another perspective. So – don’t hesitate to share what you go through and hear what the people who love you have to say about it.

Then, their honest feedback might surprise you and drive you to make the best possible decision – leaving toxicity behind and regaining your self-esteem.

How to Feel Better About Yourself?

November 29, 2022 Comments Off anxiety, blog, Depression

Do you often battle the feeling that you’re not enough? Not productive enough in your workplace, not beautiful enough for a magazine front cover, not present enough for our family, not this enough, and not that enough also…

Well, you’re hardly alone in this.

One scroll through any chosen social media will show you tens and hundreds of seemingly perfect people living the seemingly perfect life. And no matter how hard you try to convince yourself that filters don’t make either beauty or happiness, you keep on comparing yourself to things that don’t actually exist.

At the end of the day, feeling good about yourself and treasuring what you see in the mirror is easier said than done.

The good news is that a shift of perspective can help you boost your self-confidence and your overall well-being. And another good news is that a shift of perspective is something you can successfully pursue and achieve as long as you take your time.

Are Being Happy With Yourself and Making Yourself Happy the Same Thing?

First and foremost, we must distinguish between these two entirely different concepts.

Being happy with yourself means recognizing and using your inner resources, valuing your own strengths, and building a positive self-image based on respect for the person you are. It results from building your self-esteem and practicing the unguilty pleasure of standing up for yourself. It’s the things you feel for yourself, the inner dialogue you have, and the will to stand your ground because you are good enough.

Making yourself happy, on the other hand, has more to do with your reaction toward external circumstances, situations, and challenges. It’s your response when things get tough and the strategy you build to preserve your well-being, even when the world seems to be moving against you. It’s your will and power to stay in control of your emotions, and it’s impossible to achieve without, first and foremost, respecting who you are.

Or else said – how to be happy with yourself and how to make yourself happy are not the same thing. Yet they are inseparably interconnected, and each of the two is impossible without the other.

You should first be happy with yourself in order to want – and know how – to make yourself feel better when things get rough.

How to Give Yourself a Boost and Raise Your Confidence?

As we tried to clarify in the paragraphs above, respecting and appreciating yourself is the ground you’ll be constructing your entire well-being on.

So, how do you achieve that if it doesn’t come naturally?

Like every mindset transformation, this one also begins with questioning your current point of view. If you feel you’re not enough and keep underestimating yourself, this probably originates from your past experiences. Sometimes, a deep do-it-alone shadow work will be enough to get you to the root of the problem. And sometimes, it won’t.

Talk-through therapy would be a nice place to begin if you have a long history of low self-liking and troubled confidence. Meanwhile, there are things you can do for yourself in order to improve your self-image and start altering your perception of yourself.

Below, you will find some helpful tips for your journey.

Stop Comparing Yourself to Others

Yes, that’s especially valid if you spend too much of your time on social media and watching TV shows. Some people spend their entire lives trying to look and behave like they’re living the dream. They are usually not living it, though.

It’s not about forgiving yourself that you’re not perfect. It’s about celebrating the fact that you’re real!

Practice Self-compassion Every Day

You’ve heard a lot about emotional intelligence, empathy, and tolerance toward others. But hey, how about you put the same effort into being equally benevolent to yourself?

Just imagine someone you really love is going through the stuff you’re going through right now. Imagine the genuine guidance you’d give them. And then take that same advice with no regrets.

Make a Feel-good List Every Day

No, it doesn’t need to be a glittery all-rainbows-and-unicorns list about the things that make life magical. It needs to be real, and it needs to be yours.

List the things you’re proud you’ve been through without losing your mind. List the trauma you’ve survived. List the people you love or the dreams you have. List poetry or movie quotes if that’s your thing.

It’s about you, remember?

Respect and Take Care of Your Body

That flesh prison of yours that you keep pushing through life – it’s actually you if you think about it. Body and mind do not function separately, and they are more interdependent than we realize in our day-to-day lives.

So, yes – eating a healthy diet is a form of self-love. Spending time in nature, breathing fresh air, and exercising is a form of feel-good therapy. You will sense and understand it in the very first week you turn it into a routine.

Draw and Defend Your Boundaries

Showing acts of kindness and supporting others will be an essential part of your self-appreciation journey. But living your life as a people-pleaser unable to say no won’t lead you to places you’d love to be.

Drawing boundaries is equally important in your personal, professional, and even family life. Stating your boundaries clearly and defending them in the long run, on the other hand, will help you receive the respect you deserve – first and foremost from yourself, and then from everyone else.

Keep On Exploring All the Possibilities

This list of self-appreciation tips can go on for a pretty long time, but some other vital stages of it might include:

Use the power of mindfulness and visualization to set your priorities straight and start pursuing the right goals. Learning how to feel better about yourself is not an instant breakthrough but a long way you go every day.
Surround yourself with people that appreciate and lift you up. You are allowed and advised to have your standards in interpersonal communication. You don’t have to settle for people who bring you down.
Have your must-take time for yourself and do the things you love. If your friends and relatives don’t share your passions and interests, find the people who do. If you don’t find them – just do the things you love by yourself and enjoy the ride!
Leave behind the things that harm your self-esteem. Life is too short to do a job you hate, settle for a partner that deliberately hurts your feelings, or even let a family member drag you down emotionally. It might seem counterintuitive at the beginning, but once you allow yourself a healthy dose of egoism, it will all finally make sense.

Finally, seeking professional counseling with a certified mental healthcare provider is always a good idea if you feel stuck or need guidance on your way. Feeling better about yourself can be a long ride, but the destination is absolutely worth it.

How to Make Yourself Feel Better in Challenging Times?

Self-respect and a friendly disposition toward yourself mean you’re halfway there, no matter how far you seem to be from a cloudless sky. So, when life inevitably hits, you will have to fight for your right to happiness without giving in to despair.

In order to feel well at all times, you first need to realize that you don’t have to feel well at all times. All your emotions are equally valid; feeling broken, teary, let down, or sad doesn’t make you weak. On the contrary, it makes you authentic – so before you let it go, you first need to let it come.

How to feel better after a breakup? Cry a lot, smash some dishes probably, then talk the night away with your bestie. A few days into that kind of emotional hurricane, remind yourself what’s the reason for breaking up. It’s probably valid, right? Tell yourself you deserve better, and let the better come!

How to feel better in a toxic working environment? Write a notice to quit today and start looking for a place that will nourish your talents instead of exploiting them for nothing. State your thoughts and feelings on the front door instead of repeating them forever under the shower. Then smile, leave, and start feeling better!

At the end of the day, life feels precisely how you make it feel. Realizing your total freedom to chase happiness is the first step towards fighting for yourself. Until you realize it’s not supposed to be a fight. It’s an embrace.

How to Treat High-Functioning Anxiety?

November 29, 2022 Comments Off anxiety, blog

Some people just seem to have it all. They arrive first at the office early in the morning, always looking trim, friendly, and ready to conquer the world. They have a perfect plan, a seemingly ideal family, a well-functioning social circle, and a managing position with way too many responsibilities they somehow cope with. Sounds like the dream life for many, right?

You’ll probably be surprised to know that the overachiever’s inner world rarely matches their outer appearance and behavior. The person who excels at work and life is, in fact, the most probable high-functioning anxiety sufferer. And today, we are opening the discussion on how not every type of anxiety looks and feels the same.

What Is High-Functioning Anxiety?

Unlike generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorders, or phobias, high-functioning anxiety is not a recognized mental health diagnosis. It can often go completely unnoticed because people with high-functioning anxiety seem to do pretty well in life. Better than most people, actually.

Unfortunately, that outer glow is often in sharp contrast with how those people feel. High-functioning anxiety is characterized by almost ceaseless inner tension. Some describe feelings of worry, ongoing stress, and obsessive thoughts, while others have sleep disorders, restlessness, and irritability.

There is limited research and basically no reliable data on how many people in the world suffer from high-functioning anxiety. The first reason is probably that they simply don’t seem like they suffer. And the second reason is that scientists have been investigating the issue for way too short a time to present reliable statistics.

Do I Have High-Functioning Anxiety?

High-functioning anxiety is often overlooked and simplified with the brief “that’s just me” explanation. What’s more – that type of inner restlessness, agitation, and a strange feeling of disturbed excitement is frequently perceived as the main reason for the person actually to excel at life.

There is still no reliable high-functioning anxiety test approved by psychology experts, but there are several signs you can notice and analyze. If you are highly organized, competitive, ambitious, and impatient, you’ll probably need to read on. If you’re kind of obsessed with productivity and time management, if you have skyrocketing standards for yourself and others, and if you always need to be busy and see self-care activities as a waste of potential… We might have some food for thought for you.

If you ask the social circle of a person with high-functioning anxiety, they will describe them as a confident, reliable, and usually very smart acquaintance. If people see you that way, but you don’t really feel that way at all – you are most probably living with high-functioning anxiety without even realizing it.

7 Signs of High-Functioning Anxiety

Described briefly, the most common high-functioning anxiety signs are as follows:

You are proactive, organized, and detail-oriented. As a result, you usually achieve a lot in whatever you undertake, and you do it passionately, sometimes clearly ignoring your work-life balance.
You have insanely high standards in your professional and personal life. Yet, you can remain stoically loyal to a fault while still feeling intimidated by the large gap between you and the people you surround yourself with, thus becoming unemotional and cold in the long run.
Your mind is always racing, and you can’t even process your own thoughts at all times. You can talk a lot, be totally restless, have nervous habits such as biting your nails and even engage in alcohol or substance abuse as an unhealthy coping mechanism.
You usually can’t enjoy the moment and simply relax. Instead, you are either anxiously planning for the future, nostalgically dwelling on the past, or merely feeling guilty that you’re “wasting time” instead of getting something done.
You often overthink and procrastinate, after which you destroy yourself with crunch-time work and deadline-driven overtime hours. You overanalyze and sometimes fail your future plans and ambitions, waiting for things to get perfect.
You find it hard to say no and perceive every request as a challenge you can’t turn down. As a result, you have a rather unhealthy schedule and sometimes limited social and intimate life.
You experience physical and psychosomatic symptoms such as sleep disturbances, fatigue, muscle tension, and sometimes even a tingling sensation in the area of your head, shoulders, or arms.

Last but not least, some experts argue that a high IQ is also closely connected with high-functioning anxiety. In fact, a 2005 study found that financial managers with high anxiety levels made the best money managers as long as they also had a high IQ.

Is It Normal to Have High-Functioning Anxiety?

Though not an official mental health disorder, high-functioning anxiety is definitely not the optimal state of mind. Furthermore, if the condition goes untreated, it can easily progress into a generalized anxiety disorder, obsessive-compulsive behavior, or depression.

Suppose you spot and recognize a tendency toward the behavior described above. In that case, you are highly advised to consult a mental health professional and address the issue before it escalates beyond your control.

How to Deal With High-Functioning Anxiety?

The high-functioning anxiety treatment is very similar to the treatment of generalized anxiety disorder. It can include therapy, prescription medications, or a combination of both.

Of course, reaching out to a certified mental health practitioner is always the best thing you can do. But still, there are different tips you can try in the meantime in order to manage the difficulties caused by high-functioning anxiety.

Some techniques you can try to implement into your everyday routine include:

Build a self-care routine that circles around relaxation, mindfulness, and rest. Take 10 minutes a day to practice meditation or other mental health techniques to teach your mind and body how to simply do nothing.
Reflect and work on your thought patterns. Try to limit pessimistic predictions, competitiveness, and assumptions that you will let yourself (or somebody else) down by taking your personal time off.
Try to maintain a regular sleeping pattern. Sleep deprivation will gradually worsen your anxiety, and taking eight hours of sleep during the night will balance your stress hormones on an entirely physical level.
Mind your lifestyle. Little details can change a lot, so begin with limiting your caffeine intake, eating more fresh and raw food, and exercising at least two times a week outdoors, if not more.
Practice healthy egoism. Learn how to say no to things you don’t want to do, delegate responsibilities, and don’t overthink for years before you leave unsatisfying relationships that drag you down emotionally.

Finally, get ready to let your high-functioning anxiety go. You will be the same person with the same qualities even when your unhealthy overachiever mentality is far gone. With just one essential difference – you will have replaced anxiety with calmness and peace.

Category: anxiety