FSU expert available to discuss high-functioning anxiety during Mental Health Awareness Month

“Mental Health Awareness Month is recognized each May to provide education and reduce the stigma of several disorders. One lesser-known term gaining attention is high-functioning anxiety, which describes people who appear successful and composed while privately struggling with chronic stress, worry and self-doubt. According to the Mayo Clinic , high-functioning anxiety is associated with generalized anxiety disorder and often goes unnoticed because individuals continue to perform well at work, school or in relationships despite significant internal stress. Florida State University’s Brad Schmidt is the director of the Anxiety & Behavioral Health Clinic, which develops state-of-the-art treatments for individuals suffering from anxiety-related problems. Schmidt’s translational research lab also focuses on the nature, causes, treatment and prevention of anxiety and associated forms of psychopathology, including PTSD, substance use and suicide. Schmidt says high-functioning anxiety can be difficult to recognize because many people who experience it appear highly capable on the surface. “One important thing to clarify is that high-functioning anxiety is not a formal diagnosis. It is a way of describing people whose anxiety is largely hidden by outward competence,” Schmidt said. “These individuals may look successful, organized and driven, but internally they experience chronic worry, self-doubt, anticipatory fear, and a persistent sense that they are one mistake away from failure. Basically, it is a term for people who experience anxiety while still appearing outwardly successful or composed.” Today’s culture often celebrates people who push themselves to succeed, even when that success comes at the expense of their mental health. Schmidt said social media can amplify behaviors commonly associated with anxiety. “Social media does not typically celebrate anxiety itself, but it does celebrate behaviors that can be anxiety-driven — extreme productivity, relentless ambition and the idea that rest is weakness,” Schmidt added. “The danger is that we confuse high output with psychological health. A person can be achieving at a high level and still be chronically dysregulated, sleep-deprived and unhappy and anxious. In an anxiety clinic, we would ask not only ‘Is the person functioning?’ but ‘What is the cost of them functioning in this way?’ Schmidt is available for interviews on high-functioning anxiety and can be reached via email at schmidt@psy.fsu.edu . As an experienced and highly responsive media subject, Schmidt has appeared in National Geographic , Us Weekly and other large outlets recently. Brad Schmidt, director, FSU Anxiety and Behavioral Health Clinic High-functioning anxiety can be masked easily, especially by individuals who are seen as successful and rewarded in corporate culture. But what are some of the internal dilemmas these individuals experience? A common dilemma is that the very behaviors that make them look successful —overpreparing, saying yes to everything, working late, being hyperresponsive —may actually be anxiety-management strategies. They reduce anxiety in the short term because the person feels temporarily more in control, but they can reinforce the belief that “I only succeed because I never let up.” So, the internal conflict is: “I’m being rewarded for the same behaviors that are exhausting me.” The person may receive praise for being dependable or high achieving, while privately experiencing sleep disturbance, muscle tension, irritability, difficulty relaxing, and a narrowed life organized around preventing failure. How normalized is high-functioning anxiety becoming in today’s competitive landscape? I would be cautious about saying that high-functioning anxiety itself is becoming normalized, because we don’t really have good research tracking HFA to know how common it is. Anxiety itself is very common. Epidemiological estimates suggest that clinically significant anxiety is one of the most common mental illnesses, and so it would follow that many people with significant anxiety are also outwardly successful. The post FSU expert available to discuss high-functioning anxiety during Mental Health Awareness Month appeared first on Florida State University News .

Summary generated from the RSS feed of FSU News. All article rights belong to the original publisher. Click through to read the full piece on news.fsu.edu.