As a 28 year old working as a marketing lead at a busy technology company, you do well in every meeting, meet deadlines well ahead of time, and have received praise from your supervisor about your excellent attention to detail. However, after working hours, many thoughts race through your head with “what if” scenarios. What if that one email is missed? What if your team finds out the truth behind your polished and perfect performance? You continue to manage through your high anxiety levels by drinking coffee and pushing through because, on the outside, there is nothing that can break you down. But on the inside, there are ongoing and ever-present worries that are causing you to feel as though you are living in a dark storm.
This is how high functioning anxiety (HFA) works. Unlike generalized anxiety disorder, which often causes people to be completely immobilized and unable to function normally, HFA manifests itself as high levels of motivation and achievement in one’s work, which means that people with this condition tend to “hide” their anxiety behind the facade of their success, ultimately resulting in their emotional and physical burnout. In this article, we will examine what specific types of situations in a workplace create high functioning anxiety among young professionals such as yourself, how you may experience HFA without others realizing it, and what actions you can take to develop a greater sense of balance in your life while continuing to work hard and achieve to the full extent of your capabilities without suffering from the effects of burnout.
The Invisible Toll: Physical and Cognitive Effects
The Body Under Siege: Somatic Symptoms Often Missed
At first, you just feel tired – it’s all in your head, or you just got little sleep. But then that feeling turns into an almost constant state of fatigue, even when you wake up rested. As a result, your muscles tighten up and tense muscles cause headaches; you often attribute these headaches to being at a desk all day.
Your sleep is also disturbed by stress, so you’re lying in bed at night with your mind racing about things that need to be done tomorrow. A Harvard study published in 2021 showed there is a 40% increase in heart disease for stressed out young adults under 35. While it’s clear that your body is communicating with you through symptoms, you ignore them and continue to push yourself.
Eventually, the body’s symptoms will continue to increase. Your back pain may be attributed to poor posture, but it’s a subtle way for your body to say “please don’t be so hard on me”.
Key Stressors Fueling Anxiety in Young Professionals
Navigating Ambiguous Career Trajectories
Job paths are changing quickly these days, so you may be concerned about whether or not a job is the right fit for your future. Additionally, evaluations of performance will occur to determine your worth as an employee and potentially how you will perform in future positions.
Lateral moves can vary, which creates anxiety about whether they are risky, stable, or whether they won’t result in any significant change. With the job market continually changing, it is easy to consider that the next step you take could be the end of progress in your career.
Many times, young professionals do not have a clear pathway in the workforce that provides stability. The uncertainty surrounding this creates anxiety for HFA (hyper-frequent anxiety), which causes you to over-analyze every opportunity you may come across while searching for the best possible path whenever it appears to be available.
The Comparison Trap: Social Media and Professional Benchmarking
Peer successes are on display through the use of LinkedIn. They receive promotions, close deals, and win awards — all while you feel that your performance is lacking compared to theirs.
This trap sets an unrealistic standard that you can never meet. The posts that they present are filtered to hide the struggles that they endure, leaving you in a perpetual state of wanting “to be enough.” The idea of “to be enough” is associated with likes and accomplishments.
According to a study done by Pew Research in 2022, 45% of Millennial（young） workers said that social media increases their anxiety. If you don’t remove yourself from it, it will continue to drive doubt in you.
Actionable Strategies for Sustainable High Performance
Realigning Internal Metrics: Shifting from Output to Sustainability
Keep track of what you’ve done (beyond just the number of hours worked). Keep track of what has helped you (instead of just worn you out). Identify when you pushed yourself out of anxiety-based late-night work versus sustainable work.
Your target should be “good enough.” When you focus on “good enough,” you will conserve energy for true growth. Start keeping a journal. Document your successes based on balanced days. By doing this over a period of weeks, you will see how sustainability leads to higher levels of productivity.
Making this change will provide you with a longer-term source of energy and motivation. You will work more effectively when you are not pursuing the “perfection” of everything that you are doing.
Boundaries: creating performance enhancers instead of hindrances.
Establish boundaries to help increase the focus through reducing distractions, Create blocks of time dedicated to uninterrupted focus. Set aside blocks of time where no other activity (i.e. email) occurs. Inform team members “I unplug in the evenings for recharging,” – take ownership with no apologies. Use tools like application blocker to enforce this.
Boundaries will reduce anxiety and provide strength over time.
Disable notifications during family time.
Use weekends as an opportunity to pursue personal interests instead of finishing loose ends.
Share your boundaries with others to create respect.
Conclusion: Mastering the Drive, Not Being Mastered By It
High-functioning anxiety will creep into the world of young professionals, turning their success into a trap that no one sees coming. Highly-functioning anxiety propels people to win at all costs, but at the same time, can take away from someone’s overall physical and mental health, and their ability to enjoy life. The best way to deal with this is to recognize the warning signs of high-functioning anxiety early on, as well as the ways that high-functioning anxiety can cause you to appear in control of your surroundings, but actually hiding that it is taking a significant toll on you. You have to take back the control of your journey and your life to free yourself from the impact of high-functioning anxiety.
If your anxiety feels intertwined with other emotional challenges, learning about co-occurring conditions through trusted resources on dual diagnosis can help you understand the full picture and seek the right support.
True power lies in connecting your worth to who you are as opposed to connecting your worth with the amount of output you can produce.
To be able to tap into your true potential, you have to develop habits of setting boundaries, as well as reframing. Developing these habits helps you maintain your edge while continuing to be successful and productive within your career.
To be able to manage these thoughts as well as actions does not mean that you slow down, but that you fine-tune your drive to develop a long-term successful career.
Begin today: select one strategy to implement into your daily routine, apply the strategy to your life, and observe how everything around you becomes more streamlined. You have the ambition as well as desire; now do your best to achieve that ambition by taking charge of your own life and balancing it successfully.
