What It's Like to Have 'High-Functioning' Anxiety

This is what it's like to live with 'high-functioning' anxiety. Can you relate?

Read the full story here:

[robynsirkowitz]

When people say that you're really intelligent and talented and instead of making you feel proud it makes you feel stressed out and guilty somehow... is it just me?

[thecrazylocosify]

"Its when answering a text impulsively and thoughtlessly is an act of bravery" oh my god that line is just so spot on

[nattcattt]

When I watched this I started to cry. I never knew something could relate to me so much.

[DepressedLemur]

It's exactly like this. But some people think i'm pretending. Some of them think i'm too lazy to live a normal life. Some of them think i'm egoistic. Some of them even think i'm insane. These people are my colleagues, friends, and even my family members. No one ever understand. I only have compassion and understanding from random strangers on the internet, whom i will never see in person. It's really sad. Especially if you live in a country where even medical workers treat people with mental problems like total lunatics. We play life on hard, someone without our problems will never understand that.

[PotterMarauder]

This was me for years. I cared too much about everything. And then the anxiety turned into depression. Now I don't care enough.

[laurena]

Once a college councillor told me that a straight A student couldn't be mentally ill and I was exaggerating. He asked if I was sure the panic attacks I had in secret were not just "feeling a bit worried" because you can't be a high aciever and suffering. I wanted to yell at him that the fact I couldn't miss a class even when I had the flu or the list if extra curricular activities as long as my arm so that I was always doing something because if I stopped I'd drown like a shark was just a symptom not a reason why I was fine. He was not a good councillor.

[heidia]

I always have thoughts where no one likes me and everyone thinks I'm a bad friend, it feels like my friends talk behind my back all the time when I'm not there, I always worry I'm going to say or do something wrong and when I do, I keep worrying about it for a really long time. This is why I don't like meeting new people and I'm shy around them. I think I finally found what is wrong with me.

[kaylasimpson]

This video is so spot on. All I could do is cry and watch over and over again.

[cdcanada]

This was excellent and was very reflective of what I go through on a daily basis.

[MintyHappyfresh]

This made me cry, I'm--I can't. This just said everything perfectly

[vlwswdo]

Wow. That's literally how I've felt all of my life. I'm in tears.

[allisondowns]

This is exactly the type of anxiety I have. I always feel like I'm going to let people down and that I'm not good enough so sometimes I can't even get myself to do my schoolwork.

[adambaird]

I am a huge fan of this video. As someone who struggles with this, Thanks.

[weribiper]

An important thing for people to know: You may think that someone is rude. You may even call them rude. However, they might not be trying to be rude and they may not want to be rude. Some people have anxiety, making them not do things that you would expect a person to do, making them look rude. Please understand this and don't judge someone for seeming rude. Not everyone who seems rude wants to be rude. I have been called rude so many times for my anxiety and it hurts. Please just consider that someone may not be trying to be rude.

[kaceymarshall]

I get through my anxiety by watching videos like this..

[killerkawaiii]

suddenly i don't feel like i'm alone in this anymore.

[samanthalee]

I can totally relate to this! It's amazing to finally have a name for what I've been feeling for the past several years.

[charlizeriv]

Wow. This is so accurate. When feeling like a fraud popped out on the screen I immediately started crying. At one point in my life, a point that I cannot remember anymore, I didn’t feel this way. But now I feel everything I do is wrong and that I am a complete fraud. That I am living a life where people have such high hopes for me and saying that I’ll get very far in life because I am a “determined, skillful person, ” meanwhile, every time I even think about my future I cry because I am so worried for myself because everything I do is a mistake and that I am not who everybody says I am. I just.. i don’t know.

[obliviouscitrus-]

This scares me how much I relate to this, I've always tried to push away these things thinking I'm fine and it's nothing wrong because I'm considered a successful "normal" person who has a good life. It scares me that I relate so much....

[lindsaylarkin]

There are tears streaming down my face, you put my deepest feelings into words.