The ‘Busy' Trap

High-functioning anxiety can cause us to continue taking on outside stress and obligations even if we’re already overwhelmed with what’s on our plates. Here are some of the signs

- PAOLA NAVARETTE

Living through a pandemic, with-out question, is causing us invisible stress—a pervasive, ever-shifting, hard-to-define anxiety.

But anxiety itself is a strange beast. It’s so idiosyncratic that it’s difficult to pinpoint a “type” that is most common. Because while many fear its arrival or are trapped under its spell, others seem to take it all in stride and need only a bit of psychological first aid. Turns out, experts say, you can be high-functioning despite your anxiety.

“The most unusual aspect of high-functioning anxiety is people need it to drive themselves forward in everything that they do,” says counseling psychologist and psychotherapist Lillian Gui. “So instead of being paralyzed by it, like how some people are paralyzed in bed by their generalized anxiety disorder, it drives behavior. They tend to keep it hidden, too, which only deepens the stress they experience and prevents healing from occurring.”

High-functioning anxiety, however, isn’t a diagnosable condition, and so it can be hard to identify because it doesn’t look like the textbook definition of what a mental health issue is. Are you someone who could be suffering from it? Do you know someone who might be? Here are some of the silent signs, according to psychologists.

You worry excessively (but nobody notices this)