High-Functioning Anxiety is different from general anxiety, in that the symptoms are less noticeable and could be explained away. But that does not mean that just because someone can seem to function in spite of this type of anxiety, does not mean it is any less real or any less hurtful.

It means that when I dont want to get up in the morning, your high-functioning anxiety pushes you out of bed because, there is so much to do, how dare you stay down? Do you want to feel worthless? Because if you dont want to, your gonna need to complete an impossible list and work your butt off. 

Its a feeling of always not being good enough. You push yourself harder and harder to be a better friend, a better daughter or sister, a better person. And when a friend has a breakdown and you happen not to be there, you feel absolutely overwhelmed with the thought that you have failed everyone in your life. The biggest fear is letting people down. So you make excuses for every behaviour, and if you cannot make it to an event, you feel horrible and try to make it up the person twice over. But it still doesnt feel enough.

Its a feeling that you are always in a rush, always running to the next thing hoping this time you'll make it work somehow. You cant relax, you always have to be doing something constructive, otherwise you feel like a failure. You dont let yourself rest because you feel like you havent done enough to deserve that, or that there is just to much to do.

Its not being able to sleep at night.

No one sees how much your struggling, because it looks like you have a wonderful light and your achieving so much. But you feel like the strong personifa you keep up, is literally killing you inside. Your scared to open up to others, because they might not even believe you or take you seriously.

You have a hard time saying 'no', and you let others use and abuse you, because hey, it makes them feel better. You would kill yourself before saying no to the people you love the most.

You need constant reassurance that people actually love you, because in your head you hate yourself and you cant understand how others could love you since you keep letting them down.

Its like an perfectionism mixed with constant anxiety.

Not a perfectionism where you have to make everything look perfect, or have everything tidy and neat. But a perfectionism in work, in relationships and in moral standards.

Failure brings on panic attacks.
Overwhelming feelings of all that failure brings on long anxiety attacks.

High-functioning anxiety leaks out in physical behaviours aswell. Tapping your foot, controlling behaviour in stressful situations (because you have to feel your in control constantly), picking sores and pimples, biting your lips, biting nails, tightness in your chest, breathing rapidly, and hot flushes in the face.

Its self-talk that constantly degrades you, that constantly telling you that you are stupid, a failure, a terrible friend, not good enough etc. Its all negative self-talk that swirls around how much your are not accomplishing in your life.

You have a strict daily routine, and as soon as that routine feels disrupted even by 5 mins, you fly off the handle and you can feel a panic attack coming on. All others can say, 'its only this', 'chill you are only late once, you cant be late twice', 'calm down, its not something big enough to stress about'. But in your head, its the end of the world and you have forgotten how to breathe.

Personally, to combat high-functioning anxiety to talk honestly about your struggles to those your closest with helps a heap, because you no longer feel so much pressure because your friends or family at least understand why your overreacting. And the second biggest thing, is learn how to rest. Learn how you can sleep early at night, and place in your routine big chunks of rest where your only expected to put that face mask on, or sleep for a couple of hours, or listen to music. Rest helps high-functioning anxiety more than anything has for me. Breathing exercises, and self care tricks are what you need, but what works for is going to work different for you. So go and google some, write a list of self care ideas and then give them a go one by one. Youll never know until you give it a try!

Keep struggling <3