High-functioning and still anxious

Plenty of the people I work with are, by every outside measure, doing well. The job is going fine. The calendar is full. And underneath it, a low hum of anxiety that never quite clears — no matter how much gets checked off the list.

Achievement can be a genuinely effective way to manage anxious feelings, for a while. It gives you something to point to, a reason things are okay. But it’s a shield, not a resolution — and shields take energy to hold up. When that starts to wear thin is often exactly when people reach out.