Journaling Prompts for High-Functioning Anxiety
High-functioning anxiety is tricky because from the outside it can look like ambition, conscientiousness, and capability. People with high-functioning anxiety often get praised for the very symptoms that are exhausting them: the perfectionism, the over-preparation, the constant vigilance. But underneath the productivity is often a perpetual hum of 'what if something goes wrong?' Writing about high-functioning anxiety means looking underneath the achievement at the cost—and starting to separate what you're doing from genuine drive versus what you're doing to outrun fear.
Journaling Prompts
What does the anxiety feel like underneath the productivity? When everything goes quiet—on vacation, on weekends, in the rare idle moment—what shows up?
What would happen, concretely, if you prepared 20% less, followed up one fewer time, let one thing be good enough instead of excellent? Write out the fear. How realistic is it?
What are you actually trying to control through the achievement and the over-preparation? Is it other people's perceptions, outcomes, your own feelings of inadequacy—what is the underlying need?
What would you do differently with your time and energy if the anxiety quieted down? What have you told yourself is 'ambitious' when it might actually be avoidance of something the busyness prevents you from feeling?
When do you feel okay enough to rest—what condition has to be met before you allow yourself to stop? Is that condition ever fully met, or does it keep moving?