High-functioning anxiety test (Instant results)

Take this quick quiz to see if you have high-functioning anxiety

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The word disorder in Psychology indicates that a condition is causing significant disruption and dysfunction in a person’s life. So, a person with an anxiety disorder has to battle the dysfunction that their anxiety creates for them.1Doering, S., Blüml, V., Parth, K., Feichtinger, K., Gruber, M., Aigner, M., … & Wininger, A. (2018). Personality functioning in anxiety disorders. BMC psychiatry18, 1-9.

Dysfunction is just a fancy way of saying ‘not doing well in one or more areas of life’. However, not all with anxiety experience dysfunction. Not only do some people with anxiety function well in the different life areas, but they also thrive.2Mellifont, D. (2019). Neuro magnifico! An exploratory study critically reviewing news text reporting of anxiety-related work performance strengths, challenges and support measures. Work63(3), 435-446. These are people who have high-functioning anxiety. 

Dysfunction, eventually

It’s likely that many of the ambitious, high achievers you know have high-functioning anxiety. They seem calm and as if they have their life together. People are prone to the halo effect of believing that a person who’s successful career-wise must also be doing well in other life areas. Even if those with high-functioning anxiety seem to be doing well in multiple life areas, they’re definitely not doing well in a critical life area- emotional health.

So, this anxiety-driven high-functioning comes at a cost- an unbalanced life. Some people are okay with this imbalance, but many wish their lives and minds were more balanced. Excess of everything is truly bad in one way or another. The long-term effect of high-functioning anxiety, ironically, is dysfunction. When your mental and physical health suffers, it affects not just your work but other life areas as well.

About the test

This test isn’t meant to be an official diagnosis, as high-functioning anxiety isn’t a recognized disorder. Note that I eliminated the symptoms of general anxiety to make the test more accurate and economical. People with high-functioning anxiety do experience the symptoms of Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD). The test is anonymous and free to take. No personal information is taken, and no data about results is stored or shared with anyone.

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