Therapy for Clincial Anxiety and Overachieving
What is natural anxiety versus "clinical" anxiety?
To put it simply, everyone experiences anxiety sometimes, it's a natural part of human life. (And, believe it or not, it's often even helpful!) Natural anxiety is an adaptive emotional response to stress or uncertainty that helps us prepare. It is typically proportional to the situation, temporary, and does not significantly interfere with daily functioning. Think of the mild tension you feel before an exam; this motivates you to study and helps you focus during the test. Conversely, anxiety disorders, such as Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), Panic Disorder (PD), and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), involve excessive, persistent, and distressing anxiety that is difficult to control and often disrupts important areas of life. Think of moderate to severe worry accompanied by significant physiological arousal; it preoccupies and derails you.
What are signs of clinical anxiety?
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Excessive worry about multiple areas of life
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Difficulty controlling worry
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Restlessness or feeling "on edge"
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Fatigue
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Poor sleep
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Difficulty concentrating
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Irritability
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Recurrent panic attacks
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Intrusive thoughts (e.g., about contamination or harming others)
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Compulsive behaviors (e.g., cleaning, or reassurance-seeking)
If you are suffering from these symptoms, your qualitiy of life is likely limited in a variety of ways. You might be having a harder time focusing on work, you might feel disconnected from family and friends, and you might be struggling to keep up with important self-care routines, such as sleep and exercise. Instead, you might find yourself cycling between a familiar pattern of worry and attempts to distract yourself (e.g., mindlessly scrolling). Put more simply, if you are living with clinical anxiety you are probably tired and frustrated by what your day to day life looks like.
What is overachieving?
Overachieving is a pattern of striving for exceptionally high levels of success, productivity, or accomplishment, often at the expense of balance, rest, and contentment. While overachieving is not a clinical diagnosis, it is frequently driven by excessive anxiety about failing and unhealthy standards of perfectionism. If you are someone struggling with overachieving, you likely appear highly successful on the surface, but your internal experience may be one of chronic stress and self-criticism. And perhaps most frustratingly, despite all the work you put in to succeeding, odds are that you struggle to feel satisfied with your many accomplishments.
Signs of chronic overachieving may include:
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Feeling burnout or chronic exhaustion
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Feeling that accomplishments are never "good enough"
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Difficulty relaxing or taking breaks without feeling guilty
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Constantly seeking productivity or achievement
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Setting unrealistically high standards for oneself
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Excessive self-criticism after minor setbacks
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Prioritizing work or achievement over relationships and self-care
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Difficulty celebrating successes before moving on to the next goal
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Comparing oneself unfavorably to others despite objective success
When you struggle with overachieving, your sense of worth tends to experience more swings than the stock market. You may struggle to see value in yourself beyond your productivity and accomplishments. While this works OK on the days you're able to meet your high standard, chances are you are prone to excessive self-criticism and doubt when you encounter setbacks or limitations, which we all do sometimes. Additionally, even when you do "climb the mountain" and achieve your major goals like promotions or personal milestones, you might find that sense of accomplishment to be extremely fleeting. This is because chronic overachievers tend to quickly ask themselves "What's next?" after a big success, thus perpetuating the sense that self-worth is a constantly moving target.
How can therapy help with clinical anxiety and overachieving?
I am a clinical psychologist with extensive experience using evidence-based therapies such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), the Unified Protocol for Emotional Disorders (UP), and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), all of which can help you manage clinical anxiety and patterns of overachieving. Each approach engenders greater insight into the thoughts and behaviors that maintain excessive anxiety, thus making you more aware of what it looks like and feels like to "fall in the hole." Additionally, I will introduce you to a variety of strategies to help you climb out of the hole, and eventually, avoid the hole altogether. Skills you might practice with me include learning to accept difficult thoughts and feelings while taking action on important personal values, reframing unhelpful and extreme thoughts to develop a more balanced and compassionate internal narrative, and regulating physiological arousal in various ways so that you may find a "volume knob" for your anxiety. You and I will work together collaboratively to determine the right strategies for your particular goals.
You deserve to feel better than this. Therapy can help you get there.
Please provide your name, contact information, and a brief description of your mental health concerns, and I will promptly get back to you about scheduling a free, 15-minute consultation call.
You can also leave the above information on a voicemail for me at 213-290-0146.