You haven’t felt like yourself lately. You’re not really sure if other people have noticed or not.
You’re doing your best to appear normal. You don’t want your family, friends, or coworkers to question you or your abilities.
That’s why you’re fighting against your own body to continue to show up each day. Even though it’s getting harder and harder each day to have the energy for your normal daily activities, you can’t let anyone see that you’re struggling — or can you?
Maybe letting someone in or asking for help isn’t all that bad. Here are 5 ways to recognize high-functioning depression
1. Overthinking
One of the main ways to recognize someone with high-functioning depression is that they tend to be overthinkers. Since a lot of anxiety stems from worrying about past events or events in the future that haven’t even occurred yet, this overthinking has a tendency to increase their anxiety too.
When anxiety increases, an increase in depression will likely follow. An individual with high-functioning depression tends to overthink almost every area of their life. This means overthinking social interactions with family, friends, and coworkers. They may even spend a good chunk of their time ruminating on past interactions.
2. Busy Schedules
Someone with high-functioning depression may try to jampack their schedule to keep themselves busy. While this may not seem like such a bad thing initially, their reasoning for keeping themselves busy isn’t actually that healthy.
The reason most individuals with high-functioning depression want to keep busy is that they don’t want to actually deal with their own thoughts and emotions. While someone with high-functioning depression may also be struggling with other more common signs and symptoms of depression-like fatigue, they’ll try to distract themselves and be productive instead.
3. Imposter Syndrome
Despite their work and positive remarks from loved ones and colleagues, someone with high-functioning depression may feel a bit like an imposter. They may start to question their own knowledge or beliefs and wonder if they’re ready or capable of completing certain tasks. Feeling like a fraud can harm how they feel about themselves as well.
4. Self-Criticism
Along with keeping themselves busy, they’ll also try to convince themselves and others that everything is okay. Instead of admitting and acknowledging that they’re struggling with something like depression, they’ll try to brush it off and act like they’re just going through a hard time in their life and that it will pass with some time.
This can make them even more critical of themselves, causing them to think and feel negatively about the work they’re completing and even setting unrealistic goals for themselves. This is a vicious cycle that can have a further negative impact of their self-perception.
5. Self-Isolation
Since a lot of people with high-functioning depression try to dismiss how they’re actually feeling, they’ll start to self-isolate as a way to ensure they don’t have to talk about their emotions. This can only leave them feeling worse the longer they brush off how they’re actually feeling. It also has a way of making them feel alone since they’re not able to actually connect with others on their true selves.
How to Get Help
No matter what specific type of depression you may have, seeking help from a depression therapist is extremely important. The longer you try to manage the signs and symptoms of depression on your own, the worse you may feel. The best treatment option for any type of depression is to seek treatment as soon as you recognize the signs. You are not defined by your depression. Reach out today so I can help you start the process toward healing.