Do you appear composed, efficient, and successful on the outside with a silent struggle of self-doubt, stress, and anxiety brewing on the inside? If so, you might be suffering from high-functioning anxiety. Unlike the more externally evident generalized anxiety disorder, high-functioning anxiety is able to cloak itself in competence and success, making it hard to notice—even for those who suffer with it.

Though this type of anxiety does not appear to disrupt daily life, its long-term effects on mental health, relationships, and physical health can be significant. In The House of Wellness Women's Health Survey, 75% of the participants indicated that stress and anxiety impacted their sleep more than any other aspect. While success and some stress do not necessarily mean high-functioning anxiety, identifying its symptoms and treating them is crucial for overall health.

What is High-Functioning Anxiety?

High-functioning anxiety is not a diagnosis contained within the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) but is more frequently associated with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). It defines those individuals who function at an excellent level at work, relationships, and household chores yet silently experience incessant worry, criticism, and stress.

They can look confident and successful on the outside. They do not shirk responsibility or shy away from social events. Rather, they overdo it—overworking, overperforming, and trying to be perfect. But behind the veneer of success, they feel constant anxiety, fear of failure, and stress.

Signs and Symptoms of High-Functioning Anxiety

High-functioning anxiety has many similarities with generalized anxiety disorder but tends to be expressed in a way that can pass unnoticed. Some of the common emotional and physical symptoms are:

Emotional Symptoms:

Over-self-criticism and fear of being judged

Constant worry over even trivial things

Feelings of impending doom or constant tension

Trouble relaxing or unwinding

Overthinking and second-guessing oneself

Physical Symptoms:

Recurring headaches or migraines

Gastrointestinal symptoms such as ulcers or irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)

Muscle tension and teeth clenching

Insomnia and sleep pattern disturbances

Racing heart and excessive perspiration

The severity of these symptoms can range, but they tend to result in burnout, fatigue, and physical health issues.

When Does High-Functioning Anxiety Become a Problem?

In a society that celebrates hustle and success, high-functioning anxiety can be mistaken for ambition and drive. Yet, the constant stress to perform can exact a cost. High-functioning anxiety individuals overextend themselves, forfeiting self-care, relationships, and work-life balance along the way. They are rewarded with admiration for their work ethic but quietly endure stress-related diseases, chronic fatigue, and emotional exhaustion.

One of the greatest dangers is that high-functioning anxious individuals do not get help until their performance declines. Because the symptoms do not directly impact daily functioning, they may not acknowledge their anxiety until it leads to burnout, late submissions, or fractured relationships.

Why Are Women More Affected

Women are disproportionately impacted by high-functioning anxiety because of a mix of societal pressures, upbringing, and genetic factors. Research indicates that one in three women will develop anxiety at some point during their lifetime, making them more vulnerable than men.

Contributing factors to high-functioning anxiety in women are:

High societal expectations: Women are expected to perform well in their professional lives while having a flawless home and social life.

Perfectionism: Many women feel pressured to be flawless, fearing failure or disappointing others.

Upbringing and conditioning: Women raised with high expectations or unstable childhood environments may develop anxious tendencies early in life.

Chronic stress: Managing multiple roles—career, family, relationships—can create significant pressure, increasing anxiety levels.

How to Recognize High-Functioning Anxiety in Yourself?

If you’re unsure whether you have high-functioning anxiety, ask yourself the following questions:

• Do I overprepare and overthink minor decisions?
• Am I always anxious about failing, even when I accomplish things?
• Do I have a hard time unwinding, even when I do have time off?
• Do I have a problem saying no to added responsibilities?
• Do I think my worthiness is tied to my productivity?

If you responded "yes" to a few of these, you might be suffering from high-functioning anxiety.

How to Manage High-Functioning Anxiety?

Although high-functioning anxiety may be overwhelming, there are ways to control it. Here are some tips that can help:

1. Avoid Comparing Yourself to Others

Excessive social comparison can lead to anxiety and self-doubt. Rather than comparing yourself to others, compare yourself to yourself. Look at your own progress and accomplishments.

2. Know Your Needs

Some people thrive in fast-paced environments, while others need more downtime. Understanding your personal limits and honoring them is key to managing stress.

3. Build a Reliable Support System

Many people with high-functioning anxiety believe they must handle everything alone. Surround yourself with people who support and understand you, and don’t hesitate to ask for help when needed.

4. Practice Mindfulness

Being in the moment can assist in breaking the cycle of worrying thoughts. Practices like meditation, deep breathing, and journaling can minimize stress and enhance concentration.

5. Establish Boundaries

High-functioning anxious individuals tend to have difficulty saying no. Prioritize your own well-being by setting clear boundaries and not overextending yourself.

6. Obtain Professional Assistance

Counseling, or cognitive behavior modification (CBT), works incredibly well to manage high-functioning anxiety. CBT will get you thinking more positively about negative thoughts and work on helping you adopt more effective coping skills.

7. Self-Care Priorities

Rest, nutrition, and physical activity are vital in maintaining healthy mental well-being. Taking care of your body is going to maintain anxiety at lower levels and help avoid burnout.

High-functioning anxiety can be imperceptible to others, yet its consequences are all too real. Though it can propel achievement in some domains, it can also cause chronic stress, burnout, and declining mental health if not addressed.

If you identify with these feelings, know that asking for help is not a weakness—it's a move toward a healthier, more meaningful life. No success is worth losing your well-being, and real success is finding balance, happiness, and peace within yourself.

We have all have experienced fevers, there are many different beliefs about it in different cultures and multiple ways to treat it, ranging from modern medicine to ancient practices. When one has a fever, their body feels warm and weak, they also do not have energy to do extended movements. As fevers are a range, some being slight to others being signs of dangerous conditions, dealing with them can be tricky. Things like fever dreams, conversations and thoughts are often incoherent. There are things called fever hallucinations as well, but why does this happen?

Fever means your body temperature has gone above what's normal. But what's "normal" can be a bit different for everyone and can change based on how active you are and the time of day. Generally, a fever is when your temperature is higher than 99 degrees Fahrenheit in the early morning or above 100 degrees Fahrenheit at any other time.

Do Fevers Make Us More Irritable?

In a 2013 review published in the Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, the researchers found that not only do fevers cause people to feel cold, weak and other bodily sensations, but the participants also expressed emotional changes, vivid dreams/hallucinations.

In one of the interview with a participant from the study, researches noted them experiencing feelings of anxiousness, crabby, angry and frustrated, “Like I said, I think fever is really tied in to how you feel emotionally. Because I know every time I have a fever, I just get snotty, for lack of a better term, because I'm just really agitated.”

“I feel tired. I feel irritable”

How Is Body Heat And Brain Health Connected?

Harvard Heath explains a part of your brain called the hypothalamus acts like a thermostat for your body. When you're healthy, it keeps your body at its usual temperature. A fever happens when the hypothalamus gets set to a higher temperature than normal. This change in the brain's thermostat is usually caused by tiny things in your blood called pyrogens.

According to a 2023 review by Yale School of Medicine heat can change things in the environment, it can also change how our brains work. In a study, researchers found that even small increases in temperature while the brain is active can really change what the brain does, and sometimes these changes can be negative.

Experts from Yale explain that changes in temperature in the brain also affect how our nerve cells (neurons) fire signals. These cells have tiny pumps that give them electrical energy, which they release when the brain is active. The researchers found that if brain cells get heated up too fast, faster than these pumps can adjust, the cells might become more active or less active than usual.

Even tiny temperature changes from brain stimulation can lead to big changes in neuron activity. As neurons get warmer, they can even stop working, and when they cool down again, they can become very easily excited.

Fever Hallucinations and other Psychological Affects

According to an Infections & Chemotherapy 2022 review, fevers can cause febrile convulsions, which is a seizure caused by a fever in young kids. It can also cause confusion, like not understanding where you are, not recognizing your surroundings. It can also cause unstable emotions, conscious and cognitive disturbances like illusions on hallucinations.

These can also be symptoms for things like influenza infections or encephalitis. Like the Yale experts explained even small temperature changes can have such a big impact on brain activity, we need to start paying attention to these small changes. He points out that it's a basic rule of physics that when you send electricity through wires to stimulate the brain, you will create heat, both in the wires and in the brain tissue itself.

Researching more on these matters can help us find better treatments and help doctors change the course of several procedures to help their patients.

Turkey has banned elective caesarean surgeries for childbirth at private hospitals and healthcare centres. "Planned Caesarean sections cannot be performed in a medical centre," said a gazette entry outlining new regulations governing private healthcare institutions in Turkey. It came as the country's president, Tyyip Recep Erdogan, has been pushing hard to have women give natural births, asserting that C Section surgeries promoted Western culture.

The move has triggered massive criticism from the opposition and right-wing organisations. "As if the country had no other problems, male football players are telling women how to give birth," Gokce Gokcen, deputy chair of the main opposition CHP, on X. Meanwhile, many human rights and women's rights organisations have also raised their voices against this new law, calling it out for restricting women's rights and liberty.

ALSO READ: After HIIT, Is Jeffing The New Go-To Cardio Workout

What Is A C-Section Birth?

C-section or caesarean birth is a surgical procedure wherein a baby is delivered through incisions made in mother's abdomen and uterus. The name caesarean comes from the Latin word "caedare" which means "to cut." Interestingly, there are rumours that link the name to Roman emperor Julius Caesar, stating that he was the first person to be born via this procedure. However, there are no records of this.

However, there are many cases where a caesarean section surgery becomes almost necessary. A doctor may order a C-section if:

• Your baby is breech, or the lower part of the body is in the birth canal instead of the head.
• Your baby is in a transverse position, or lying sideways in the birth canal.
• Your baby’s head is unusually large.
• Your baby’s heartbeat is slowing down, or there is a problem with oxygen delivery to your baby.
• You are giving birth to more than one baby. Sometimes one baby will be in an abnormal position, so all of the babies are then born via C-section.
• Your baby has a birth defect that makes vaginal delivery unsafe.
• You have umbilical cord issues.
• You have health conditions that make vaginal delivery unsafe. These include high blood pressure, HIV, open herpes lesions, or heart problems.

What Are The Complications Of Having a C-Section Surgery?

There are many complications that come with this method of delivering a child. They include:

• Reactions to the medicines used during surgery
• Bleeding
• Abnormal separation of the placenta, especially in women with previous cesarean delivery
• Injury to the bladder or bowel
• Infection in the uterus
• Wound infection
• Trouble urinating or a urinary tract infection
• Delayed return of bowel function
• Blood clots

Bottom Line

Despite the potential risks and complications, C-sections are much safer than they once were. With evolution in medical science, doctors are now taking great care to make incisions that will reduce the risk of nicks to the baby and infections to the mother. Meanwhile, the use of anaesthesia, also reduces the pain of the childbirth.

ALSO READ: Dishonesty Is 'More Than A Vice', It Could Make You Sick With

Being dishonest doesn’t come naturally to people, it is a learned virtue, whether out of necessity or pleasure. When kids lie, a lot of it stems from them not wanting to get in trouble, for example, breaking a household item or doing something they were told not to do like running around inside the house. However, when people do learn to tell lies, it can become like a go to tendency for many. It is easier to make something up rather than explaining complex truths.

According to a study published in the Psychological Science 2015, kids start lying around the age of two to three years old. Their habit then progresses rapidly, till the age of 3 and 7.

Not all lies are the same, some are really small and don't hurt anyone, like saying you like someone's new haircut even though you don't. These little white lies often just help keep things smooth and make people feel good. Then there are much bigger lies, like saying someone else did something wrong when they didn't, or lying to people about money. These kinds of lies can cause a lot of damage and have bad consequences for people's lives.

Stress Response of Lying

When we know that being dishonest could really hurt how others see us, the act of lying itself makes our bodies feel stressed. When we tell a lie, things start to happen without us even thinking about it. A 2015 review published in the Current Opinion in Psychology explains that our heart might beat faster, we might start to sweat a little and our mouth can feel really dry. These physical changes are what those old-fashioned lie-detector tests used to try and pick up on.

Some people don't feel as much empathy as others, and they might not have the usual stressed reaction when they lie. The American Psychological Association explains that some people can learn to control their bodies really well and might be able to lie and still pass a lie-detector test. On the other hand, someone who is telling the truth but is just really nervous about being tested might look like they are lying.

Gut-Brain Connection and Extreme Reactions

While it's not common, some people might have a really strong physical reaction to lying, like feeling sick to their stomach or even throwing up a lot. This shows how connected our gut and our brain are. When we feel really anxious, like when we are worried about getting caught in a lie, it can actually make our stomach feel bad. So, for someone who is constantly lying and worried about it, this anxiety could potentially lead to physical sickness.

Living a life where you are often not telling the truth can actually take a toll on your health over time, not just in the moment. Research has suggested that people who lie a lot might have problems like high blood pressure, their heart might beat faster more often, their blood vessels could get tighter, and they might have more stress hormones in their bodies on a regular basis.