High-Functioning Anxiety Isn’t Who You Are. Here’s the Truth

About this episode

Dr. Caroline Leaf discusses high-functioning anxiety as a stress response and provides insights on understanding and addressing it.

High-functioning anxiety isn't a personality type. It's a stress response that's gone unchecked. You look calm. You hit your deadlines. You say "I'm fine." But inside, your body is paying a tax that's quietly editing your gene expression while everyone applauds your output. In this episode of The Dr. Leaf Show, Dr. Caroline Leaf breaks down what high-functioning anxiety actually is, what your non-conscious mind has been trying to tell you, and a 4-step framework to start listening. Plus: why your dog's separation anxiety mirrors your own anticipatory anxiety, and a Pick My Brain segment where Dr. Leaf answers your hardest questions about death, grief, and death anxiety. What you'll learn: - Why high-functioning anxiety is built on the "I'm fine" response — and how 40+ years of repressive coping research shows what it does to your heart rate, gene expression, and immune system - The 4 signals your non-conscious mind is sending: emotional, behavioral, body, and perspective — and how to translate each one - The 4-step framework for listening to your non-conscious mind instead of overriding it - Why your dog's pre-departure panic, the suitcase meltdown, the excessive licking — all…

People in this episode

Host: Dr. Caroline Leaf

Topics covered

• high-functioning anxiety
• stress response
• non-conscious mind
• grief
• anticipatory anxiety
• mental health

Keywords

• high-functioning anxiety
• stress response
• gene expression
• non-conscious mind
• grief
• anticipatory anxiety
• mental health
• coping mechanisms
• neuroscience

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