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3 Things That Will Help High Functioning Anxiety

Anxiety is one of those things that is so common nowadays it’s almost not even taken seriously as it seems like everyone has it! It’s estimated that around 40 million adults deal with some form of anxiety and 18% of those have high functioning anxiety. High functioning anxiety isn’t an actual diagnosis but it is an actual problem! It is one of those things that many people feel and instead of dealing with it they bury it down inside of themselves or just ignore it all together.

This isn’t an issue in the short term but over time this continues to build up into more and more stress and anxiety inside the body. Once it becomes a large problem it can turn into a full on anxiety attack or physical symptoms as well.

What’s great is there are things that can be done to decrease high functioning anxiety and limit the possibility of it turning into something more extreme. There is obviously medication that people can take but more and more people are wanting to not rely on medication, which I believe is a good thing. Afterall anxiety is something that can be taken care of without the use of medication.

There are a myriad of at-home things people can do to help their high functioning anxiety at home and things they can do with other providers…here are 3 things that we recommend!

Breathwork

Breathwork is something that can have a huge impact on high functioning anxiety. If you’ve ever had an adrenaline rush thing about what was going on. Your heart started to beat faster and you started breathing short quick breaths. This is also a time where you feel anxious and it’s difficult to make any sort of rational decision.

By controlling your breathing you are able to get control of your body as a whole. Breathing is one of those things that we never really think about because we do it automatically. This is because it is under the control of the autonomic nervous system. Our fight or flight response resides in this part of our body. If this response is constantly activated our breathing will be similar to that of an adrenaline rush…unless we start focusing on it.

I’m not saying you need to focus on your breath 24/7. Maybe one time a day for 5-10 minutes lay down or sit still and really focus on your breathing. Do a rhythmic 4 count breath, where you inhale for 4 seconds, hold it for 4 seconds, exhale for 4 seconds, and hold it exhaled for 4 seconds. This is going to help activate what’s called the parasympathetic nervous system. This is the part that is in charge of a resting or thriving state.

By activating this part of the nervous system your body will naturally start calming down any nervousness or anxiety you might be facing. When you are taking the breaths make sure you are expanding your belly with every breath, this will indicate that you are reaching the full length of the lungs.

Activating the parasympathetic nervous system is the name of the game when it comes to helping high functioning anxiety.

Ice Baths

This one is a bit more difficult than focusing on breathing. It may also have a larger physiological impact, especially if you are incorporating it with breathwork…which you almost have to do if you want to be successful with it at all.

When people think of an ice bath they think it is pretty crazy and sometimes only used for athletes or people recovering from workouts. Yes they are pretty crazy but they are much more beneficial than just recovering from workouts! It basically is a shock to your system. Once you get into an ice bath the body’s main response is to go into fight or flight mode.

I know you’re thinking this sounds counter productive and for a brief moment it is. The main thing you will want to do is get out as fast as possible. This is where controlling your mindset and breath really comes into play. By having control of these two things you’re going to be able to stay in the ice bath. How long you stay in is completely up to you. According to Andrew Huberman of Huberman Labs the most recent study suggests a minimum of 11 minutes a week in an ice bath below 55 degrees will reap you the benefits.

Since the body is forced into a state of fight or flight when you get into the ice bath it’s only option when you remain in and then get out is to go into a calming mode. Like we mentioned before getting the body into a parasympathetic state, or a calming state will help tremendously with high functioning anxiety.

Upper Cervical Chiropractic

This is the one thing on this list that is something you can’t do at home and is the thing that we do at The Specific Chiropractic Centers. Our focus is to balance the nervous system and make sure everything is working properly. We always start by measuring the nervous system. Oftentimes we will find that majority of people who come into the office with high functioning anxiety have an underlying nervous system issue going on and don’t even know it.

Once we start providing very specific light adjustments we start balancing the nervous system and people start seeing a decrease in not only their high functioning anxiety but also in other chronic issues they might have had going on as well. Our goal at the office is to help people get long term relief and resolution to their high functioning anxiety, over time we help retrain their body and nervous system to stay in a calming state rather than fight or flight.

If you are someone who struggles with high functioning anxiety and no longer want to be affected by it try out these options. If you’re interested in seeing what we do at the office might be able to help reach out to us and schedule a complimentary consultation!