A few years ago, while visiting one of our closest friends in the Outerbanks, we decided to go paddleboarding. This was my first time paddleboarding, and leading up to the event, I was nervous. My Monger had some objective evidence about my lack of athletic abilities, so she was chatty. In true High Functioning Anxiety […]
When I first started dating my husband, Doug, he was the Manager of the Aquatics Department at a local gym. Doug was a competitive swimmer in high school and is passionate about swimming; I mean PASSIONATE. I on the other hand see the pool as a place to play. I am very comfortable jumping off […]
At the start of the week, my plan for this letter was to discuss Oprah’s interview with Meghan and Harry. Sharing how that conversation highlighted the importance of mental health and how we should be respectful of people’s mental health struggles. I would have written that message and tied it up in a neat little […]
Sometimes with high functioning anxiety, we feel so alone as if we are the only ones experiencing this mind jibberish. Today, I wanted to share some stories of how anxiety and the Monger have shown up this week for my clients, myself, and my friends (the names are made up the names!) The more we […]
In my late 20s, while in graduate school, I took a full-time job at a local university. I had two different responsibilities working in the Career Services Office, helping students with their careers, and living in and managing the upper-class apartment complex. The job was a mix of apartment manager, rule enforcer, and big sister. […]
Throughout my life, one of my go-to strategies for dealing with my anxiety is through people-pleasing. My Monger tells me, that if everyone around me was happy, I will feel less anxiety. As part of this belief, I convince myself that everyone else’s needs are more important because if their needs are met, they won’t […]
Over the past few weeks, I have been in a bit of a mood. In addition to being extra kind to myself, I have been challenging myself to: Show Up. Notice. Appreciate. Here is what I mean: Reaching out to an old friend to say hi, and I am thinking of you. Emailing someone who […]
Last week I wrote about the High Functioning Anxiety Wrestling Match and gave a common scenario I see all the time between the Monger and BFF. My goal for this week was to talk about how to bring in your Biggest Fan, how to handle the Monger-BFF wrestling match in that particular scenario. But in light of […]
The common wisdom is to do what you love, find your zone of genius, and do it as much as you can. This idea sounds fantastic, find what you are naturally good at and do more of it. For those of us with High Functioning Anxiety, this idea is problematic because we keep our anxiety […]
I remember as a kid playing the hand wrestling game Mercy with my older brother. Inevitably I would cry “mercy! mercy!” as he twisted my hands, and he would taunt me in that special brotherly way, “New rules! We changed the name of the game, the new password it isn’t mercy, start guessing!” That is […]