On TikTok you may discover hundreds of thousands of customers diagnosing themselves utilizing the time period “high-functioning” — high-functioning anxiousness, high-functioning despair, high-functioning autism.

The time period “high-functioning” is not truly scientific, however, typically, it refers to those that carry out properly in work and at school. So if somebody has high-functioning despair, it means they’re excelling at their job, regardless of being in poor psychological well being.

After the pandemic, when ranges of despair and anxiousness each spiked, individuals grew to become extra conscious of the truth that you’ll be able to have despair or anxiousness and nonetheless be excelling in sure elements of your life, says Irina Gorelik, a psychologist with Williamsburg Remedy Group.

“After Covid, the focus on mental health has been much more significant,” she says. “And people are much more aware of signs that might have been subtle in the past.”

Whereas the concept of a high-functioning depressed or anxious particular person is not new, our current obsession with the time period is. And specialists consider it would sign a shift in how we consider psychological well being presents.

You are ‘masking’ your struggles with excessive efficiency

Gorelik likens high-functioning tendencies to masking. An individual will work additional exhausting within the workplace to be able to cowl up their poor psychological well being.

“You’re masking something you’re struggling with with performance,” she says. “You’re able to maintain the basic aspects of your life without people noticing a significant change, but you’re using a lot more mental effort to sustain that high performance.”

Saying your “high-functioning” additionally indicators that you’ve financial worth to society, says John T. Maier, a psychotherapist in Cambridge Massachusetts,

“When people say ‘high-functioning,’ they aren’t saying, ‘I’m doing a great job at raising my family’ or ‘I’m doing a great job at going to church,'” he says. “It means ‘I’m doing a great job at work.'”

Traditionally, admitting you might have psychological well being struggles would possibly counsel you might have hassle holding down a job or performing properly at school. The spike in use of this time period exhibits that persons are rethinking what despair or anxiousness seem like.

“It’s implicating that you are somehow different from someone else with this label,” he says.