How to Manage Back to School Anxiety for College Students
A new semester brings excitement, fresh opportunities, and motivation. Yet, for many ambitious college students in downtown DC, it also brings high functioning anxiety. While some anxiety can fuel success, unmanaged anxiety can often become overwhelming. The key to thriving academically and personally lies in recognizing high functioning anxiety, and practicing effective strategies to manage it.
Why High Achievers Struggle with Anxiety
High achievers often set ambitious expectations for themselves, such as striving for perfect grades, leadership positions, competitive internships, and calendars full of extracurriculars. While these goals can encourage growth, they can also create enormous pressure that leads to high functioning anxiety. Those with high functioning anxiety often appear calm and collected on the outside while quietly battling racing thoughts, tension, and exhaustion on the inside. Combined with the unpredictability of college life, perfectionism can frequently amplify stress. Many students eventually ask themselves what the root cause of high functioning anxiety is and what high functioning anxiety symptoms look like. Gaining clarity in these areas can be a powerful first step toward academic success that does not come at the expense of mental health.
Strategies for High Functioning Anxiety
Managing high functioning anxiety is possible with intentional strategies designed for high achiever students:
Plan realistically. Break big projects into smaller steps and avoid overloading your schedule with excessive commitments.
Set balanced standards. Aim for excellence, not perfection. Decide your success metrics for different tasks (i.e. an A, vs 100%) to conserve energy.
Schedule recovery time. Treat rest like an appointment. Short walks, stretching, time with friends, or music breaks can reset your nervous system.
Challenge comparison. High achievers often measure themselves against peers. Focus on your personal growth rather than competition, and limit social media.
Practice grounding daily. Spend five minutes on deep breathing, journaling, or mindfulness before class to calm racing thoughts.
Use available resources. Tutoring centers, office hours, and study groups reduce pressure and support learning.
Balance your activities. Join clubs or sports for enjoyment, not only for your resume.
Tackle procrastination. Use the “five-minute rule.” Starting an assignment for just five minutes often leads to continued progress.
Prioritize wellness. Consistent sleep, nutrition, and exercise significantly lower the intensity of high functioning anxiety.
Seek connection. Talk with friends, mentors, or counselors to reduce isolation and gain perspective.
You might wonder how high achievers deal with stress? The answer often lies in balancing ambition with compassion, giving yourself permission to succeed without sacrificing health.
When to Consider Therapy
If anxiety feels constant, interrupts your focus, or prevents you from enjoying campus life, therapy can help. The skilled, compassionate therapists at Dr. Dawn Johnson & Associates can provide you with the tools and space to address perfectionism, manage stress, improve your self-esteem and relationships, and develop sustainable habits. For students with high functioning anxiety, therapy offers both practical tools and deeper support. We a conveniently located in downtown Washington, DC, providing therapy near George Washington University (GWU), easily metro accessible to American University (AU) and Catholic University (CUA), and convenient to Georgetown University (GU). Our practice offers convenient online scheduling, automatic online billing, and parent portal access (with client permission) to streamline parent payments and insurance reimbursement.
How Dr. Dawn Johnson & Associates Can Help
Discover how high achievers manage stress and maintain their edge by seeking professional high functioning anxiety therapy. Our expert anxiety therapists at Dr. Dawn Johnson & Associates are equipped to help you develop strategies to balance ambition with well-being. Start your path toward healthier, more sustainable success by booking your first session.
Follow these three simple steps to get started:
Schedule a free 20-minute consultation to see if anxiety therapy is right for you.
Begin meeting with one of our skilled anxiety therapists.
Start coping with your stress as a high-achiever.
Other Services Offered at Dr. Dawn Johnson & Associates in Washington D.C. & Virginia
At Dr. Dawn Johnson & Associates, we want to help you thrive. We offer individual, couples and family therapy for children through mature adults. Our skilled and compassionate therapists are deeply trained in a variety of presenting concerns, including anxiety, depression, relationships, infertility, academic and career concerns, disordered eating, chronic pain and more.