Fire season can make certain sights, sounds, and smells much harder to ignore. Smoke in the air, helicopters overhead, a Red Flag Warning, or news of a nearby fire can quickly bring attention back to what could happen next. For people who have lived through a wildfire, evacuated because of one, lost a home or community, or spent years living in areas where fires are a regular threat, fire season can bring a unique kind of anxiety. Wildfire anxiety is the fear, worry, and heig

“I am still functioning” can become a convincing rationale for putting off trying therapy. Your work is getting done, your relationships have not fallen apart, and there is no one single event that you can specifically identify that seems to be an obvious explanation of why things have become so difficult. But being able to successfully function in these ways only tells you that you are completing the tasks in front of you. It says very little about how you feel while doing t

There is a particular kind of exhaustion that comes from never fully being able to relax. You walk into a room and immediately scan for where the exits are, and who is near them. who is near. A car door slams outside, and your heart rate spikes before your brain even registers what the sound was. Your partner says your name in a slightly unusual tone, and you brace for a conflict that was never coming. This is not anxiety in the general sense of the word. This is hypervigila

Success is supposed to build confidence. And yet some of the most accomplished people carry a persistent, quiet fear that they are not as capable as everyone around them believes. They attribute their wins to luck, brace for the moment they get “found out,” and push harder to stay ahead of a failure that never quite arrives. It does not matter how many milestones they hit or how consistently they deliver. The internal narrative stays the same. Something is off, the success is

High-functioning anxiety is hard to spot because everything still looks fine on the outside. Learn what it actually is, the signs most people miss, and when to get help.