How I function with high-functioning anxiety.

I burned my lip on an onion ring yesterday. First bite, scalding-hot-lava onion juice erupted from a perfectly round onion ring and spattered onto the edge of my unsuspecting lip. MUUUUUTHER FUUUUUUCKER THAT HURT! The blister formed on the edge of my lip, as quickly as the curse words.

I grabbed an ice cube from the free, but tiny, fast food cup of ice water (thank God I asked for water with my order) and held it to my lip, then used the other hand to hold the that bitch-ball onion ring up to the air conditioner vent.

Yes. I was eating in my car.
Yes. I was cooling my food with my air conditioner vent.
Yes. I’m certain I looked ridiculous.

But, I powered through. Without ketchup. Because they forgot to include it. And I didn’t think to check until I’d driven two stores over and stopped in an emptyish parking lot. So, no ketchup. It would be ridiculous to go back now, right? I can’t go back and ask for ketchup, can I? Should I? No. I can’t. Absurd. Who drives back through a drive thru asking for ketchup?

After my subconscious and I came to a non-absurd conclusion of certainly not driving back and asking for ketchup, the onion ring had cooled to the perfect temperature. I put the ice cube down and began eating my onion rings. In silence. In my car. In an emptyish parking lot.

I eat in my car a lot on my lunch breaks at work. The quiet and small space of my car calms my mind, because when I eat in my car I only have one goal in mind: to eat.

When you have high-functioning anxiety, you find the little things that will calm your mind (like eating onion rings in your car), so you can power through the rest of day without anyone noticing the overwhelming amount of anxieties swirling through your mind (or those blisters on your lip).

Watch the TED talk by Jordan Raskopoulos to learn more about high-functioning anxiety.