Quick Thoughts: High Functioning Depression
Being productive doesn’t mean you’re not depressed.
High Functioning Depression
Just because you’re able to go to work, take care of your kids, and put on your lipstick, doesn’t mean you’re not depressed.
High functioning depression hides in plain sight.
It looks like showing up to meetings, making dinner, and smiling at school pickup. But, feeling numb the whole time.
Functioning is not the same as thriving.
Real well-being involves feeling a wide range of emotions.
High-functioning depression preserves your functioning, but robs you of your ability to actually engage with your life. This is why it’s often silent — because people with high-functioning depression look like they’ve got it together on the outside.
Remember: you don’t need to wait until you’re in crisis to get help.
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Depression does not always show up in our lives exactly as it is depicted in the media. It can present with symptoms that are less commonly discussed, such as brain fog, irritability, and physical pain.
While not currently a clinical diagnosis (high functioning depression is not recognized in the DSM-V), the term “helps people understand that depression is not a one-size-fits-all,” says Vaile Wright, the senior director of healthcare innovation at the American Psychological Association, on USA Today’s podcast, The Excerpt. “People can be presenting with depression with a variety of different mild or more moderate symptoms. Some people will experience sadness, whereas others experience no sadness at all. So there isn't a typical type, but we have a mental model about what we think depression looks like, and this kind of breaks that mental model a little bit.”
Researchers conducted a study in 2025 to better understand high functioning depression. One prominent symptom they found was anhedonia, or the inability to experience pleasure. The authors write:
“It is theorized that demanding lifestyles (e.g., caregiving, being a physician) or intense trauma trigger individuals with HFD to engage in distracting behaviors, psychological resilience, or sublimation as a way to focus their skills, resources, energy, and time on areas other than their personal needs or past trauma. However, in doing so, they may develop a lowered ability to acknowledge negative emotions, such as sadness or joy. This may be one of the reasons why anhedonia is a prominent mood state in these individuals.”
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📲 For more Quick Thoughts, check out Beat Decision Fatigue from the archives.
I’m curious about what you meant by “lowered ability to acknowledge negative emotions, such as sadness or joy.”
Do you mean joy is considered a negative emotion or did you mean to use another emotion?
This is a great short article.