We’ve added some quick answers here for anyone that just wants some straight to the point information. If you are more curious please read on for the full blog post below!
Quick answers about perfectionism
Is perfectionism linked to anxiety?
Yes. Perfectionism is strongly associated with anxiety, stress, and self-criticism.
Is perfectionism always unhealthy?
No. High standards are not necessarily problematic unless they become rigid or tied to self-worth, high standards can be helpful if kept within a healthy range.
Can therapy help with perfectionism?
Yes. Therapy can help people develop healthier standards and reduce self-criticism.
Understanding perfectionism
Perfectionism is often associated with ambition and success. However, when standards become unrealistic or mistakes feel intolerable, perfectionism can contribute to stress and anxiety. Many people who experience perfectionism also struggle with procrastination, fear of failure, difficulty feeling satisfied with their achievements, or significant internalised self-criticism.
What’s the difference between perfectionism and high standards?
It is okay to have high standards, in fact most people want to be good at the things that they do whether that be their work, hobbies, sports or even social performance. However, it is when this shifts into perfectionism that we start to see high standards backfire – rather than helping us to perform they invert and paralyse us or overwhelm us.
Perfectionism is when we feel a need to perform perfectly (i.e. without mistakes) or the performance is not good enough, and often we find that this is linked to a person’s deeper self-worth (i.e. my performance defines my worth so if I perform perfectly I am good but if I do not I am bad, unworthy, may be rejected).
This is difference to just having high standards where of course you would like to complete the goal perfectly (as who wouldn’t!) but if you do not then that may be disappointing but that is okay and we do not end up in a spiral of self-criticism or beginning to avoid the task/hobby/social situation itself.
Perfectionism = Anxiety
Perfectionism can create constant internal pressure to perform without mistakes and so most commonly we see it linked with high levels of anxiety, this either being the experience of the emotion itself or the development of significant avoidance behaviours instead. An example of this would be trying to complete a difficult task at work – You may find that if you are trying to engage with the task you feeling really anxious about it and are potentially quite self-critical of your capacity to complete and/or you may just find yourself procrastinating it or avoiding it entirely.
Research suggests perfectionism acts as a transdiagnostic factor that contributes to multiple mental health difficulties including primarily anxiety, however, can also contribute to disorders such as depression (often through avoidance becoming overwhelming or an individual reaching burnout, or compulsive disorders such as alcohol abuse or other addictions (as people find themselves turning to a way to ‘turn off’ the perfectionistic mind). It is viewed as a maintaining factor of mental health difficulties rather than its own mental health diagnosis.
Therapy approaches for perfectionism
CBT can help people identify perfectionistic thinking patterns and develop more balanced standards. This is done by identifying and bringing to the surface a person’s perfectionistic judgements of themselves or a situation, developing strategies to shift this cognitive pattern and then behaviourally following this up by engaging differently with their work/hobbies/socialising.
Other therapies such as Schema Therapy may also be helpful when perfectionism is connected to deeper beliefs or emotional patterns. This approach builds on CBT via diving deeper into an individuals developmental processes – the where and why a person developed perfectionistic thinking and how this came to ‘protect’ them when they were younger. This approach often involves exploring memories of the past where a child learned they needed to be perfect, acknowledging why historically this may have been helpful then (i.e. being ‘perfect’ earned them love/care whereas being imperfect provided the opposite) and then helping learn that while this approach made sense back them it is only hurting them now.
As perfectionism is a transdiagnostic symptom of mental distress, it is also treatable across many psychological therapies (such as ACT, Compassion-focused therapy, EMDR and more) – your psychologist can help decide which modality would be most helpful through the process of a comprehensive assessment.
When to seek support
It may be worth speaking with a psychologist if burnout symptoms have persisted for several weeks or months and are affecting work performance or quality of life.
If you this it would be a helpful time to seek some help you can always get started by giving us a call at Darlinghurst Psychologists or sending us an email – Our contact information can be found here.
References
Egan, S. J., Wade, T. D., & Shafran, R. (2011). Perfectionism as a transdiagnostic process.
Flett, G. L., & Hewitt, P. L. (2002). Perfectionism and maladjustment.
Hofmann, S. G., et al. (2012). CBT meta-analysis.
Lloyd, S., Schmidt, U., Khondoker, M., & Tchanturia, K. (2015). Psychological interventions for perfectionism.