What is perfectionism?

Perfectionism is an overused term and can be defined as a pursuit of personally set, extremely high standards. Like many psychological concepts, it lies on a spectrum of high to low. When a goal is especially important, anxiety is high. Or if the consequences are seen as punitive, or a person has low self-worth, then the pursuit of perfectionism becomes unrelenting and repetitive.

What about clinical perfectionism?

The standards set by extreme perfectionism are unattainable, and trying to achieve this creates enormous cost to wellbeing and mental health. This form of extreme perfectionism is called clinical perfectionism. Clinical perfectionism is often the root cause of an eating disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and clinical depression.

Clinical perfectionism is exhausting, isolating, and ultimately not productive. This is especially if there’s work to do, since the task ahead seems so difficult to accomplish that the person just doesn’t do it at all. It also makes completing a task difficult since there is dissatisfaction and criticism of accepting the end product.

Some tips for managing perfectionism

1. Understand triggers

It’s important to understand what triggers perfectionistic thoughts and behaviours and address the underlying cause. For example, if you have low self-esteem, your thoughts and beliefs are likely to be negative and self-critical. Learn to adjust this bias by balancing thoughts against facts.

2. Listen

Listen to others or get help with setting reasonable goals.

3. Be committed

Make a commitment to getting started with tasks straightaway.

4. Stick to deadlines

Stop at the deadline, do not extend it because that gives an excuse to delay getting started and also to keep perfecting unnecessarily.

5. Allow mistakes

Permit yourself to make minor mistakes and challenge unhelpful all or nothing beliefs that things either have to be perfect to be a success or else are a failure. Face your fears!

6. Adapt your perspective

Tune out of being overly critical and focus on developing a more encouraging and positive perspective.

7. Download the Worth Warrior app

Worth Warrior is a free app created for young people to manage negative body image, low self-worth, and related early-stage eating difficulties or disorders.

Self-worth is significantly connected to perfectionism since people who are diagnosed with clinical perfectionism judge themselves according to their unrelenting high standards and will pursue perfectionist behaviours, even with detrimental outcomes.

The app provides a range of helpful activities and information, based on the notion that eating and body-related issues can be helped through learning to challenge and change thoughts, emotions, behaviours and body image issues underlying low self-worth.

Download the free Worth Warrior app on the App Store and Google Play.