Perfectionism is often vaunted as a positive way to be. It means that you accept nothing but the best, that you have high standards both for yourself and for the people in your life. That sounds like it’s such a good, positive thing – striving for perfection is almost impossible to depict as being problematic.
Until… now.
The problem with perfectionism is that it doesn’t have limits. It’s one thing to nitpick over a particular work project or how we like our home, but if your perfectionism begins to count towards everything, then it could be doing untold damage to your health.
Perfectionism Is Making You Stressed
To an extent, stress is a factor of life – we all go through periods when we feel it, and we all need to take a break from it every now and again. But if you are a true perfectionist, then there are no breaks. There’s no days off.
When you’re striving for things to be as good as they can be, what you’re actually doing is being obsessive. There is an element of perfectionism that outright tips into the land of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Things can’t just be, they have to be in a very specific way. That’s the kind of obsessive thinking that those with OCD will recognize.
Perfectionism Is Affecting Your Sleep
If you are constantly thinking over how things have been done or how they could be done better, chances are you’re not getting a huge amount of time to practice good sleep hygiene. If you find yourself awake at night puzzling over what’s gone on before and how it might have been better, then it’s not going to be long until you are sleep deprived. Given that this can damage your ability to function, as well as cause significant damage to your immune system and how you fight disease, it’s definitely not a healthy way to be.
Perfectionism Is Elusive & That’s Depressing
The problem with perfectionism, when taken to its extreme forms, is that it isn’t obtainable. There’s no way that you can perfectly balance your family finances; there’s no perfect home decor; there’s no way you could perfectly have dealt with a stressor at work. Sometimes, a perfectionist mentality will push for perfection in case something goes wrong. For example, if they’re not on point with their family finances then debt and mortgage modification are on the horizon; they worry others will judge them for their home decor choices; there’s no ideal way to behave at the office.
So effectively, a perfectionist – perhaps even you – are striving for something that can never happen. Depressive thoughts will very swiftly follow on the back of that realization, along with concerns about your self-worth.
In Conclusion
If any of the above sound eerily familiar, then it might be worth assessing your priorities to see if there is anything you can do to calm your urge for perfection. Often, the habit is ingrained to us in childhood – so learn to recognize now, as an adult, that things don’t have to be perfect all the time. In fact, sometimes there is real beauty in the moments that aren’t perfect, because they are just left to be whatever they are.
