The dangers of perfectionism

The perfectionists are those people who try to do everything as good as possible. They want to be the best at their job; they want to be the best parents, to get the best grades at exams, and so on. There is a problem regarding this behavior, because it has recently been discovered that the people who are perfectionists have higher chances of developing certain physical and mental diseases than the others. Being perfect is impossible, yet many people try to achieve it. Because of this, they put a lot of pressure on their health, which can be hazardous especially for the mind. The perfectionists will try to follow a plan without any flaws. For example when a perfectionist will try to lose weight, he will eat the same types of food at the same hours, without changing anything in his plan; eating a “forbidden food” means that he has failed at being perfect.

When things go bad, a perfectionist will not talk about it with another person; he/she will not ask for help because they associate the help with admitting that they are not perfect. Studies have revealed the fact that the personality traits of the people who are perfectionists will increase the chances of developing certain illnesses and of dying at a sooner age. Prem Fry, a psychology professor at Trinity Western University in Canada, said that perfectionism is a virtue in some cases, but in most of the cases, it represents a danger for the human life because of the risks which are associated with it.

There are many people who want to be perfect from a certain point of view. For example, an athlete will work for years in order to become perfect at what he does, and after the major competition he will work on improving for the next competition. Such a person is not a perfectionist, because the perfectionists want to become perfect in anything, even it that thing has no importance. For example many of the perfectionists want to have only the highest grades. This is not a bad thing, because good grades are important. The problem is that the perfectionists want the grades with any cost, and not getting an A will affect them a lot. That attitude can and in fact will put a very heavy mental pressure on them.

The experts believe that it is acceptable to be a perfectionist in certain areas of the life. For example a doctor will want to always improve his/her technique because a mistake in that area of expertise could mean a loss of human life. Perfectionism becomes a problem when the doctor goes home and expects perfection from the family member, or when he is always dissatisfied by certain things which should not matter very much. The perfectionism has two sides: a positive one and a negative one. The positive side of perfectionism is when one sets high standards for himself in certain areas. The negative side is when one feels pressured not to make any mistakes because of his peers and because he feels that their conceptions about him might change if he isn’t perfect.

The scientists have also mentioned that even the perfectionists which belong to the positive side, might be split into two categories. First of all, there are the ones who try to be perfect in a certain area, but which are not very preoccupied about it. They try their best, but when things go wrong, they do not panic. They accept things as they are, and try to do the best the next time. On the other hand, there are those people who might crash under stress and when the situation goes wrong. A fail will put a heavy mental pressure on them.

Patricia DiBartolo, a psychology professor at Smith College, in Northampton, Massachusetts stated that in most of the cases the perfectionism backfires. Many of the perfectionists will flunk college because of the high standards which they have imposed on themselves. According to DiBartolo, these people are so focused on the task of being perfect, that they neglect most of the other aspects of their lives. For example many of the perfectionists do not have a very high active life. The problem is that many of them are always dissatisfied by certain things and will always want perfection from their peers. Fry and her colleagues have recently performed a study on 450 people which lasted 6.5 years. These people, who were 65 or older, were asked to complete a questionnaire which would asses their level of perfectionism. The scientists wanted to see the relationship between perfectionism and the risk of death. The study revealed that the persons who were perfectionists had a 51-percent increased risk of dying sooner than the persons who were calmer.

Perfectionism is associated with anxiety and stress, and this might be the reason why the people who are perfectionists have higher chances of dying sooner than the other ones. The scientists also performed the same test on 385 patients with type 2 diabetes. This test, just like the other one, lasted for 6.5 years. In the case of these people, the results were different, because the ones who were perfectionists had a 26-percent lower risk of death than the other people. There are situations when the perfectionism can be very useful. In the case of the people with type 2 diabetes, the perfectionism was related with the blood sugar monitoring, and diet. The perfectionists took extra care about what they ate, and did their best to control their blood sugar levels.

It has been estimated that the perfectionism occurs for various reasons. First of all there are the people who want to be perfect because that makes them feel better. These people do this for themselves. There are also people who want to be perfect because of the social constraints. There are also perfectionists who want everyone to be perfect, and they criticize their peers, family members, and so on.