Several years ago, I had a therapist who called herself “a recovering perfectionist.” While I thought that was clever, it wasn’t really something that I personally wanted to strive for. Sure, perfectionism can be hugely problematic and maladaptive…

House: You’re either perfect or you’re sick. In my experience, “sick” is much more common.

There’s definitely a higher-incidence of perfectionism among individuals with eating disorders, but had never thought about it the other way — that people who appear “perfect” are more likely to have mental illness. Okay, so this is not research and not exactly what House is…

This evening I was reading Carrie’s post on overcoming core traits.  Personally, her post was very timely, having just finished reading the book, “When Perfect Isn’t Good Enough.”  That is NOT a book that I would normally pick up (I feel pretty well-versed in perfectionism), but my therapist handed it to me.  In hindsight, maybe I could have NOT read it and argued that I was challenging my perfectionism by not doing my therapy homework.  Oh well, next time…
Anyway, the book made a lot of good points, and I could …

Chase: You don’t let other people’s problems affect you. You don’t let your own problems affect you, and it’s the screw-ups that make us interesting. You’re never out of control, which is good… and boring. Never losing control means you’re never putting yourself out there, never pushing your limits.
– House MD, Lucky Thirteen

The problem with perfection (ha, that’s ironic): it’s boring. There’s nothing “special” about seeming perfect. And yet, I still strive for it. I want for everything to be “correct.”
I want to….

always get …

Perfectionism is a pretty common trait among individuals with eating disorders. That’s no secret. However, I think that people would be surprised to find what large procrastinators perfectionists often are. People think perfectionism = turning in assignments a week before the due date, keeping your house OCD-clean, and being perfectly dressed and put together every day. But actually, my place is messier and my work less productive during periods when I am being especially perfectionistic. Why is this?
“In a positive form, perfectionism can provide the …

From a study on perfection and anorexia:
Levels of perfectionism stayed the same while eating disorder symptoms and psychiatric symptoms decreased during recovery. Levels of perfectionism were inversely related to duration of remission so that individuals that had short illness duration had lower levels of perfectionism at both follow-ups. Patients with initial high levels of perfectionism may be at risk for a long illness duration which we recommend clinicians to acknowledge.
I am personally very interested in “chronic anorexia” — which is a controversial topic, since some believe that all eating disorders …