Obsessions often seen with “perfectionism” as a form of OCD include:
- An overwhelming fear of making mistakes; an intense need for things to be “perfect” or “done right” – may or may not be accompanied by a fear that harm will come to oneself or others if things are not done perfectly
- Fear of the consequences of making mistakes (frequently overestimated)
- A need for one’s behavior and performance to adhere to a particular rule or standard
- Fear that one’s work will be seen as being poorly done, with possible punishment or job loss
- Need to bring the same level effort, detail and energy to every task; all tasks are equally important
- Need to have things look, sound or feel “just right”
- An intense fear of making the wrong decision
- A tremendous need to finish some action or project once it is started
Rituals that may be done in an attempt to reduce the anxiety caused by perfectionism include:
- Repeatedly rewriting or revising work, essays, class work, email, project reports or business or personal letters to get the penmanship or alignment “just right”
- Redoing work to the extent that work or projects cannot be completed in a timely manner; spending an inordinate amount of time on minor details
- Rewriting assignments to get the wording to sound or look “just right”
- Seeking reassurance that tasks have been done well or correctly
- Working overly-long hours to finish a project once it is started (inability to put a project aside and come back to it later)
- Overly rethinking or revising decisions (inability to make a decision)
- Avoiding/procrastinating completion of an assignment because of the time and energy consumed by the need to have things perfect
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