(Original)PERFECTIONISM You might think that a trait such as perfectionism is something good to strive for. However, research is showing that is a risk factor for mental health problems. Perfectionism is not about high performance and standards, is about unrealistic standards. It’s the critical inner voice that criticizes you when you fail, and it comes up for different reasons in each person. A perfectionist is a very stress-sensitive person, they respond to failure in a more aversively way, feeling more guilt and shame, and to stop this they might quit or avoid failure. It is a trait highly correlated with burnout, anxiety, depression, and even suicide. The trouble is that, for perfectionists, performance is intertwined with their sense of self. When they don’t succeed, they don’t just feel disappointed about how they did. They feel shame about who they are. Traits like this are praised in a market-based society like ours, where we value above all accomplishment. One of the first things we want to know about someone is their job, and we judge and exclude people because of what social class they are from. With this pressure is not surprising that we are seeing an increase in perfectionism for the past few generations. Children from very young ages start to understand that achievement is their goal, whether in school, sport, or even a hobby, and they start to feel an aversion to mistakes, which can become a tendency for perfectionism later on in their adult life.