I'm Dr Emma Gray, and I'm the Lead Clinical Psychologist at the British CBT & Counselling
Service.
And in this video, I am going to explain what clinical perfectionism is.
Okay, so, let's just start with standard perfectionism.
So, standard perfectionism is when trying to do your best becomes a desire to perform
at the highest standard most of the time.
Clinical perfectionism is when that desire becomes something that you need to do in order
to feel okay about yourself.
And when you can't achieve the standards that you've set yourself, you will criticise yourself,
really, quite harshly sometimes.
Okay, so, how do you work out if this is you?
So, think about these questions: first of all, do you find that you must be the best
at what you do all of the time or most of the time?
Do you find it hard to accept second best?
Do you try to do your best all of the time and find that you really can't settle with
good enough?
Do you find that you have to meet all of your responsibilities without fail?
Maybe you feel a constant pressure to achieve?
Maybe you find that you can't let yourself off of the hook?
Possibly you struggle to make mistakes, or accept that you are going to make mistakes?
Okay, so, if you've answered 'yes' to more than one of these questions, it's quite possible
that you are suffering from clinical perfectionism.
So, I'm going to talk a little bit about why clinical perfectionism happens, I suppose.
It's basically a coping strategy; it's usually to cope with negative thoughts about yourself.
So, you set a very high standard for yourself, and, in the short term, that high standard
and sometimes the hope just of achieving that high standard counteracts an internal critical
voice.
But, the problem is that over the longer term, the standards that you've set yourself are
so unrelentingly high they simply can't be met, or met consistently over a period of
time, so they become a stick for you to beat yourself with.
Clinical perfectionism is common in people with low self-esteem and confidence, and it's
also quite common in depression and anxiety—but it is treatable.
So, treatment is usually through a talking therapy that works to improve your self-esteem
and confidence so that you can gradually, over time, lower your standards and adopt
a kinder, more tolerant attitude to yourself.
One of the talking therapies that's very good at helping with clinical perfectionism is
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (or CBT).
I talk about this therapy a lot because it has, basically, the most robust evidence base
across a whole range of problems, so it's good for a lot of problems that human beings
struggle with.
Okay, so, that's the end of this video.
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I'll see you soon.