Perfectionism And Suicide Research Paper

People assume being a perfectionist is a gift. They will complement perfectionists about how great it must be to have a “perfect” life. What they do not realize is that being a perfectionist isn’t always as great as it seems. Perfectionists know that having this disorder can sometimes be nothing short of stressful. However, some cases of perfectionism can have some redeeming qualities over the possible drawbacks. Trying to be perfect all the time can lead to anger, anxiety, and even suicide. Anger is one of the common substandard byproducts of perfectionism. “Anger is a negative emotion that results from social conditions involving threat or frustration,” (Besharat and Shahidi 428). “Frustration is experienced when a desired standard
Yes, this sounds harsh, but in recent studies, some cases have been found to be true in perfectionism causing suicide incidents. “It was expected that high levels of perfectionism would be associated with suicide ideation, with this relationship influenced by one or more negative perfectionism dimensions which can be characterised as ‘passive perfectionism’,” (Hamilton and Schweitzer 830). Even before they had tested to see if perfectionism was an actual, possible cause of suicide, it was already predicted to cause it. “The presence of suicide ideation was associated with significantly increased scores on a measure of psychological distress (GHQ-28 total scores), a global measure of perfectionism (MPS total scores) and two perfectionism dimensions, providing support for the hypothesis that the suicide ideation group would report higher levels of perfectionism and increased psychological distress,” (Hamilton and Schweitzer 834). After the test, it was shown that stress (a side-effect of perfectionism) created the presence of suicide ideation (the process of forming ideas or images). “Although there is an absence of psychometric properties for this measure in the literature, significant associations between the suicide ideation questions of the GHQ-28 with measures of depression, hopelessness, anomie and self-esteem have been previously reported in an Australian university school population,” (Hamilton and Schweitzer 831) With this, it is shown that perfectionism can cause depression, hopelessness, anomie (antisocial), and self-esteem issues. These consciousnesses and disorders are all causes of suicides around the world, especially depression. In conclusion, perfectionism, even though it is commonly overlooked, can cause its host to commit suicide--at least in